Owner of Toronto property with 250-year-old oak must sell to city at agreed price, judge rules

An Ontario court has ruled in favour of the City of Toronto in its bid to preserve a 250-year-old oak tree — ordering the owner of the North York property the tree sits on to sell the home to the city at the agreed price, despite the current market value soaring during to the pandemic.

At a virtual court hearing on Thursday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Susan Vella noted the owner, Ali Simaga, wanted to end the purchase agreement with the city so that he could relist the house at a higher price. The market value of the house has increased substantially from the time of the initial agreement with the city.

"This is not a valid reason for terminating a real estate deal," Vella said at the hearing.

The dispute started soon after the city entered into an agreement with the homeowners nearly two years ago to buy the home, so the house could be demolished and the historic tree could be preserved and displayed.

As per the court hearing, the Simagas took the position that the city did not pay a required deposit of $2 toward the purchase price of $780,000 by the time noted in the purchase agreement. The Simagas felt because of this, they were entitled to cancel the agreement.

"They say without the $2 payment there was no valid consideration for the agreement of purchase of sale and therefore was not enforceable," Vella said.

But the judge said she did not believe based on the evidence provided by the city that the delayed payment amounted to a breach of the contract.