Sell an inherited house in Montreal

Who can actually sign

The liquidator administers the succession. That person is named in the will or, if there is no will, designated by the heirs under the Civil Code. A will search is made at the Chambre des notaires du Québec and at the Barreau du Québec before anyone should assume which document governs. The liquidator publishes a declaration of transmission at the land register so the chain of title shows that the property passed at death. Until that paper and the will search are in the notary’s file, a closing date is a wish, not a signature line.

Heirs do not each become a seller in every case. Sometimes the liquidator has the power to sell. Sometimes the will, or a disagreement, means everyone has to consent. If the people who inherit do not agree, a direct offer does not override them. Bruce will talk to the person who has authority to speak. He will not collect signatures the notary says are missing, and he will not tell a family to “just sign.”

The house can stay full

The offer is the same as on the home page: no inspection, no commission, no repairs, and you choose the closing date. Furniture, papers you have already sorted out, and the rest of a life in the basement can stay. Take what the family wants on that day. Leaving the contents is the point of selling directly instead of listing a house that cannot be photographed until it is empty.

A sale out of a succession is often made without the legal warranty, at the buyer’s risk. That is also how Bruce’s offer is made. The notary reads the clause. It does not allow a liquidator to hide a defect the succession already knows about. If the roof leaked for years and everyone in the family knows, say so. The clause is for the unknown condition of a house, not for a cover story.

Tax, in one careful paragraph

At death, Canadian tax rules generally treat the deceased as having disposed of the house at fair market value. If it was their principal residence, an exemption may remove the gain for the years they lived there. The estate can still have a question about the period after death, and about a house that was not a principal residence. This page will not calculate that. A notary or a tax adviser applies it to the file. Do not list the house, and do not accept an offer, on the theory that “inherited houses are tax-free.” Some are. Some are not.