The Seller's Declaration in Quebec: The DV 00001 Form

Plenty of sellers fill out the Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble in fifteen minutes, ticking “no” everywhere to move things along. Yet it is the document with the heaviest consequences they will sign before the notarial deed: it is annexed to the promesse d’achat, the promise to purchase, and becomes a piece of the contract. Here is what it actually asks, and why honesty protects the seller before it protects the buyer.

A mandatory form that becomes a piece of the contract

The Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble form, the seller’s declarations on the immovable, known as the DV, has been mandatory since July 2012. The OACIQ, Quebec’s real estate regulator, imposes it for the sale, by a natural person, of any mainly residential immovable of fewer than 5 dwellings, including one held in undivided co-ownership. For a divided co-ownership, the form is the DVD. The version in force carries the mention DV 00001 and the number V24 06/2022: thirteen pages, sixteen sections numbered D1 to D16.

The broker must fill it out jointly with the seller when the brokerage contract is taken, and have him sign it. The OACIQ is explicit about refusal: if the seller refuses to fill it out and sign it, or writes “I refuse to fill out the form” while signing it, the broker simply cannot enter into a brokerage contract with him.

Then comes the part few sellers anticipate. Once brought to the buyer’s attention, the form is annexed and identified at clause 13.1 of the Promesse d’achat. It therefore forms an integral part of it, on the same footing as the price. It is sent to the mortgage lender and handed to any inspector who asks for it. By signing section D16, the seller further undertakes to notify his broker of any information obtained after signing.

The sixteen sections of the seller’s declaration

Section D2 is the one people skim fastest, and that is a mistake. D2.8 covers hypothecs, servitudes and encroachments, D2.9 covers public law restrictions, D2.13 and D2.14 cover an insurer’s refusal to insure the immovable or to indemnify you.

What you know, and what you cannot claim to ignore

Sections D3 through D14 all open with the same wording: “to your knowledge”. The OACIQ confirms it, the form does not require the seller to declare what he does not know.

The Code civil sets a second threshold. Article 1728 makes the seller liable for restitution of the price and for damages if he knew of the vice caché, the latent defect, “or could not have been unaware of it”, and article 1733 uses the same formula. “Could not have been unaware” is not “knew”. A basement that takes on water every spring, a ceiling stain painted over three times: an attentive owner cannot argue he had noticed nothing.

A word on disputes, because the belief is widespread. The DV asks no general question along the lines of “do you have a dispute in progress”. It asks whether you have a file at the Tribunal administratif du logement, Quebec’s rental board, connected to the immovable (D2.6 f), whether you have received a notice of non-conformity (D2.12), and it ends with an open question, D14.5: could any other element have an impact on the value, the income, the expenses or the use of the immovable. A lawsuit against a contractor is declared there, then detailed in D15.

The broker is not a spectator. Section 84 of the Regulation respecting the conditions for the practice of a brokerage transaction requires him to look for factors that could unfavourably affect the parties, and section 85 requires him to inform them.

Oil tank, pyrite, vermiculite: where the answers go off the rails

The oil tank. It shows up three times. D3.3 asks whether there has ever been an underground or aboveground tank for fuel oil or oil, D3.4 whether there has been a spill or a leak into the soil, D12.4 whether the heating system includes a fuel oil tank. A tank removed twelve years ago is still declared.

Vermiculite. It is named twice. D7.4 asks whether materials that may contain asbestos have ever been used, and vermiculite opens the list. D8.5 asks for the type of insulation in the attic, where it appears again.

Pyrite and pyrrhotite. The form does not ask what most people think it asks. There is no question reading “does your slab contain pyrite”. D13.2 asks whether tests or expert reports have been carried out, and names pyrite, pyrrhotite, radon, ochre deposit, urea formaldehyde foam insulation, asbestos and the foundation drain. If yes, can you provide the documents, and if not, why, and what problem the expert report revealed. Ticking “no” while a report sits in a filing cabinet is the scenario that ends up being argued in court.

Work without permits. D14.4 asks whether major work has been carried out, then whether plans and specifications were prepared and whether the required permits were issued for each one. The form also warns that a new certificate of location may be required after adding a pool, a shed, a deck or a fence (D2.11). That is what the buyer’s inspector will verify on site, as the pre-purchase inspection checklist sets out. What I ask a seller for before sitting down with him is summarized on the seller page.

Without legal warranty, a false seller’s declaration is still actionable

Article 1726 requires the seller to warrant that the property is free of vices cachés. Article 1732 allows that warranty to be excluded, but adds that the seller can in no case release himself from his personal acts. Article 1733 forbids him to exclude his liability if he did not disclose the defects he knew of or could not have been unaware of, except where the buyer buys at his own risk from a non professional seller.

That exception has gained weight. In Tremblay c. Immeubles Perron ltée, 2024 QCCA 719, the Court of Appeal confirmed the direction taken in Blais c. Laforce, decided in 2022. The OACIQ sums up the principles: a total exclusion clause attributes to the buyer a presumed knowledge of the defects, and a buyer who accepts it will also be unable to sue the previous owners. Above all, the seller’s mere silence on a known defect no longer amounts to fraud in a sale at the buyer’s risk: the buyer must prove a lie, a half truth or a fraudulent manoeuvre.

Read quickly, that seems to reward the seller who says nothing. Except that silence does not exist here. The seller has thirteen pages of written questions in front of him, and every “no” is an answer, not a silence. A knowingly inaccurate answer is a personal act, therefore out of reach of the exclusion clause, and it falls under article 1401: error induced by the fraud of the other party vitiates consent in all cases where, but for that error, the party would not have contracted, or would have contracted on different terms.

Two consequences follow. Article 1728: a seller who knew of the defect or could not have been unaware of it owes restitution of the price and damages, not merely a reduction. Article 1739: the seller cannot invoke the buyer’s late notice if he knew of the defect or could not have been unaware of it. Only a court decides, on the evidence, whether an answer amounts to fraud: have any ambiguous situation validated by your notary.

That is where the reversal sits. Article 1726 specifies that the seller does not warrant a latent defect known to the buyer: a declared defect stops being hidden. Declaring an infiltration fixed in 2019, invoice in hand, turns a possible lawsuit three years from now into a price discussion today. The other signals you can read on paper and the real effect of work on value are covered elsewhere.

Filling out the seller’s declaration: documents first, D15 after

The bottom of page 11 carries a reminder in capital letters: provide every available document that supports the declarations. Gather them beforehand.

• The deed of sale and the certificate of location, with its date.
• The invoices, warranties, plans and municipal permits for the work.
• The expert reports already paid for: pyrite, pyrrhotite, radon, ochre, asbestos, water.
• Your insurance documents, including any refusal to insure or to indemnify.
• The proof of maintenance: chimney sweeping, septic tank emptying, heat pump.
• For a rented immovable, the leases and any notice received from a tenant.

When you genuinely do not know, the form provides for it. Some questions have a “do not know” box: year of construction, type of foundation, year of the roof covering. Elsewhere, the answer goes in D15, with the clause number, and the form asks you to set out there the reasons a question was not answered.

Never guess at a year and never leave a box empty: emptiness is ambiguous, and ambiguity turns against whoever created it. “I do not know, I have owned since 2021 and the building dates from 1958” is a precise and defensible answer.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell without filling out the seller’s declaration? Without a broker, no OACIQ rule requires it of you, but articles 1401, 1728 and 1733 of the Code civil apply all the same. The moment a broker takes the listing, the form becomes a mandatory annex to the contract.

If I sell without legal warranty, do I still have to declare everything? Yes. The exclusion clause relieves you neither of filling out the form nor of answering accurately. It protects you against defects you did not know about, not against a false answer, which remains a personal act within the meaning of article 1732.

I repaired the problem. Do I have to declare it? Yes, and it works in your favour. Section D15 asks you to specify the nature of the event, the location and how the situation was resolved. A documented and corrected infiltration is a selling point; the same one, discovered by the buyer, is a lawsuit.

I am the liquidator of a succession and I never lived in the house. The form remains mandatory. The liquidator answers to the best of his knowledge and, where he cannot answer, says so in D15 with his status and the reason. It is written on the first page.

To round it out, read seven recurring failures in a transaction and selling with or without a broker in Quebec.

A declaration to fill out and a doubt about one box to tick? Write to me and we go through it line by line before listing, documents in hand.

Georges Matar

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

Contact Georges