First Meeting With a Real Estate Broker: The Documents

Most sellers show up to that appointment empty-handed, assuming the conversation will be mostly about price. Three weeks later, the listing is still waiting on a document that should have been ordered on day one. Here are the papers to pull out of your files, where each one is obtained, and what the public bodies themselves publish as a delay or a fee.

What actually gets decided at a first meeting with a real estate broker

This meeting is not a conversation. It is when the brokerage contract gets signed and when the Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble (the seller’s declarations form) gets filled out with you. The OACIQ Seller’s Guide is explicit: when you sign the contract, or as soon as possible afterward, you must provide among other things the certificat de localisation (certificate of location) describing the current state of the property, your deed of sale, the invoices supporting the work done, the electricity and gas bills, and the school and municipal tax bills.

Each document backs a statement you will sign, or eliminates a question the buyer is going to ask anyway. If you are still choosing, the five questions to ask before hiring a broker come before this list.

The certificat de localisation: the one that decides your calendar

It is the only document on the list that can genuinely delay a transaction, because only an arpenteur-géomètre can produce it. The OACIQ’s professional practices guide gives the rule in two parts. First, the certificate carries no expiry date, but it is essential that it represent the current state of the property: cadastral renovation, adding a shed, renovation work are all changes that affect it. If it is not up to date, the seller must provide a new one. Second, if the certificate is more than ten years old, the notary will require a new one because of the ten-year prescription set out in article 2917 of the Code civil du Québec.

The test to run tonight. Pull out the document and look at three things. The date: past ten years, the question is settled. The plan: if it does not show the pool, the shed, the deck or the addition that exist today, it no longer describes the current state. The lot number: if it differs from the one on your tax bill, a cadastral renovation has gone through.

I cannot promise you a production delay: it depends on the surveying firm, the season and the lot. What I can say is that the mandate gets given before the listing goes live, not after a promesse d’achat is accepted. It is also a selling expense to budget for, along with the mortgage penalty and the discharge fees, and that is the kind of number we set out together on the seller page.

Deed of sale and land register: what your title reveals

Your deed of sale confirms the exact cadastral designation, establishes your price and your acquisition date, and surfaces the servitudes you accepted when you bought.

If you can no longer find it, the instrumenting notary keeps the original minute. Otherwise, everything can be ordered from the Registre foncier du Québec (Quebec’s land register) online. The fee summary in force since April 1, 2026 sets consultation of a document, index of immovables or deed, at $1.50 per document. An uncertified copy costs $27 and a certified copy $44. Consulting and then printing therefore costs far less.

The index of immovables. This is the record of everything published against your property: hypothecs, servitudes, notices. The OACIQ guideline places the land register and the index of immovables among the primary verification sources for title and charges. Your broker will go and consult them. An old hypothec that was never discharged is better discovered now than three days before signing.

Tax bills, assessment notices and energy bills

The municipal tax bill and the school tax bill are both on the OACIQ’s list. The assessment notice goes with them.

In Laval, the tax bill can be consulted through the City’s online service, and the assessment and taxes by address tool gives the property assessment and the amount of the taxes. In Montreal, the property assessment roll is filed every three years and the one in force is the 2026-2027-2028 roll. A detail that surprises families: the City specifies that only two owner names appear on the assessment notice, even when there are more.

Energy bills. The OACIQ asks for the electricity and gas accounts. A buyer wants to know what heating costs, and a rough answer is worth nothing. In Hydro-Québec’s Customer Space, the My consumption profile tool shows daily, monthly and annual data and lets you compare a period to the same period the year before. Print the last twelve months. If you heat with gas or oil, add the supplier’s invoices.

Work, permits and warranties: the proof the broker will ask for

The invoices supporting work done are named as such in the OACIQ Seller’s Guide: roof replacement, window replacement or other renovations. Gather three families of documents. The invoices, with the contractor’s name and licence number. The municipal permits. The warranties still in force on the roof, the heat pump, the windows or the drain, checking the date and above all whether they are transferable to the next owner.

Lost plans and permits. They are requested from the borough or the planning department. In Montreal, the procedure, the delay and the fee vary from one borough to another, and the City publishes them. One borough states 15 to 30 days and a $77 search fee; another, one week with a free search and $3.90 for reproduction; a third, 60 days for a building plan. The same pages specify that some boroughs cannot supply the plan of a building constructed before 1922, or before 1956 elsewhere. Check your own borough’s page.

Co-ownership: declaration, syndicate register and statement of common expenses

In divided co-ownership, the OACIQ specifies that the declaration of co-ownership, the financial statements, the minutes of the recent meetings and the information on the contingency fund are required. None of that is at your house: it all belongs to the syndicate.

The Code civil gives you the tool to obtain it. Article 1070 lists what the syndicate must keep in the registre de la copropriété: minutes of the general meetings and of the board, written resolutions, the building by-laws, financial statements, the declaration of co-ownership, contracts, the cadastral plan, plans and specifications, certificats de localisation if they are available, the maintenance logbook and the contingency fund study. Article 1070.1 adds that every co-owner has the right, on payment of reasonable costs, to obtain a copy of the contents of the register.

The état des charges communes. Article 1069 provides that the prospective buyer may request it from the syndicate, and that the syndicate must provide it within fifteen days of the request. It is the only quantified delay on this entire list. Request it yourself right now. The maintenance logbook and the contingency fund study fall under obligations summarized in the article on Bill 16.

One useful clarification: the certificat de localisation provided must always describe the private portion, and the syndicate keeps certificates only “if they are available.”

Mortgage, leases and your notes for the Déclarations du vendeur

The mortgage statement. Ask your lender for the balance as of a given date and a written estimate of the prepayment penalty. The OACIQ says it plainly in its Seller’s Guide: in most cases you will have to repay your loan and have your hypothec discharged at your own expense, and prepayment may trigger a penalty. The calculation belongs to the lender, and the reading of it to your mortgage broker.

The leases, if tenants occupy the building. Copies of the leases in force, the rent increase notices sent, any correspondence with a tenant. And the RL-31 slips. Revenu Québec’s RL-31 guide is clear: the slip must be filed by any owner who leased a dwelling for which rent was paid or payable on December 31 of the year covered, and it must be filed no later than the last day of February of the following year. Beyond five slips, filing online is mandatory.

Your own notes. Write down what you know about the house: the year of the roof, the infiltration fixed in 2019 and by whom, the crack that was repointed, the oil tank removed twelve years ago, the claim declared to the insurer. Those notes will become the answers on the Déclarations du vendeur form, whose sixteen sections are detailed here. A documented “I don’t know” is worth more than an invented date.

Frequently asked questions

My certificat de localisation is eleven years old but nothing has changed on the lot. Do I really have to pay for a new one? The OACIQ answers that the notary will require a new one past ten years, because of the prescription in article 2917 of the Code civil. The fact that nothing has changed does not lift that requirement. Confirm with the notary who will close the sale.

Do I have to bring everything to the very first meeting? No. The OACIQ writes “when you sign your brokerage contract, or as soon as possible afterward.” Bring what you have and order the same day what takes time: the certificat de localisation and the municipal documents.

I did work without a permit. Do I say so? Yes, and you will say so in writing anyway in the Déclarations du vendeur. Unpermitted work discovered at the inspection becomes a negotiation problem; declared up front, it becomes information the buyer weighs before making an offer.

I am the liquidator of an estate and I never lived in the building. Gather the title documents, the tax bills and whatever invoices you can find anyway, and add the declaration of transmission. You will answer to the best of your knowledge and you will say so on the form.

To go further, read the penalty for breaking a mortgage and the listing brokerage contract clause by clause.

Unsure about your certificat de localisation? Write to me and we will review your documents before setting anything.

Georges Matar

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

Contact Georges