Here are all the documents you might need to sell your house.
We just ran into this situation: A seller accepted an offer, and honestly, we moved a bit too quickly on the transaction. We forgot to check everything they need to have in hand to give the property over to the buyer. That’s why I want to go over all the documents you’ll need to sell your home.
The first thing you need is your deed of sale. When you purchased the property, a notary verified the deed of sale and gave you a certified copy. Along with that, they might have given you all of the deeds of sale throughout the years. You absolutely need to have your deed of sale at a minimum.
The second document is a deed of hypothec or deed of loan. You don’t need to hand this over at signing, so it’s not something you need to worry about. However, you should have received it with your other documents.
The situation that came up was that my clients never actually got their deed of sale. The notary from 10 years ago never mailed them their copy, and my clients never noticed. When we looked into the documents, we found what was missing. We had to contact the notary to get a certified copy sent over.
“At the very least, you need to have your deed of sale.”
If you’re selling a condo, you’ll need the declaration of co-ownership and any modifications to that declaration. When you buy a condo, you’re not buying the land; you’re buying a part of ownership in the condo. That ownership is represented by the declaration of co-ownership.
If you’re buying undivided co-ownership, which is when an apartment has been converted, you’ll have to hand over an indivision agreement. However, this type of purchase is rare.
The final document is the certificate of location. Recently, the Chambres des Notaires decided that all sales in Quebec need a certificate of location that is less than 10 years old. As a result, we’re ordering more certificates of locations than we had to before. There can be delays of 16 to 20 weeks for these certificates, so you should look at your certificate and see if it will have to be renewed before you sell.
If you have any questions about these documents or anything else real estate-related, don’t hesitate to call, text, or email us. We would love to help with all your real estate needs.
