Selling a family home in Montreal after a succession, a separation, or a move to a seniors' residence

What the notary actually does

In Quebec, the sale of a house is completed by a notarial deed. The notary checks the title, receives the deed, publishes it in the land register (Registre foncier), and handles the money. That is true if you list the house with a broker and it is true if you sell it directly to Bruce Malcolm.

The notary is impartial for that deed. The notary is not the person who argues a dispute. If heirs disagree, or the two people in a couple cannot agree, a lawyer handles the conflict. Once it is clear who can sign, a notary can still prepare the deeds.

The parties agree on the notary who receives the deed. In a brokered sale, the buyer’s notary often prepares it. You can ask for a notary who will walk you through the deed in English or in French. Nothing on this page replaces that meeting.

After a death: the liquidator’s steps

The person who settles a succession is the liquidator. Older papers sometimes say “executor.” In Quebec the legal title is liquidator. The person may be named in the will, chosen by the heirs when there is no will, or appointed by the court if the usual paths fail. The named person can refuse the role. Accepting it is a decision.

By default, the liquidator has simple administration of the property of others. They can sell movable property that will spoil, lose value quickly, or cost too much to keep. Selling the house is different. With simple administration, the heirs have to consent, or a court has to authorize the sale. The Civil Code also allows the liquidator to realize property to the extent needed to pay debts and particular legacies. If the heirs will not consent and a sale is required for those debts, the route is a court authorization, not an assumption.

A will can grant wider powers, often called full administration. That is what lets the liquidator sign a sale without every heir signing. Do not assume those powers because someone was “put in charge.” The notary reads the clause. A handwritten will is often unclear on this point. Have it read before anyone signs a brokerage contract or an offer.

A usual order of work, which the notary adapts to the file:

1. Obtain the death certificate from the Directeur de l’état civil.
2. Search for a will. The search is mandatory, even when a will is already in hand, because only the latest one counts. It goes through the will and protection-mandate registers of the Barreau du Québec and the Chambre des notaires du Québec. You receive two search certificates. One register is not enough. A notary or a lawyer can file the request, and a family can also file it.
3. Confirm that the will in hand is the last one. A notarial will can be used without probate. A holograph will (entirely handwritten and signed by the person who made it) or a will made in front of witnesses has to be verified by a notary or the court before anyone can rely on it. Until that verification is done, do not treat the named liquidator as able to sign.
4. If there is no will, the notary identifies who inherits. Do not divide the house from a family assumption about “who should get it.”
5. If the person who died was married or in a civil union, partition the family patrimony and liquidate the matrimonial or civil-union regime before the succession is settled.
6. Make an inventory of assets and debts. A notary can put it in notarial form, and a notice of closure is published. Heirs who are all adults can sometimes agree, unanimously, to exempt the liquidator from a full inventory. The exemption is published. Ask the notary whether that is open. Do not skip the inventory on your own.
7. Enter the liquidator’s name in the Register of personal and movable real rights (RDPRM). Revenu Québec is notified as well.
8. Have the notary prepare and publish the declaration of transmission.
9. Only then sign a deed of sale, if the person who has authority chooses to sell.

Revenu Québec and the Canada Revenue Agency each have filings for the person who died and for the estate. Selling the house and paying the heirs are not the same step. A notary or an accountant tells you what has to be filed before money is distributed. A clearance certificate is about that distribution. It does not replace the declaration of transmission.

Sometimes one heir buys out the others. That buyout is also a notarial deed. It is a third choice, beside a listing and a sale to Bruce, and it still needs the same authority to sign.

The declaration of transmission

After a death, rights in the house are transferred by a declaration of transmission (déclaration de transmission). It is a notarial deed, signed en minute, and it is published in the Quebec land register.

The deed identifies the person who died, the heirs, the liquidator, the immovable, each person’s share, and who has the right to sell. After it is published, the city and the school tax authority are notified so the names on the tax roll can be updated.

The deed that sells the house to a buyer waits until this declaration is published and the notary confirms who can sign. A family can gather papers, and can talk with Bruce or with a broker, before that day. Do not set a closing the notary says cannot happen yet. In a succession, this is the step people most often discover too late.

A separation and the family patrimony

Quebec does not treat every couple the same way. The legal status decides whether the house is shared, and who must consent to a sale.

Married spouses and civil-union spouses have a family patrimony. It is built during the marriage or the civil union, no matter whose name is on title. It includes the family residences and the rights that give use of them, the household furniture used in those residences, the vehicles used for family travel, and the retirement benefits accrued during the marriage or civil union, including earnings registered with the Quebec Pension Plan or a similar plan during that time.

What is shared is the net value, not a rule that the house must be cut in half or that both names must go on the deed. Debts taken on to buy, improve, maintain, or preserve those assets are deducted. So is the net value of family-patrimony property a spouse already owned at the marriage, together with the increase in that value during the marriage. A house one person owned before the marriage is not automatically split down the middle.

Property one person received by gift or by succession is generally outside the family patrimony. If inherited money was used to buy the house or pay down the mortgage, the numbers can still change. Property that sits outside the family patrimony follows the matrimonial regime or the civil-union regime. A marriage contract can matter there. It does not let a couple set the family patrimony aside in advance. A renunciation, when the law allows one, is made at partition in the form the law requires.

On a divorce, a separation from bed and board, or the end of a civil union, that net value is partitioned equally unless a court finds an equal split unjust, for example after a very short marriage or where property was wasted. The couple can pay in money or transfer property worth the amount owed. One person can keep the house and buy out the other. Both can agree to sell and share the net proceeds according to the partition. If they cannot agree, the court can award the house.

A declaration of family residence, if one was published on title, means the house and the household furniture cannot be sold, hypothecated, or rented without the other spouse’s written consent, or a court authorization. Even without that declaration, two names on title means two signatures, and a judgment or an interim order can forbid a sale. Do not list the house, and do not accept an offer, until the notary tells you whose signature is required.

De facto spouses do not acquire a family patrimony just by living together. Each person keeps their own property. If both names are on title, both have to agree to a sale or a buyout. A cohabitation agreement counts for what it actually says. There is no automatic half.

Since June 30, 2025, de facto spouses who become the parents of the same child can form a parental union, sometimes by the sole effect of the law when the conditions are met. A parental union has its own patrimony: the family residences, the household furniture, and the vehicles used for the family. Property received by gift or succession is generally excluded. The family home is also protected: selling or hypothecating it needs the other person’s authorization. Couples who were already parents before that date can opt in by a formal agreement, a notarial deed or a private writing signed in front of two witnesses. A parental union is not a marriage. Retirement plans are not part of that patrimony the way they are part of the family patrimony. A notary confirms which situation is yours. Do not decide it from a webpage.

If the person who died was married or in a civil union, the family patrimony is partitioned, and the matrimonial regime is liquidated, before the succession is settled. The surviving spouse can renounce all or part of the family patrimony by notarial act after the death. The renunciation is then registered within the following year. It cannot be done before the death, and a will cannot waive it in advance.

A move to a seniors’ residence

Three different moves get called “a residence,” and the calendar is not the same.

• A private seniors’ residence (résidence privée pour aînés, an RPA) is usually a lease with a move-in date. The room does not wait for a buyer’s financing.
• An intermediate resource or a CHSLD bed is arranged through the public health network. On the West Island that network is Santé Québec — CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal — often starting at the local CLSC. The family does not pick that date the way they pick a closing.
• Some people move in with a relative first. The house still cannot be signed over until the person with authority can sign.

The date the person must be living somewhere else, and the date the house can legally be transferred, are not the same day. Many families need a few days of overlap, or they need the person moved before the belongings are.

The long part is usually the sorting. A lifetime of furniture does not fit in one room. Decide what goes to the residence, what family members take, and what can stay in the house. A direct sale to Bruce can leave the rest behind. A listing usually cannot, because buyers walk through.

If the owner can still sign, they sign. If they cannot, a power of attorney made while they were well is not enough once they are incapacitated. A protection mandate (mandat de protection) has to be homologated, by a notary or the court, before the mandatary can sign the deed. If there is no mandate, a tutorship is the other path. Start that conversation as soon as signing looks uncertain. It has its own timeline, and a residence date does not shorten it.

Documents worth gathering

You will not need every paper on the first call. Having them ready avoids a second round of weeks. Bring copies. Do not send identity documents through the offer form.

For any sale:

• The latest deed of sale.
• The mortgage statement (the hypothec), or written confirmation there is none.
• The most recent municipal tax bill and school tax bill.
• The home-insurance policy.
• A certificate of location, if you already have one. The notary says whether a new one is required for the deed.
• Names, phone numbers, and email addresses of everyone who may have to sign.
• Keys, alarm codes, and a plain list of what you plan to leave in the house.

Also, for a succession: the death certificate, the will and any codicils, the two will-search certificates, the verification judgment if the will is not notarial, any marriage or civil-union contract, the inventory, the declaration of transmission once it is published, the heirs’ written consents or the clause that grants full administration, and any renunciation.

Also, for a separation: the marriage contract, civil-union contract, cohabitation agreement, or parental-union act; any judgment, interim order, or signed agreement about the house; the declaration of family residence if one was published; and a note of whose names are on title.

Also, for a residence move: the admission date, the lease, or the written confirmation of the room; the residence’s list of what may come into the room; and the protection mandate, with proof of homologation if the owner cannot sign.

Timelines, without a false date

There is no legal deadline that forces a family to sell, and there is no honest single number of weeks.

• Will-search certificates often come back within a few weeks. A notary can tell you what the registers are quoting right now.
• A notarial will does not need probate. A holograph will or a will before witnesses does. Verification often takes several weeks and can take several months. Until it is done, do not treat the liquidator as able to sign.
• The declaration of transmission is a notarial deed and a land-register publication, not a trial. It still waits on the death certificate, the will searches, a verified will when verification is required, and a clear list of heirs.
• A separation waits on consent, a signed partition, or a judgment. A fight over the house takes as long as that file takes.
• A residence admission date does not pause any of those steps, and it does not create authority to sign.

A direct cash sale does not skip the legal steps. Once the right person can sign, what it changes is the sale itself: no inspection, no commission, no repairs, no clean-out, and a closing date you choose. Bruce’s purchase is without the legal warranty, at the buyer’s risk. A listed sale still ends before a notary, and it still waits on the same signatures. The extra time in a listing is the preparation, the visits, and the buyer’s conditions.

If heirs disagree, or a required consent is missing, neither path has a reliable date. Do not promise a residence, or each other, a closing the notary has not said is possible.

The West Island context

The West Island is a string of cities and Montreal boroughs: L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Dorval, Pointe-Claire, Kirkland, Beaconsfield, Baie-D’Urfé, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Senneville, and their neighbours. Many of the houses are detached family homes one household has lived in for decades.

A lot of families speak English at the kitchen table and still sign Quebec deeds. A West Island notary works in both languages. The land register and the Civil Code do not change because the conversations at home are in English. Ask for the explanation in the language you want. Read the deed before you sign it.

These are separate cities, or boroughs of Montreal, so the tax bill is local. City tax and school tax are adjusted by the notary to the closing date. Bring both bills.

A pool, an older roof, a basement of boxes, a car left in the garage: none of that has to be dealt with before you ask what a direct sale would look like. It does matter for a listing, because people walk through the house.

Bruce Malcolm is based in Pointe-Claire. He buys homes on the Island of Montreal and the surrounding areas. The West Island is part of that area, and the area is not limited to the West Island. The offer is the one on the home page: the house as it is, no inspection, no commission, no legal warranty, no repairs or preparation, a closing date you choose, and you may leave anything you do not want.

West Island resources

A listing and a direct cash sale, side by side

Neither path is the right one for every house. A listing fits a family that has time, that can open the house for visits, and that wants it shown widely. A direct sale fits a family that has a date to meet, that cannot empty the house, or that wants one conversation instead of showings. You can ask a notary who must sign before you choose. You can also ask Bruce for an offer and still decide to list.

The price is the part nobody honest can settle on a webpage. A marketed sale and a direct purchase are different transactions. One puts the house on the market, with the time and the conditions that come with that. The other is Bruce’s price for the house as it stands, with no commission taken off and no repair list in front of the closing. Compare them when you have a real offer and, if you are thinking of listing, a real sense of the time. The family decides.

Questions families actually ask