Questions Ontario business owners ask before sending a matter

Incorporate when one of three things is true: your revenue is high enough that keeping money inside the company saves you tax, a partner is joining, or a customer or landlord is asking for a company on the other side of the contract. If none of those apply, staying as a sole proprietor is fine.

A holding company makes sense when the operating company will generate retained earnings the owner wants to keep aside from operating risk, when more than one operating company is on the horizon, or when family or succession planning needs a place to hold shares outside the business that runs day to day.

The government filing itself is a small fixed fee. The legal work, the structural decision, the shareholders' agreement, and a complete minute book on day one, is quoted in writing before the file opens, against a defined scope.

The share register, the shareholders' agreement, the directors' register, and the company's official records all change. The earlier the second owner's role is named, the lower the cost of writing them in.

When the offer is made, or at the latest before the conditions in the offer expire. Reading the offer before the conditions go away removes the most expensive surprises. Calling after the deal is firm closes most of those doors.

Yes. DRG Law closes residential and commercial purchases across Ontario by video and electronic signature where the rules allow it. The title check, the lender's instructions, and the closing-day numbers move the same way they would in person.

Base rent is one part of the bill. Additional rent, property tax, building insurance, common-area maintenance, utilities, runs alongside it, and on most leases the tenant carries the personal guarantee until the term ends. DRG Law breaks every line of the lease into a clear monthly cost before the offer goes back.

From a signed and firm offer to the closing date, most files run thirty to sixty days. DRG Law opens the file the moment the offer becomes firm and works backward from the closing date.

The will records what the structural decisions decide. Writing a will before the control question, the operating question, and the family arrangements are written usually ends in a document that contradicts the company records or the family agreements. The will follows the structure.

Yes. The tax shape of a share transfer, an estate freeze, or a trust arrangement is set jointly by the lawyer and the accountant. DRG Law works with the owner's accountant from the first call.

An estate freeze stops the value of the current owner's shares from growing further, and lets the growth from that point forward accrue to the next generation or a trust. It is a tax-planning step that has to be done while both the owner and the company are healthy. DRG Law and the accountant write the freeze together.

Ontario default rules decide. The shares pass under the will, or under intestate succession if there is no will. The operating company keeps running on whatever resolutions are on file. Most outcomes under defaults are not what the owner would have chosen.

Five clauses change every Ontario commercial lease: the personal guarantee, the renewal terms, the demolition clause, the relocation clause, and the default trigger. DRG Law reviews each clause against the owner's exit horizon before the offer goes back to the landlord.

A short contract of ten pages or fewer comes back within two business days. A long commercial agreement or lease comes back within three to five business days, depending on length. Tight timelines are accommodated where possible, with the turnaround confirmed in writing when the file is taken.

Both, on request. The standard output is the contract with changes shown directly, plus a short note naming the main changes, the smaller ones, and the clauses that carry the most risk if left as written.

The cost is by document type and length, confirmed in writing before the review starts. No file is opened before the cost is on paper.

DRG Law writes five short lines before any deal closes: the risk in the file, the cost of the work, the dates that matter, the decision the owner has to make, and the next step that follows. The owner reads the brief and acts on it before money or signatures move.

Risk: the clauses that carry the most cost if left as written. Price: the fixed fee for the review, in writing. Timeline: when the marked-up contract comes back. Decision: the changes worth asking for and the ones worth accepting. Next step: the note the owner sends to the other side, or the call to walk through it together.

Yes. The brief is written in business terms, not legal terms. Where a formal document name is needed, the formal name appears with a one-line gloss in everyday English. The owner reads the brief without a translator.

An updated brief goes out. New risk, new price, new timeline, new decision, or new next step, whichever changed. The owner is not left guessing why the file moved.

A personal guarantee binds the owner's personal assets to the full lease term. If the company closes early, the landlord recovers against the owner's house, savings, and investments. The clause survives the company that signed it. DRG Law names three structural options before the signing date.

Sometimes. Landlords in soft leasing markets accept time-limited guarantees, capped guarantees, or good-guy guarantees instead of a full personal one. In tight markets, the guarantee usually stays; the structural moves are around its size and length.

Yes, when the obligation is purely the corporation's. The corporation is the wall between business risk and personal life. The wall comes down clause by clause, every time a personal guarantee is signed on a company commitment.

A good-guy guarantee limits the owner's personal exposure to the landlord's costs of finding a replacement tenant if the company leaves early. It is a structural middle ground between a full personal guarantee and no guarantee. DRG Law asks for it where the landlord will entertain it.

The lawyer who reads the first message carries the context every later decision depends on. DRG Law runs on one lawyer holding the file and the conversation, no handoff to a junior lawyer the owner has never met. The lawyer who opens the file is the lawyer who closes it.

DRG Law plans for it. Live files have a written status the owner can read at any time, and Damaris arranges coverage with named co-counsel for the windows she is away. The handoff for cover is short, named, and time-limited.

Yes. Files that need a full team of lawyers (very large deals, multi-jurisdiction restructures, complex litigation) are referred to bigger firms. The same-lawyer model fits matters the right size for one senior lawyer to hold, which is most of what an Ontario owner-operated business needs.

The owner does not pay to re-explain the file. The lawyer does not repeat work already done. The decisions get made faster because the context is already in the room.

Yes. Damaris is dual-qualified in Canada and Brazil and writes the brief in either language. The Ontario legal substance stays the same. The owner reads, discusses, and decides in Portuguese, English, or both side by side.

No. DRG Law writes the file in the language the owner reads. The legal substance is the same; the language is not a translation step, it is the working language for that file. The conversation, the brief, the explanations all happen in the owner's language.

Not always. Damaris is qualified in both jurisdictions and can hold the file on both sides for matters within scope. For files that need court appearances in Brazil, DRG Law coordinates with local Brazilian counsel directly.

Damaris is called to the Ontario bar (LSO Reg. 91022I) and is qualified to give Ontario legal advice in any language she reads. The Brazilian credential is a second qualification, not a substitute for the Ontario one.

An Ontario corporation under audit, sale, or financing review needs the minute book up to date, the share register reconciled, the annual resolutions filed, and the founding documents indexed. DRG Law runs a twelve-item readiness check that names each missing record before the request from the third party arrives.

The record book becomes visible at the moment it causes a problem. A buyer asks for it during a sale. A lender asks for it before approving a loan. The Canada Revenue Agency asks for it during a review. Keeping it current is cheaper than fixing it under a deadline.

Yes. DRG Law goes through the existing records, finds the gaps, fills them in, brings the share list up to date, and takes the file forward. Most takeovers reach current standard in two to four weeks, depending on the size of the gap.

Yearly approvals from the directors and shareholders, sign-offs on the financial statements, audit waivers, entries in the official record book, updates to the share list, change-of-address filings, and the once-a-year filing required by the Ontario Business Corporations Act. The service keeps the file current between deals.