Can you sell a house with tenants in Quebec?

Can you sell a house with tenants in Quebec?

Yes. Nothing in the Civil Code makes a residential lease end because the building is sold. Article 1936 gives every lessee a personal right to maintain occupancy: they may not be evicted except in the cases the law lists. Article 1937 then says that the voluntary or forced alienation of an immovable comprising a dwelling, or the extinction of the lessor’s title, does not let the new lessor resiliate the lease. The lease is continued and may be renewed like any other lease. The new lessor has, towards the lessee, the rights and obligations resulting from the lease.

The same idea sits one level up, for leases in general. Article 1886 says alienation does not terminate a lease by operation of law. Article 1887 can let a buyer resiliate some leases that are not leases of a dwelling. For an unpublished fixed-term lease of an immovable, if more than 12 months remain, the buyer may end it when those 12 months expire, by giving six months’ written notice. A lease that was registered before the sale cannot be ended that way. Article 1937 takes that power away for a dwelling. A corner shop in the same plex is not automatically a dwelling. Article 1892 says the dwelling rules do not apply to a lease when more than one-third of the total floor area is used for a purpose other than housing. A notary sorts out a mixed building. This page is about the housing.

Do tenants have to leave when the house is sold?

No. JuridiQC, the Justice Québec site, says becoming the owner is not a sufficient reason to end the lease. The lease signed with the previous owner stays in force, and the new owner must respect it as if they had signed it. The lessee does not have to sign a new lease so that the new name appears on it. If they agree to sign one, JuridiQC warns them to read it, because a new document that changes the rent or the services is harder to undo.

The lease also renews. Article 1941 says a lessee with a fixed term and the right to maintain occupancy is entitled to renewal at term. The renewal is on the same conditions, for the same term, or for 12 months if the original term was longer than a year, unless the parties agree on another length. A clause in the lease that tries to cancel that protection does not work. Article 1893 says a clause inconsistent with the dwelling rules is without effect. The OACIQ says a lessee cannot renounce the right to maintain occupancy in advance, so a line that says the lease ends if the building is sold has no effect. A separate agreement to leave can be valid only if it is made freely. The OACIQ also says the seller cannot guarantee that the person will actually go: they may contest the agreement at the TAL. Do not build a closing on vacant possession that has not happened.

A verbal lease counts. The TAL’s guide for someone acquiring a rental property says the right to stay applies even when the lease was never written down, as long as the lessee meets their obligations. Tell the buyer what was agreed. The TAL still publishes a mandatory written lease, and the buyer should receive whatever paper exists.

Does the buyer become the landlord?

Yes. The second paragraph of article 1937 puts the buyer in the landlord’s place. The TAL guide says the new lessor may not change the lease in force on their own. If the former owner collected the rent at the door, the new owner keeps doing that until the lease itself is changed in the way the law allows. A higher price, a new hypothec or a plan to live there does not rewrite the rent in the middle of the term.

Rent can change at renewal, not because of the deed. Article 1942 lets the lessor modify the term or the rent by notice. For a lease of 12 months or more, the notice goes no less than three months and no more than six months before the end. For a term under 12 months, it is one to two months before the end. For an indeterminate term, it is one to two months. A room is shorter: 10 to 20 days. Article 1945 says the lessee has one month to object or to say they are leaving. Otherwise they are deemed to accept the renewal on the proposed conditions. That silence rule is the opposite of repossession, below. If they object, article 1947 gives the lessor one month to ask the court to fix the rent. The TAL publishes the method. This page does not quote a percentage for a given year, because the figure changes and it is not a cap you can copy onto a lease.

The lessees have to be told, in writing and one by one, who the new owner is. The TAL says either owner may send that notice, and that a copy of the deed, or a letter from the notary who received it, avoids doubt. Until a lessee has been personally notified, the TAL says they are not at fault for keeping on paying the former owner. If they cannot tell who to pay, they may ask the TAL for permission to deposit the rent there.

What must the seller hand over about the leases?

The leases, the rent, and anything that changes them. Article 1375 says the parties conduct themselves in good faith when an obligation is formed and when it is performed. Hiding a lease, a notice of increase, a side agreement or a hearing is how a signing day falls apart, because article 1937 makes those facts the buyer’s facts. On a sale that uses the OACIQ form Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble, for a chiefly residential immovable of fewer than five dwellings excluding a divided co-ownership, the seller is asked whether the immovable is rented, what the rents add up to, whether any notice could affect a lease, whether a lessee has advantages that are not written in the lease, and whether a file is open at the TAL or another court. The form also asks the seller to provide the documents that support the answers, and it names the leases among them. A sale without that form still needs the same facts on the table. Our article (What documents do I need to sell a house in Quebec?) is the longer list for the deed itself.

Read question D2.6(g) of that declaration against the Code, not the other way around. The form asks whether a lessee, or the lessee’s spouse, is 70 or older and has lived there for at least 10 years. Article 1959.1, amended on 6 June 2024, uses a different test: 65 or over, at least 10 years in the dwelling, and income equal to or less than 125% of the maximum that qualifies for a low-rental dwelling. The Société d’habitation du Québec publishes that maximum. Québec.ca states the same three conditions. A checkbox that still says 70 is not the rule in the Code.

Can you show the tenant’s home to a buyer, and on what notice?

Yes, with notice, and only inside set hours. Article 1931 says the lessor must, except in an emergency, give the lessee 24 hours’ prior notice of an intention to check the condition of the dwelling, to do work there, or to have it visited by a prospective buyer. Article 1932 says the lessee may refuse a visit by a prospective buyer before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m., and may in every case refuse the visit if the lessor cannot be present. The TAL says the same thing in its page on access and visits: 24 hours, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and the lessee may require the lessor or a representative to come along. Article 1930 is the other visit rule. It applies once the lessee has given notice that they are not renewing or that they are resilating: from that notice, they must allow visits and signs.

A sale to Bruce does not use that right. There is no open house and no string of visits through an occupied home. The legal window exists for a listing. It is not a duty to keep the dwelling ready for strangers. The shorter page on this site (Sell a house with a problem tenant) says the same thing about showings.

Can a new owner repossess a dwelling in Quebec?

Sometimes, and never on the day of the deed just because they bought. Repossession (reprise de logement) is a narrow exception to the right to stay. Article 1957 allows it only so the owner can live there, or house a parent or child, or another relative or person connected by marriage or civil union of whom the owner is the main support, or a former spouse of whom the owner remains the main support after a legal separation, a divorce or the end of a civil union. The TAL’s page adds the practical point sellers miss: if the building is sold, the new owner is the one who gives the notice, and only once the sale is finalized, not when a promise to purchase is signed.

Some owners cannot use it at all. Éducaloi says only a person can repossess. If a company owns the building, the company’s owner cannot repossess a dwelling in it. The TAL’s summary of Corey c. Mercier (4 April 2022) rejected a repossession brought by the principal officer of the company that owned the immovable, because only a natural person has the qualities article 1957 requires. Article 1958 says the owner of an undivided share may not repossess any dwelling unless the only other owner is their spouse. The TAL says “spouse” here means a married or civil-union spouse, and that de facto spouses who co-own may also repossess. Two friends who buy together may not.

Article 1959.1 blocks repossession, and eviction, when the lessee or the lessee’s spouse, at that time, is 65 or over, has occupied the dwelling for at least 10 years, and has income at or below 125% of the low-rental maximum. Three exceptions let a repossession through: the lessor is 65 or over and wants to live there; the beneficiary is 65 or over; or the lessor is an owner-occupant of 65 or over who wants a beneficiary under 65 to live in the same immovable. Notices already under way on 6 June 2024 can still follow the old test (70, ten years, and the maximum itself rather than 125% of it) in the cases section 8 of chapter D-13.01 lists. Article 1964 is a further limit: the lessor may not repossess, without the lessee’s consent, if they own another dwelling that is vacant or offered for rent on the repossession date, of the same type, in the same neighbourhood, at an equivalent rent.

The notice is written, and the deadlines are in articles 1960 to 1963. For a fixed term of more than six months, at least six months before the end. For a term of six months or less, one month before the end. For an indeterminate term, six months before the date of repossession. On a lease that ends on 30 June, six months before the end falls at the end of December. The notice must state the date, the name of the person who will live there, and the relationship, and it must reproduce article 1959.1. The TAL says to use a method that proves the date of receipt, such as a bailiff, registered mail, or delivery in person with an acknowledgement. The lessee has one month to accept or refuse. Since the 2024 amendment to article 1962 (S.Q. 2024, c. 2, the statute often called Bill 31), silence is a refusal, not an acceptance. Article 1963 then gives the lessor one month after the refusal, or after the reply period ends if there was no reply, to ask the TAL for authorization. If they do not, the lessee stays. At the hearing the lessor must show a real intention, not a pretext. The Tribunal may allow the repossession on conditions it finds just, including an indemnity equal to moving expenses. That is article 1967. It is not the larger eviction indemnity in article 1965. If the repossession was in bad faith, article 1968 lets the lessee claim damages, and punitive damages.

Can a new owner evict a tenant to subdivide, enlarge or change the use?

Not before 6 June 2027, except where the statute itself steps aside. Article 1959 would otherwise let a lessor evict a lessee to subdivide the dwelling, enlarge it substantially or change its destination. Section 1 of the Act to limit lessors’ right of eviction and to enhance the protection of senior lessees (chapter D-13.01, S.Q. 2024, c. 23, Bill 65) says that, despite article 1959, no lessee may be evicted for those purposes before 6 June 2027. The TAL and Québec.ca describe it as a three-year moratorium beginning 6 June 2024. It does not freeze repossession. It does not freeze a case at the TAL about unpaid rent.

The date is not quite a wall. Section 11 says the Minister must publish a notice in the Gazette officielle du Québec if the vacancy rate for rental dwellings published by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, for all Quebec urban centres of at least 10,000 inhabitants, reaches 3%. Division I, which is the prohibition, then ceases to have effect on the 60th day after that notice, unless the Government decides otherwise before that day for a part of the territory it names. Section 2 lets the Government exempt a part of Quebec. Section 9 also sets aside the prohibition for an eviction in an already exempted territory, and for some changes of use in a private seniors’ residence when an authorization is revoked or a cessation plan is approved. The consolidation on LégisQuébec was current to 15 October 2026 and still stated the 6 June 2027 date. Check the Gazette and the TAL before you treat that date as the only one that matters. A project to redo a kitchen is not article 1959. The article is about subdivision, a substantial enlargement, or a change of destination.

When an eviction of that kind is allowed, the notice periods match repossession, and since notices sent on or after 21 February 2024 the TAL says silence is a refusal and the lessor must apply to the Tribunal within one month. Article 1965, as amended by S.Q. 2024, c. 2, requires reasonable moving expenses plus an indemnity of one month’s rent for each year of uninterrupted occupancy, at least three months’ rent and at most 24. The lessee can ask the Tribunal for more. Those amounts describe an eviction the statute permits. They are not a price for getting around the moratorium.

Are deposits allowed, and what happens to the rent at the notary?

A residential lessor in Quebec may not take a deposit. Article 1904 says the lessor may not exact an instalment of more than one month’s rent, or payment in advance for more than the first payment period, or more than one month’s rent if that period is longer than a month. Nor may the lessor exact any other amount of money, as a deposit or otherwise, or demand a postdated cheque or any other postdated instrument. The TAL’s acquiring guide gives the examples people still ask for: no deposit for keys, and no sum held as a guarantee. Éducaloi notes the contrast with a commercial lease, where a deposit can be asked for. Do not import a “last month’s rent” from another province. If money was taken anyway, the Code is the rule, and the TAL is the place to ask what happens to it. This page will not invent a refund amount.

The rent itself is usually paid in advance. Article 1903 says it is payable on the first day of each payment period, unless the parties agreed otherwise. The OACIQ’s note on selling a multi-unit property says the notary calculates the adjustment. The person who has already collected the month credits the other for the days after the date you choose: the signing of the deed, the occupancy date, or another date. On a sale that does not use the OACIQ promise form, the notary still does that arithmetic. Our article on costs (The real costs of selling a house in Quebec) covers the tax adjustment beside it. Unpaid rent does not vanish in the adjustment. It is a fact to disclose, not a credit you can assume.

The RL-31 is a different piece of paper. Revenu Québec says any person or partnership that owns a residential complex and leases a dwelling for which rent was paid, or was payable, on 31 December must file an RL-31 slip, and must give the lessees the copy they use to claim the solidarity tax credit. Both copies go out by the last day of February of the following year. A sale does not erase the slip. The test is that 31 December date, so the person who owns and leases the dwelling on that day is the person the wording describes. Ask the notary, in the year of the sale, which of you files. Low-rental housing and some care settings are excluded. The Revenu Québec page lists them.

Is a vacant house worth more than one that is occupied?

This site will not invent a dollar gap or a percentage. A vacant house and a house with a lease are not the same product. The lease is a right to stay, at the rent in the lease, until the law allows a change. A buyer who wants to live in every unit is looking at a building they cannot empty on closing day. A buyer who is taking the leases is looking at the rent, the term, the notices and any hearing. Those are different conversations. Neither one has a discount this page is allowed to make up.

Say which is which when you ask for an offer. If you live in one door of a plex and rent the others, your unit is not a lease. You leave it on the date in the deed. Our article (When do you have to move out after selling a house in Quebec?) is about that date. The rented doors stay rented. An as-is sale can include the tenancy. It is not a promise that the building will be empty. Our article (Selling a house as-is in Quebec) says what “as-is” does and does not do.

What if the tenant is not paying, or a file is already at the TAL?

Unpaid rent is a reason to go to the TAL. It is not a reason a sale cancels the lease. Article 1971 says the lessor may obtain resiliation if the lessee is more than three weeks late with the rent or, where the lessor suffers serious injury from it, if the lessee is frequently late. The steps, the delays and the decision are the Tribunal’s. This page will not walk through a filing. If a hearing is already open, the TAL’s acquiring guide says the new owner should find out about it. A sale does not erase the case. The new owner may have to continue it. Mention a file number. Hiding it is how the leases surface at the notary with nobody ready for them.

The shorter page on this situation (Sell a house with a problem tenant) says the same limit in fewer words: Bruce can talk about buying the building as it stands, lease included, and the offer is not a judgment. Nothing in the lease gets harsher because a buyer arrived.

Can you sell to Bruce with the tenants in place?

Yes. Bruce Malcolm is a private buyer of houses in Montreal and the West Island. He is not a broker, an agent or an appraiser, and he does not give legal advice. He buys the building with the leases as they are. He does not promise that anyone will leave, and a sale to him is not a repossession and not an eviction. There are no showings, so you are not asking anyone to host visits, and you choose the closing date once the notary can sign.

The rules above apply to his purchase as they apply to any other. Every owner on the deed signs. The leases, the rents and any TAL file have to be in the open. You can ask for an offer on the address (request an offer) and take it to your notary before you decide anything. Sending the address does not commit you.