Buying a Home in Quebec Without Visiting It

You are in Beirut, in Bogota or in Calgary, and the property you want is in Laval. Someone offers you a video tour. The question is not whether it can be done: it happens every week in Quebec. The question is what to put in place so the transaction still holds up the day you finally walk through the door for real.

What a Virtual Tour Shows, and What It Will Never Show

A video tour does show three things well: the layout of the rooms, how you move between them, the general condition of the finishes. That is already enough to rule a property out.

Its limits come from the nature of a camera. It has no sense of smell: heating oil, mould and closet damp do not travel through a screen. It has no reliable ear: the microphone compresses sound, and the highway 300 metres away disappears. It feels neither a sloping floor, nor a draft under a window, nor the temperature of a basement in February. The wide angle lens enlarges rooms, and the hour of filming decides the light.

Keep in mind who is holding the camera, too. If the video comes from the listing broker, it comes from the side that is selling. That does not make it dishonest: the OACIQ imposes on every licence holder a duty to verify, meaning to take steps to discover the factors that could unfavourably affect the parties, and to disclose those that come to their knowledge. But a duty to disclose is not an independent set of eyes.

Buying Without Visiting Does Not Reduce Your Own Duty to Verify

This is the point most remote buyers miss. Article 1726 of the Code civil du Québec says the seller is not bound to warrant against an apparent defect, and that an apparent defect is one “that can be perceived by a prudent and diligent buyer without the need to resort to an expert”. The measure is not what you were able to see on a screen. Article 1725 goes the same way for public law restrictions: the seller is not answerable for them when a prudent and diligent buyer could have discovered them from the nature, the location and the use of the premises, or when they are registered at the Bureau de la publicité foncière (Quebec’s land publication office).

Distance therefore creates no lighter regime. It obliges you to reconstruct, through third parties, the examination you would have carried out yourself. The first visit checklist remains your starting point: hand it to the person who will go on site.

Delegating to the Inspector: What to Ask Them to Film

The broker has an ethical obligation to recommend a complete inspection by a professional who carries liability insurance against faults, errors or omissions, uses a recognized service agreement, works to a standard recognized by the OACIQ (AIBQ, ATIB, APCHQ or BNQ 3009-500) and delivers a written report. If the broker gives you a list, it must contain more than one name, and the broker must not offer to pay the inspector in your place, because of the appearance of a conflict of interest. For the selection criteria, see how to choose a home inspector.

The OACIQ writes that it is important for the buyer to be present during the inspection, so that the inspector can point out the items that deserve attention. If you cannot be there, be on live video for the whole inspection, not only for the final summary, and send ahead the written list of what you want filmed.

Ask the inspector to comment out loud while filming. Those observations have to end up in the written report in any case.

The Conditions to Write Into the Promesse d’achat

A promesse d’achat (promise to purchase) is not a sale. Your protections are the conditions you write into it and their deadlines.

The inspection period. Clause 8.1 of the Promesse d’achat form sets the deadline for fulfilling the inspection condition. The OACIQ reminds brokers to allow a period long enough for the context, notably the availability of inspectors. From a distance, add the time difference and the delay of a further expert assessment if the inspector recommends one.

A visit before signing. Expressly provide for a visit of the premises before the signing at the notaire’s office, yours or your mandatary’s.

The documents. Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble (the seller’s declarations on the property), certificat de localisation (certificate of location), tax bills, and for a condo the minutes, the financial statements and the contingency fund.

One warning: the courts have established that not every defect revealed by the inspection automatically gives the right to cancel the promesse d’achat. The factor has to be significant. While you are setting your deadlines, put numbers on the closing with the closing costs calculator.

Procuration: What Your Mandatary Can Do in Your Place

Article 2130 of the Code civil du Québec is the basis: mandate is the contract by which one person gives another the power to represent them in a juridical act, and the writing that records that power is called the procuration (power of attorney).

Three things matter. The scope: a useful procuration names the property, the maximum price, and says whether the mandatary may borrow and grant a hypothec in your name. The person: article 2138 requires the mandatary to act with prudence and diligence, honesty and loyalty, and to avoid conflicts of interest, but that obligation refunds you nothing if the choice was a bad one. The revocation: article 2176 lets you revoke the mandate and demand the return of the procuration so that the end of the mandate can be noted on it.

If you sign the procuration abroad, article 2823 is the one that counts: a procuration under private signing made outside Quebec makes proof against all persons when it is certified by a competent public officer who has verified the identity and the signature of the mandator. If it is contested, article 2825 puts the burden of proof on the person invoking it. The officiating notaire will tell you the form they accept: ask weeks before the closing, not the night before.

Signing at a Distance at the Notaire’s Office

The Exception, Not the Rule

The rule is the opposite of what many people believe. Article 46 of the Loi sur le notariat (Quebec’s Notaries Act) provides that a notarial act is closed by the signature of the parties in the physical presence of the officiating notaire (notary). The notaire may exceptionally authorize a party to sign at a distance, on three conditions: that the circumstances require it, that the party request it, and that it be done with respect for the rights and the interests of the parties. The authorization may be revoked at any time. The following paragraphs of article 46, on the place of closing and on a signature received before another notaire, including abroad, are marked as not in force in the official text.

In November 2023, the Chambre des notaires stated publicly that signing at a distance remains permitted, but supervised, and that what is being called into question is the systematic use of the virtual. So you have no right to it: it is the notaire’s professional judgment that decides, case by case.

Why so much rigour? Because article 2988 of the Code civil du Québec rests a great deal on a single signature: the notaire attests, by that signature alone, that they have verified the identity, the quality and the capacity of the parties, and that the document reflects the will the parties expressed. The full sequence is in the notaire’s role, step by step.

Identity Verification When You Are Abroad

The broker must verify the identity of all parties to the transaction, under the Loi sur le courtage immobilier (Quebec’s real estate brokerage act) and the federal legislation on proceeds of crime. If a party refuses to provide the required information and documents, the licence holder cannot act for that party and must withdraw from the transaction.

When you are not physically present, the OACIQ guideline is precise: the broker must obtain a scanned version of your government issued photo identification and examine its characteristics and its security features. Seeing you hold up your passport in a video call is not enough. A live video session then serves to compare your face and your name to those on the document. The verification may also be entrusted by written agreement to a mandatary, preferably a member of a professional order.

Buying Without Visiting: What No Clause Makes Up For

Let us be clear: a purchase made at a distance is not as safe as one where you walked through the house yourself. A pre-purchase inspection is visual and involves no demolition, and the report is an opinion on a given date. A latent defect claim is litigated over years, and article 1726 first confronts you with the diligence you should have exercised. No condition buys back the judgment you were not able to form yourself.

What makes the purchase defensible is a sequence, not a clause.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy without ever setting foot in Quebec? Yes, it is legally possible. But someone you trust has to set foot there in your place, and you have to be able to show that you acted as a prudent and diligent buyer.

Is my notaire obliged to accept a signature at a distance? No. Article 46 of the Loi sur le notariat makes it an exception that the notaire may authorize, and the authorization may be revoked at any time. Settle the question before you set the closing date.

Will a procuration made in my country be accepted? Article 2823 of the Code civil du Québec recognizes it if a competent public officer has certified the identity and the signature of the mandator. It is still the officiating notaire who will confirm the exact form he or she requires.

Can I cancel if the inspection reveals a problem? Not automatically. The courts have held that not every defect revealed by the inspection gives a right to cancellation: the factor has to be significant, and the notice must be sent within the period provided.

To go further, read the newcomers' guide and the conditions of vice caché and your recourses.

Are you buying from abroad or from another province, and you want someone to go and look for you, checklist in hand? Write to me. I work in French, English and Arabic.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges