The Listing Brokerage Contract in Quebec: Clause by Clause

The day you list your property, someone hands you an eleven page document, and most sellers sign it in fifteen minutes. That document decides your price, your freedom to change your mind, and the exact moment you owe a remuneration. Here is the clause by clause read, with the questions to ask before you sign.

The listing brokerage contract is a mandatory OACIQ form

Your broker does not draft this contract. Section 24 of the Loi sur le courtage immobilier (Quebec’s real estate brokerage act) is blunt: “The contract must be evidenced in writing on the mandatory form drawn up by the Organization.” For a house or a plex of fewer than five dwellings owned by an individual, that form is the contrat de courtage exclusif, vente (the exclusive listing brokerage contract), identified as CCVE.

Three practical consequences. A verbal brokerage contract is null, under section 26. You are required to perform your obligations only from the moment you hold a duplicate of the contract, under section 25. And section 30 prohibits renouncing, by private agreement, the rights set out in that chapter.

The regulation also frames how the form gets filled in: the broker must let you read through the terms and give you every explanation before you sign, and may make no addition, no change and no erasure once a party has signed.

Clause 2: exclusivity, the term, and how to get out

The box on the first page says it plainly. If the property is sold during the term of the contract, whether through the broker or not, the seller will owe a remuneration. You keep the right to market the property yourself, but not the right to sell without paying.

Clause 2.1 sets the closing date and time, at 11:59 p.m. If no date is written in, the contract ends 30 days after it is entered into. The term is not imposed on you: you are the one who writes it.

That same clause 2.1 governs the exit. Unless clause 11.1 stipulates otherwise, you may terminate without cause at any time, but you must then pay the costs and expenses the broker has already incurred, or compensate the broker for the injury suffered. If the contract is instead stipulated to be non terminable, section 28 of the Act still applies: you may terminate at your discretion within the three days following the day you receive a duplicate signed by both parties, by simple written notice. Section 29 adds that no remuneration may then be claimed, unless a sale meeting the conditions of section 27 occurs.

The broker, for their part, may terminate only for serious cause, and not at an inopportune time.

Clause 4: the asking price, the inclusions, and what changes if you lower it

Clause 4.1 holds the asking sale price. That is not an appraisal, it is your decision. Lowering it later cancels nothing: it is done through the Amendments form, signed by both parties, and the rest of the contract keeps running.

Read the rest of clause 4 carefully. Point 4.3 puts on you the costs of repaying and discharging any hypothec, including any penalty payable in case of early repayment. Point 4.4 specifies that the included items are sold without the legal warranty of quality and at the buyer’s own risk, but that they must be in working order at delivery. Point 4.6 asks you to identify the rental contracts the buyer will have to take over: water heater, alarm system, propane tank. A leased tank forgotten on that line becomes a conversation at the notary’s office.

Clause 5 sets the date or the deadline for signing the deed of sale, and the occupancy date. Clause 6 authorizes the distribution of the information and the photographs to the broker to broker services.

Before you settle on the figure in clause 4.1, place your starting point with a property value estimate, then ask the broker which comparable sales support the recommendation.

Clause 7: remuneration and the four cases where it becomes payable

No rate is set by law. Clause 7.1 offers two boxes: a percentage of the sale price, or a lump sum, plus applicable taxes. The figure is negotiated before you sign, not after.

That same clause 7.1 lists the four situations that make the remuneration payable.

Clause 7.3 sets the share offered to the collaborating broker. The form warns you that an unreasonable share toward other brokers can reduce their interest in proposing your property to their clients. That is a figure to discuss, not a box to fill in quickly.

Clause 7.4 provides for the reverse: no remuneration is owed if the broker or the broker’s spouse acquires an interest in the property, nor if, through the buyer’s fault, the deed is not signed or the price is not paid.

The 180 days after the brokerage contract ends

This is the clause that surprises the most sellers, and it is the one to understand exactly. Section 27 of the Loi sur le courtage immobilier renders without effect any agreement binding you to pay a broker after the contract expires, unless three conditions are met together: the contract is stipulated to be exclusive, the sale is made with a person who was interested in the property during the term of the contract, and the transaction occurs no more than 180 days after the expiry date, without your having entered into, in the meantime, an exclusive contract with another licence holder.

Clause 7.1 of the form repeats those conditions word for word, adding that the new exclusive contract must have been entered into “in good faith”.

In other words: if you change brokers and sign a new exclusive contract, the old claim falls away. If you let the contract expire and sell on your own, four months later, to someone who visited during the listing, it does not fall away. The question to ask before signing: at the end of the contract, will you give me the list of interested persons?

Clause 8: your declarations about the property, and their legal weight

Clause 8.1 is not a formality. In it you declare that you are the sole owner or duly authorized to sign, that the property is not the subject of any other brokerage contract, that no lease prevents the sale, and that you are a Canadian resident within the meaning of the tax laws. Clause 8.5 commits you to provide a certificat de localisation (location certificate) reflecting the current physical state of the premises. Clause 8.6 requires the spouse’s consent when the property is the family residence.

To this is added the annex referred to in clause 12.1: the mandatory form Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble (the seller’s declarations about the property), the DV. In it you answer to the best of your knowledge and in good faith about the soil, the roof, the water, infiltrations, public law restrictions, a violent death that occurred on the property. The broker must fill it in with you and have you sign it; if you refuse, the broker cannot enter into the brokerage contract.

Why the rigour. Article 1726 of the Code civil du Québec requires the seller to warrant the buyer against latent defects, and article 1728 adds that if the seller knew of the defect or could not have been unaware of it, the seller must also make good the injury suffered. A complete declaration is your best protection. For a question that leaves you hesitating, have the wording validated by a notary before you sign.

Double representation and clause 9: what the broker owes you in return

Double representation is prohibited in Quebec. Concretely: if a buyer who already has a buyer brokerage contract with your broker wants to make an offer on your property, section 29.1 of the Act requires that broker to terminate the buyer’s contract, to recommend another broker to them, and to claim no remuneration from that buyer.

If the buyer has no contract, this is not double representation, but the broker must inform them that they represent your interests alone and must give them fair treatment: objective information, without disclosing your confidential or strategic information.

In return, clause 9.1 lists fourteen undertakings by the broker. The most useful to remember: to act with loyalty, diligence and competence; to present you as promptly as possible with any written promise received; to carry out the usual verifications on the data used to describe the property; to place the “sold” mention only once all the conditions of the agreement have been met, except the signing of the deed and the payment; to disclose to you in writing any personal interest and any sharing of remuneration other than the one provided for; and to give you a duplicate of the contract. Clause 14.1 adds that in case of a dispute, the OACIQ may act as conciliator, mediator or arbitrator if both parties request it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sign a three month contract rather than a six month one? Yes. No term is imposed by law, and you are the one who writes the date in clause 2.1. Just know that the 180 day clause runs from that end date, whatever term you choose.

If I terminate, do I pay anything? Outside the three day window in section 28, clause 2.1 provides that you may have to reimburse the costs and expenses already incurred, or compensate the broker for the injury suffered. Ask in advance which expenses are planned.

My neighbour visited during the listing and buys six months later. Do I owe the remuneration? If more than 180 days have passed since the end of the contract, no. Within the 180 days, yes, unless you had entered in good faith into a new exclusive contract with another broker.

What happens if my broker changes agencies? Clause 10 gives you the choice: follow the broker to the new agency by sending written notice, or stay with the agency. Failing notice, the contract is deemed terminated on the day the broker begins practising there.

To round this out, read what you are actually paying for in commission in Quebec, the honest comparison between selling with or without a broker, the real cost of a sale and the five questions to ask before hiring a broker.

Do you have a brokerage contract in front of you and a clause that snags you? Write to me. I will explain the clause before you sign, even if another broker is the one who presented it to you.

Georges Matar

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

Contact Georges