Behind on property taxes in Montreal? Can you still sell your house?

Can you still sell a house in Montreal if the property taxes are unpaid?

Yes. No rule cited on this page forbids a sale because a municipal or school tax account is behind. Article 2651 of the Civil Code of Québec names, among prior claims, the claims of municipalities, school service centres and school boards for property taxes on taxable immovables, and certain other municipal taxes a specific law provides for (Civil Code of Québec, article 2651). Article 2654.1 says those prior claims for property taxes are a real right, and that they give the holder the right to follow the taxable property into whatever hands it may come. The codification of Book Six read for this page is marked up to date as of 15 October 2026, and that text names municipalities, school service centres and school boards (Civil Code of Québec, article 2654.1).

A prior claim is not the same registration as a legal hypothec. How a published charge is paid and cancelled is in Can you sell a house with a lien in Quebec?. This page does not repeat that file. The usual private sale pays the tax arrears the price covers, so the right to follow is not what the buyer takes.

How are unpaid taxes usually settled from the sale price?

At the signing. The Chambre des notaires’ page on the notary’s fees says the seller is responsible for verifying the taxes and settling the unpaid balance. It says the notary must also obtain official tax statements from the municipality to make sure that all the municipal and school taxes have been paid by the seller, and that the notary may charge a fee for that verification and pay any balance owed. The same page lists, among amounts the seller reimburses, the cost of obtaining those official statements and fees for a wire transfer used to pay tax arrears (The notary’s professional fees). Those are the Chambre’s words. They are not a promise that every price covers every account.

The year’s taxes that were already paid, or that are not yet due, are a different line. They are adjusted to the signing. That split is the costs page already cited. Article 2657 says prior claims rank, in their own order, before movable or immovable hypothecs, whatever their date (Civil Code of Québec, article 2657). Article 2655 says a prior claim that is a real right may be set up against third persons without being published (Civil Code of Québec, article 2655). A price that does not cover the arrears does not, by itself, end the right to follow in article 2654.1. A notary or a lawyer says what the statements show.

What does Montreal do before a sale for unpaid taxes?

The City’s page “What happens if I haven’t paid my taxes?”, updated 16 September 2026, says the procedures are spread over a two-year period and that, as a last resort, the City may auction a building to recover unpaid municipal taxes or property transfer duties, under the provisions of its city charter. In the year the bill is sent, two statements of account go out, then a notice of unpaid taxes. In March of the following year, an unpaid-taxes notice names the legal steps ahead. If that notice is not paid, the sale process starts: about six months before the sale, a “Tax sale notice,” with a $78.00 fee added; about three months before, a final warning; about two months before, the list is published in a Montreal daily and on the City’s site, a notice of sale is registered on the land register, further fees of 5% of the capital apply up to a maximum of $2,000, and mortgage creditors are told. The 2026 list was published on 16 September 2026 and the page says it will be updated. A building can be removed if the balance for the year in question is paid in full before the sale (What happens if I haven’t paid my taxes?).

The French page of that article does not use the same verb. It says that, as a last resort, the City must sell a property at auction under the Charter of Ville de Montréal, métropole du Québec (Qu’arrive-t-il en cas de non-paiement des taxes, page in French). Article 512 of the Cities and Towns Act says the council may order the clerk to sell. A City topic page updated 13 January 2025 says the Act permits a municipality, if taxes are unpaid, to put an immovable up for sale the year after an account is sent (Défaut de paiement des taxes, page in French). This page does not pick one verb. A notary or a lawyer reads which step the file has reached.

A separate City page says a building is withdrawn from the sale process when the amounts due for the previous year are paid in full. Personal cheques are accepted before 1 August of the year following the tax bill’s issuance. After that date, only certified cheques are accepted (Pay a balance to end the tax sale process). The auction page, updated 2 November 2026, says owners can pay the tax owed at any time before the sale and be removed from the list. It gives the 2026 auction as 2 November 2026 at 10 a.m. at Marché Bonsecours, 350 Saint-Paul Street East. The immovable is sold to the highest bidder after three calls (Buy an immovable at the tax sale).

What does the Cities and Towns Act say about that sale?

Article 511: after six months from the date of the notice that the collection roll was deposited, the treasurer must draw up a statement of the immovables on which the taxes imposed have not been paid, in whole or in part. That six months is not the City’s “about six months before the sale.” Article 512: after seeing that statement, the council may order the clerk to sell those immovables by public auction. The council may set a time for the successful bidder to pay and, if it does, the terms for putting the immovable back up if payment is missed, and it may provide that the bidding is remote. Article 512.1 lets the council provide that the second-highest bidder is substituted if the highest does not pay in time (Cities and Towns Act, articles 511 and 512).

Article 513: within 30 days of the council’s order, the clerk gives public notice of the day, hour and place. Article 514: the notice is also published twice in a newspaper circulated in the municipality, and the sale cannot be held before 15 days after the second publication. From the first publication, the clerk sends a copy to the Land Registrar, whose duty is to inform interested persons in the manner the Civil Code prescribes. Failure to send that copy does not annul the proceedings. Article 515: within the same 30 days, the clerk notifies, by registered mail, each person whose property is to be sold and whose name appears on the assessment roll then in force (Cities and Towns Act, article 514).

Article 517: at the time fixed, the clerk, or another person, sells to the highest bidder the immovables described in the notices on which taxes are still owing, after making known the sum to be collected on each, including that immovable’s share of the sale costs in proportion to the debt. Article 519: unless a delay was set under the second paragraph of article 512, the successful bidder must pay the price immediately. If payment is not immediate, the immovable is put back up at once, or the sale is adjourned to the next day or to another day within eight days. Montreal’s auction page tells a bidder to read the terms of sale. This page does not say which delay, if any, those terms set (Cities and Towns Act, article 517).

Article 528 says the sale is a title that transfers ownership. Article 529 says it transfers the original owner’s rights and purges the immovable of any hypothec, with the exceptions the article names, among them claims for school taxes or assessments. Arrears of the rents and taxes the article names, due before the sale, are purged unless a certified statement of them is produced at the council’s office at least eight days before the sale. Registration of the deed of sale cancels the registrations of hypothecs the sale extinguishes (Cities and Towns Act, article 529). The OACIQ guide for licence holders, dated 18 December 2023, summarizes that effect as eliminating any hypothec, and it says the recourse does not require a prior judgment. The guide is written for licence holders. This page follows article 529, including the exceptions, and does not apply it to one hypothec (Sale for unpaid taxes, OACIQ). A notary or a lawyer reads the register.

Municipalities governed by the Municipal Code have a parallel sale. Article 1057 of that code, on the consolidation marked up to date as of 15 October 2026, also gives the owner or the owner’s legal representatives the year following the adjudication. The sum, including the certificate and the notice to the Land Registrar, with interest at 10% a year, a fraction of a year counting as a whole year, is paid to the clerk-treasurer of the regional county municipality (Municipal Code of Québec, article 1057). Montreal’s pages describe the Cities and Towns Act and the Charter, not that payment.

How long does the right of redemption last, and what is paid?

One year, on the text of the Act. Article 531 says the immovable sold for taxes may be redeemed by the owner or the owner’s legal representatives at any time during the year following the date of the adjudication, by paying the successful bidder the sale price, including the cost of the certificate of adjudication, with interest at ten percent a year, a fraction of a year counting as a whole year. When the immovable is vacant land, the sum also includes the municipal and school taxes, general or special, imposed from the adjudication to the redemption, if the successful bidder paid them. If they were not paid, the redemption releases the bidder and binds the owner (Cities and Towns Act, article 531).

Article 521 says the successful bidder is then seized of the property and may take possession, subject to a withdrawal within the following year, and may not remove the wood or the buildings during that year. Article 524 says that if, within the year after the adjudication, the immovable has not been redeemed, the bidder becomes the absolute owner. Article 532 says the owner then has the right to obtain from the bidder, at the owner’s own expense, a notarial act recording the repayment and the redemption. Registration of an authentic copy restores the ownership right the owner had at the time of the sale, subject to the prior claims and hypothecary claims that charged the immovable on that date, less what the distribution of the sale proceeds paid (Cities and Towns Act, article 532).

The City’s auction page, updated 2 November 2026, states the right in shorter words: one year, the amount paid on the day of the auction plus 10%, and the buyer cannot contest the right. Article 531 states interest at ten percent a year, a fraction of a year counting as a whole year, on the sale price including the certificate. This page does not turn those two sentences into one calculation. If the municipality itself was the successful bidder, article 537 adds, on top of what the municipality paid and interest of 10% on that amount, the general or special municipal and school taxes imposed from the adjudication to the redemption, or the instalments due, and the tax sums the distribution did not pay. A notary or a lawyer does the arithmetic for the file. Article 534.1 gives the successful bidder a claim, against the owner or the person who redeems in the owner’s name, for the cost of necessary repairs and improvements that bidder made, even if they no longer exist, with interest at 10% a year, a fraction of a year counting as a whole year, and the bidder may keep possession until that sum is paid.

What interest or penalty does Montreal add when a tax bill is late?

Only the rates the City prints. The page “Pay your municipal taxes,” updated 20 October 2026, says late fees are calculated daily at these monthly rates: 0.75% interest and 0.41% penalty. For the 2026 annual account, the first instalment is due 2 March 2026 and the second on 1 June 2026. Allow at least two business days for a payment to be posted. A bill may be paid in one or two instalments, without interest or penalty, depending on its amount. More than two instalments needs a payment agreement, and interest and a penalty are then expected. The annual account is usually sent at the end of January. The page also says property transfer duties are payable in one instalment within 30 days of the bill being sent (Pay your municipal taxes).

This page does not turn 0.75% and 0.41% into a yearly rate. Unpaid transfer duties, the welcome tax, can also put an immovable on the City’s auction path. Who pays that tax on an ordinary sale, and that the brackets change every year, is in Who pays the Montreal welcome tax?. The assessment roll is a different number from the arrears (Is my municipal assessment what my house is worth in Montreal?).

What if the school taxes, not the city taxes, are the ones unpaid?

On the Island of Montreal they are a separate account. CGTSIM says that, under the Education Act, school tax is imposed on every owner of a taxable immovable, and that CGTSIM issues the annual school-tax accounts after 1 July each year for the taxable properties of the school service centres and school boards on the Island. An account is one or two instalments depending on its amount. For 2026-2027, CGTSIM’s payment page gives 3 August 2026, and, for two instalments, 2 November 2026. It says no further notice is sent for the second instalment. Interest applies if an instalment is late. For 2026-2027 the rate is 7.00%. CGTSIM says that rate is the one in the first paragraph of article 28 of the Tax Administration Act on the date the school-tax rate is published, that it is written on the account each year, that it can be changed without notice on 1 July, and that interest is calculated daily. It also says the Education Act allows no remission of tax or interest (Paiement du compte de taxe scolaire, CGTSIM, page in French).

CGTSIM’s collection page describes its own steps, and they are not the City’s $78 notice. After the two due dates, reminders go out. The account is not yet in collection, but interest applies. If the balance from the year before the current period is still unpaid, a first collection letter is sent, usually in April. A bailiff may then deliver a statement at the property. The file can go to an outside bailiff firm, which tells the owner that steps under the Education Act may include seizure and sale of movable property, or sale of the immovable. If the school-tax account of the two years before the current period stays unpaid, a notice of sale of the immovable for unpaid school taxes is sent by certified mail, signed by CGTSIM’s general management, stating the date, time and terms (Service de recouvrement, CGTSIM, page in French). CGTSIM says the municipal account is the City’s and the Island school-tax account is CGTSIM’s. This page does not move a dollar from one to the other.

Which tax papers help, and what can you do?

The municipal tax account, and the school-tax account. The City’s page on viewing a copy, for the service read here, shows the reference number, the amounts and the due dates. It does not show payments already made, changes during the year, or the access code for the online balance. You can open it with the tax-account number or the address, or email taxes@montreal.ca. The English page of that service says the copies cover the current year and the past two years (View a copy of your tax account). The balance service shows whether an amount is owing for property taxes and transfer duties. It needs the 8-digit account number and the access code from the annual bill, and a payment can take up to two weeks to appear (Check the balance of your tax account). CGTSIM’s online statement shows whether an amount is due. Any tax-sale notice, unpaid-tax notice, or letter from a bailiff belongs in the same envelope. The papers the notary uses besides these accounts are on the documents page already cited.

Three paths are not the same promise. You can pay the City the balance its pages name, and the immovable can come off the sale list. You can sell in the ordinary way, and the notary obtains the official statements and may pay the balance the price covers. If a mortgage is also behind, that is a separate clock (Behind on your mortgage in Quebec: what happens and can you still sell?). A consumer proposal or a bankruptcy is a different file (Can you sell your house during a consumer proposal or bankruptcy in Quebec?).

A direct sale is a third path. Selling without the legal warranty is a clause in the promise and the deed. What that clause does, and what it does not cover, is in Selling a house as-is in Quebec.

Bruce Malcolm buys houses himself on the Island of Montreal and the surrounding areas. He holds no broker, agent or appraiser licence, and he is not an advisor. There is no inspection and no commission. An offer with no inspection condition does not, by itself, set aside the legal warranty of quality. You say what you know about the accounts when you send the address: which bills are behind, and whether a tax-sale notice has arrived. He does not clear a tax account by himself. The closing date is one you choose once the notary can sign, and the arrears the price covers are part of that file. Sending the address starts a conversation (request an offer). The form does not commit you. A notary or a lawyer applies the statutes to the lot.