Selling · Certificate of location · Dorval
In Dorval, the 1955 bungalow gained a garage and a pool, the lakefront house has a dock nobody ever surveyed, and half the streets carry an airport servitude. Here is what the surveyor checks, what it costs and when to order it.
In Dorval, the certificate of location is the document the notary and the lender require to close a sale: prepared by a land surveyor, it describes the current state of the premises (boundaries, buildings, servitudes, encroachments, compliance with by-laws). The seller provides it at their expense if it is outdated or inaccurate; the law sets no expiry date, but notaries and lenders in practice require a certificate of about ten years at most, with no change since. Dorval sells 1950s and 1960s bungalows on suburban lots, extended with pools, garages and sheds, and lakefront properties on Lac Saint-Louis with docks and retaining walls, in a city where airport height and noise servitudes are registered on many lots. Each addition since the original certificate makes it outdated, and the surveyor checks setbacks, shoreline and servitudes. Count $1,200 to $2,500 and 4 to 8 weeks, more for a large rural lot that needs staking.
It is the land surveyor's report describing the current state of the property: lot boundaries, position of the buildings, servitudes, encroachments and compliance with by-laws. In a sale, the standard rule of the brokerage forms (clause 10.1) requires the seller to provide, at their expense, a certificate that reflects the current state of the premises; if it is outdated or inaccurate, the new one is on the seller. The law gives it no expiry date: the test is accuracy, but notaries and lenders in practice require a certificate of at most about ten years with no change since (pool, shed, extension, fence, cadastral renovation). The full detail is on our page certificate of location in Quebec.
Dorval (QPAREB's West Island South sector, an 820 000 $ median house in the second quarter of 2026) is a city built mostly between 1945 and 1970 around Dorval Avenue, the Strathmore sector and the lakefront. Three cases come up. The 1950s and 1960s bungalows, extended at the back, with a garage, a pool and a shed added over sixty years: the original certificate does not show them and the surveyor checks their setbacks against the City's by-laws and the shared fences on narrow lots. The lakefront properties along Lakeshore Drive, where the dock, the boathouse, the retaining wall and the fill are surveyed against the high-water mark and the shoreline strip. The airport: height and noise servitudes registered on many lots appear on the certificate and are read before the offer. Old hedges and fences over the neighbour's line, CN railway and Highway 20 servitudes complete the list. See real estate broker in Dorval and selling a house in Dorval.
| Ouest-de-l'Île-Sud (QPAREB, Q2 2026) | Median | 1 year | 5 years | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family | $820,000 | -2 % | 13 % | 38 |
| Condo | $517,500 | 5% | 26 % | 44 |
A certificate of location stops being "current" as soon as something is added to the lot. Yet in Dorval, of the 121 houses sold on Centris between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, 12% had a pool and 60% a garage: together with the shed, the fence and the extension, these are the most frequent additions that make the original certificate obsolete. And 78% of these houses were built before 1980: if their last certificate dates from the previous purchase, it is often more than ten years old, the limit notaries and lenders apply in practice.
| Addition | Share of houses sold | Median price with | Median price without |
|---|---|---|---|
| A pool | 12% | $1,045,000 | $697,000 |
| A garage | 60% | $775,000 | $635,000 |
Source: Centris (Matrix), single-family sales closed between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, up to 300 per city, aggregates only. The pool and the garage also raise the price; the detail is in our page on what a pool and a garage are worth in Dorval. For the certificate, the consequence is simple: if one of these was added since the surveyor's last report, a new one is needed, and the seller pays for it.
On 121 sales in Dorval in 12 months, the median time between listing and acceptance is 15 days (half of the sales close between 6 and 57 days). A sale that goes above the asking price closes in 5 days; a sale below asking in 31,5 days, and that is the case for 71% of transactions, with a median discount of $29,500 (4%). A certificate ordered after acceptance adds four to eight weeks to that calendar, and a lingering "subject to the certificate" condition gives the buyer a reason to renegotiate.
The other figure to know: in Dorval, 38% of the listings that ended in 12 months were withdrawn, expired or cancelled without a sale (73 against 121 sold), and the withdrawn ones asked 9.6% more than the sold ones. The certificate is not the first cause, the price is; but an incomplete file stretches the delay, and the delay ends up costing the price. The detail is in how much people really negotiate in Dorval and the houses that do not sell in Dorval.
The median sale price of a house in Dorval is $715,000. A new certificate costs $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the property, or 0.2% to 0.3% of the price. The median discount granted by sellers who accept below asking is $29,500, and a missing certificate is exactly the kind of argument a buyer uses to get it. Ordering the certificate before listing, when it is outdated or inaccurate, therefore costs less than discovering it at the offer: that is the rule the team applies on every sale mandate in Dorval.
Count generally $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the property and the region, and above all 4 to 8 weeks of delay. That is the number one reason we ask our sellers to order it as soon as they decide to sell, not at the promise to purchase: a certificate that arrives late delays the notary, and a certificate that reveals an encroachment at the last minute derails the sale. The shed on the neighbour's line or the pool too close to the boundary are discovered here, not after signing.
Our other data series for Dorval, drawn from Centris listings:
Each page is recalculated from the past year's actual sales, aggregates only.
If it is less than about ten years old AND nothing has changed (no construction, extension, pool, fence, cadastral operation or new by-law), it generally passes with the notary and the lender. Otherwise, plan on a new certificate.
The seller, under the standard clause of the brokerage forms, if theirs is outdated or inaccurate. If their certificate reflects the current state of the premises and the buyer or their lender demands a new one anyway, it is on the buyer.
4 to 8 weeks in 2026 depending on the workload of the region's land surveyors. Order it as soon as you decide to sell.
Also available in French: version française de ce guide.
Published September 7, 2026 by the Loaa & Manseur team, the number 1 team at RE/MAX Platine in 2024 and 2025, 6th RE/MAX team in Quebec, 15th in Canada and in the global top 50 according to the official RE/MAX ranking. Tell us about your project.
Équipe no 1 de RE/MAX Platine en 2024 et en 2025, 6e au Québec, 15e au Canada et dans le top 50 mondial au classement officiel RE/MAX. Réponse en moins de 24 heures, sept jours sur sept.