In order to satisfy lender requirements, the agreement for the purchase by Ms. Chen of a new home added her two (unrelated) godparents as named purchasers. LeBlanc JA found that their addition meant that the purchase did not qualify for the new housing rebate given that, prior to a 2021 amendment to s. 262(3), every purchaser of a new home was required to be acquiring for own occupation or to be related to such an occupier. In this regard, he referred (at para. 13) to Cheema as standing for the proposition that:
The fact that someone was acquiring a new house only as a trustee and with no beneficial interests in the property was of no consequence; there was no exception for trustees (Cheema at paras. 93-95). What mattered at the time … was
“the relationship of the person acquiring the [house] to the builder—one of purchase and sale—[…], not the relationship between co-purchasers”(Cheema at para. 94).