Selling · Certificate of location · Pointe-Claire
On the lakeshore, in the Village or on a street of 1960 cottages: in Pointe-Claire, the surveyor does not check the same thing. Here is what, what it costs and when to order it.
In Pointe-Claire, 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). The seller provides it at their expense if it is outdated or inaccurate. Pointe-Claire mixes the waterfront on Lac Saint-Louis, whose high-water line and shoreline are documented, the older homes of the Village on irregular lots and the 1950s to 1970s cottages extended with a pool and a shed: three cases where the old certificate is not enough. Count $1,200 to $2,500 and 4 to 8 weeks.
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the seller to provide, at their expense, a certificate that reflects the current state of the premises; if it is outdated or inaccurate, the new one is on the seller.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.
Pointe-Claire (QPAREB's southern West Island sector, an $820,000 median in the second quarter of 2026, 38 days) has three housing stocks. On the Lac Saint-Louis shoreline and Bord-du-Lac road, the surveyor documents the high-water line, the shoreline and its protection strip, the quays and retaining walls, and the servitudes of passage to the water: that is where surprises cost the most, and a waterfront buyer demands a recent certificate. In the Village, around rue Sainte-Anne and the point, the older homes of the 1900s to 1940s sit on irregular lots where garages, hedges and staircases sometimes encroach, and the cadastral renovation renumbered the lots. In the 1950s to 1970s cottage streets (Valois, Cedar Park, Lakeside, and north of the 20), the in-ground pool, the shed, the extension and the solarium added since make the original certificate outdated. Along the 20 and the exo railway, noise and access servitudes appear on the certificate. For a house that sells in 38 days in a market where the buyer compares, a certificate ordered at the decision to sell is a selling argument.
| 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 Pointe-Claire, of the 236 houses sold on Centris between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, 12% had a pool and 63% a garage: together with the shed, the fence and the extension, these are the most frequent additions that make the original certificate obsolete. And 72% 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% | $916,500 | $730,000 |
| A garage | 63% | $805,000 | $662,000 |
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 Pointe-Claire. 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 236 sales in Pointe-Claire in 12 months, the median time between listing and acceptance is 15 days (half of the sales close between 6 and 45 days). A sale that goes above the asking price closes in 5 days; a sale below asking in 25 days, and that is the case for 69% of transactions, with a median discount of $29,500 (3.6%). 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 Pointe-Claire, 39% of the listings that ended in 12 months were withdrawn, expired or cancelled without a sale (148 against 236 sold), and the withdrawn ones asked 28.9% 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 Pointe-Claire and the houses that do not sell in Pointe-Claire.
The median sale price of a house in Pointe-Claire is $748,000. 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 Pointe-Claire.
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 Pointe-Claire, 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.