Real Estate Litigation Lawyer in Gatineau and the Outaouais

Situations we can help you with

• You bought a home and discovered mould, pyrite, a cracked foundation, a failed drain, a roof at the end of its life or a non-compliant septic system.
• You sold your property and the buyer is now claiming tens of thousands of dollars for a defect you knew nothing about.
• You signed a sale “without legal warranty, at the buyer’s own risk” and want to know what remains of your rights.
• Your contractor abandoned the site, billed unjustified extras or delivered defective work.
• A legal hypothec (construction lien equivalent) was registered against your immovable and you want it struck.
• You have lost access to your land, or a neighbour is contesting a right of way you have used for years.
• A fence, garage, hedge or driveway encroaches on your lot according to the certificate of location.
• You do not know where the dividing line actually runs and want the boundary legally determined.
• A neighbour’s noise, dust, odours or water runoff goes beyond what anyone should have to tolerate.
• The condominium syndicate refuses to carry out repairs, imposes a special assessment or adopts a decision you consider abusive.
• You own a cottage or building in undivided co-ownership with a former spouse or a sibling and want out.
• The seller refuses to appear before the notary despite an accepted promise to purchase.

Our real estate services

• Review of the deed of sale, promise to purchase, certificate of location, declaration of co-ownership and land register entries.
• Drafting the written notice of latent defect to the seller — an essential step that is very often mishandled.
• Formal notice (mise en demeure) to a seller, contractor, syndicate or neighbour.
• Coordinating expert evidence: building engineer, land surveyor, chartered appraiser, hygienist, consulting contractor.
• Originating application for reduction of the sale price, cancellation of the sale or damages.
• Boundary determination proceedings and homologation of the surveyor’s minutes.
• Applications to recognize, modify or extinguish a servitude, and right-of-way claims for landlocked land.
• Registration of a legal hypothec of construction and prior notice of exercise — or, on the other side, applications to strike an improperly registered hypothec.
• Injunctions and safeguard orders to stop work, an encroachment or a neighbourhood disturbance.
• Action to compel the passing of title when a party refuses to honour a promise to purchase.
• Applications for partition or licitation to end an undivided co-ownership.
• Challenges to decisions of the co-owners’ meeting, at first instance and on appeal.

Quebec real estate disputes explained

Latent defects: four conditions and one deadline

Quebec law imposes a warranty of quality on sellers, and it is broader than what many Ontario buyers expect. For a defect to qualify as latent, four conditions generally apply: it must be serious enough that you would not have bought or would have paid less, it must have been unknown to you at the time of sale, it must not have been apparent to a prudent and diligent buyer, and it must have existed before the sale. Article 1739 C.C.Q. then adds a critical requirement: once you discover the defect, you must notify the seller in writing within a reasonable time, and give the seller a real opportunity to inspect before remedial work begins. Courts assess “reasonable” on the facts. Late notice, or repairs carried out without warning the seller, can sink an otherwise strong file on its own. One important qualification: a seller who knew of the defect or could not have been unaware of it cannot invoke the lateness of the notice (art. 1739 para. 2 C.C.Q.). The court action itself generally prescribes three years after discovery of the defect.

Construction claims and the legal hypothec

Contractors, architects, engineers, professional technologists and subcontractors who directed or supervised the work are solidarily liable for loss of the work occurring within five years of the end of the work (art. 2118 C.C.Q.). For unpaid accounts, the legal hypothec of construction is a powerful but unforgiving tool. It subsists without publication for the 30 days following the end of the work; to preserve it, a notice describing the immovable and stating the amount of the claim must be registered in the land register and served on the owner. It is then extinguished six months after the end of the work unless the creditor publishes an action against the owner or registers a prior notice of the exercise of a hypothecary right (art. 2727 C.C.Q.). A subcontractor must also have given the owner prior notice of its contract. Owners facing a hypothec that does not meet these requirements can apply to have it struck.

Boundaries, servitudes and neighbours

Boundary determination (bornage) fixes the dividing line between two properties for good. Any owner can compel a neighbour to proceed, with a land surveyor, and then have the minutes homologated by the court (art. 978 C.C.Q.). Where a construction encroaches on neighbouring land, the law distinguishes according to good or bad faith and the extent of the encroachment: the court may order removal, or instead require the neighbour to acquire the encroached strip or pay compensation (art. 992 C.C.Q.). An owner whose land is enclosed, with no sufficient access to a public road, may claim a right of way against compensation (art. 997 C.C.Q.). Finally, article 976 C.C.Q. requires everyone to tolerate the normal inconveniences of neighbourhood — but not those exceeding that limit. The real question is whether the inconvenience is abnormal, more than whether the neighbour was at fault.

Divided and undivided co-ownership

In divided co-ownership (what Ontarians call a condominium), the declaration of co-ownership governs. The syndicate administers the immovable and must preserve the common portions. A co-owner may apply to annul a decision of the general meeting that is biased, made with intent to injure the co-owners or in disregard of their rights, or affected by an error in the counting of votes; the court may annul the decision and, exceptionally, vary it — but the application must be filed within 90 days of the meeting, on pain of forfeiture (art. 1103 C.C.Q.). In undivided co-ownership — the family cottage, the property bought with a former partner — the governing principle is that no one is bound to remain in indivision. Failing an agreement, an application for partition or licitation can force the property to be allotted to one co-owner or sold and the proceeds divided.

Why bring your file to Virtulex avocats

• A litigation firm: we build real estate files to withstand a courtroom, not only a negotiation.
• Sustained experience with complex files where real estate law overlaps construction, civil liability, insurance or family law.
• Representation at first instance and before appellate courts.
• Me William Desrochers teaches at the École du Barreau du Québec and is an accredited mediator, so mediation is a genuine option when it serves your interests.
• Full service in English and French, with particular attention to Ottawa-area clients holding Quebec property.
• Remote consultations and online booking, for immovables anywhere in the judicial district of Gatineau.