Succession and Estate Lawyer in Gatineau and the Outaouais

Situations we can help you with

• A will appeared shortly before the death, at a time when the person was clearly no longer able to decide.
• You believe someone pressured or manipulated the deceased into changing the will.
• You were cut out, or your share is far smaller than the deceased always described.
• The will is ambiguous and the heirs cannot agree on what it means.
• The liquidator has gone silent, will not prepare an inventory, refuses to account, or has dragged the file out for years.
• The liquidator is paying themselves, selling assets or favouring one heir without authority.
• You are the liquidator and an heir is wrongly accusing you of mismanagement.
• Funds were withdrawn from the deceased’s accounts in the months before death, or belongings vanished from the home.
• One heir is living in the estate property, refuses to sell and is blocking the partition.
• You do not know whether to accept the succession because of significant debts.
• There is no will and you do not know who inherits.
• You were the deceased’s common-law partner and you are being told you have no rights.

Our succession services

• Review of the will, the will search results and the state of the liquidation.
• Application for probate (verification) of a holograph will or a will made in the presence of witnesses.
• Application to interpret a will whose meaning is disputed.
• Application to annul a will or a legacy for incapacity, captation or undue influence.
• Formal notice to the liquidator and demand for a full account of administration.
• Application to replace or remove the liquidator and appoint a judicial liquidator.
• Safeguard orders and injunctions to freeze assets, stop a sale or protect an immovable.
• Claims for concealment of estate property and recovery of diverted assets or funds.
• Applications for partition of the succession, licitation of an immovable held in indivision, and settlement of accounts among heirs.
• Petition of heirship to have your status as heir recognized.
• Claims relating to the family patrimony, the matrimonial regime and the rights of a surviving spouse.
• Negotiation, estate mediation and settlement, followed where necessary by representation at hearing and on appeal.

Quebec succession law explained

Why Quebec is not Ontario

For Ottawa-area families this is the single most important point. Quebec is a civil law jurisdiction governed by the Civil Code of Québec. There is no “estate” that owns the assets and no “executor” appointed by a probate court. The property passes to the heirs at the moment of death, and the person administering it is the liquidator of the succession, who administers the property of others under duties set out in the Code. There is no Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. A notarial will requires no probate at all. Terminology matters here, because the wrong assumption leads to missed steps and missed deadlines. If real property in Gatineau, Chelsea or Val-des-Monts forms part of the succession, Quebec rules and the Quebec land register apply, whatever the deceased’s province of residence.

Wills, verification and challenges

A will search is conducted through the registers maintained by the Chambre des notaires and the Barreau du Québec. A notarial will proves itself. A holograph will — entirely handwritten and signed by the testator — and a will made before witnesses must be verified by the court or by a notary before they can be acted upon. Verification confirms the document’s apparent validity; it does not shield the will from a later challenge on the merits. A will may be attacked for lack of capacity, for captation or undue influence, or for failure to meet the required legal form. These cases turn heavily on evidence: medical records, testimony from family and professionals, the notary’s notes and the circumstances surrounding the drafting.

The liquidator’s duties and the account of administration

The liquidator does not act for their own benefit. The duties are specific: identify the heirs, prepare an inventory of the assets and debts, publish a notice of closure of inventory in the Register of Personal and Movable Real Rights, pay debts and particular legacies, file the tax returns, then render an account of administration and propose the partition. A liquidator who refuses to prepare an inventory, will not account, sits in a conflict of interest or simply neglects the file can be put on formal notice and then be the subject of an application to the Superior Court for replacement or removal. The liquidator may also be held personally liable for losses caused. The inventory is not a formality: it is what limits the heirs’ exposure to the debts of the succession to the value of what they receive.

Accepting, renouncing, and who inherits without a will

An heir may accept the succession or renounce it, with six months to deliberate from the day the right arose, extended so that at least 60 days remain after the closure of the inventory. Renunciation must be made by notarial act en minute or by judicial declaration. Certain acts amount to tacit acceptance, so caution is required. A successor who, in bad faith, diverts or conceals property of the succession, or omits it from the inventory, is deemed to have renounced the succession despite any prior acceptance, and loses all rights in it (art. 651 C.C.Q.). Where there is no will, the law designates the heirs among descendants, the married or civil union spouse, parents and siblings, in a set order. Common-law partners were traditionally not legal heirs in Quebec. Since 30 June 2025, article 653 C.C.Q. includes a partner bound by a parental union among the legal heirs. One qualification is decisive: the parental union must exist at the time of death, and it ends when the partners cease living together — so a former partner does not inherit, even where there is a common child. A person wrongly excluded may have their status as heir recognized within ten years (art. 626 C.C.Q.).

Why bring your file to Virtulex avocats

• A litigation firm: contested successions are, above all, matters of evidence and procedure.
• Sustained experience in complex files where succession law intersects family law, real estate and civil liability.
• Representation at first instance and before appellate courts.
• Me William Desrochers teaches at the École du Barreau du Québec and is an accredited mediator; in family conflicts, estate mediation can spare years of litigation.
• Full service in English and French, with particular attention to Ottawa-area families dealing with a Quebec succession.
• Remote consultations and online booking, which matters when heirs live in several provinces or countries.