Selling · Certificate of location · Saint-Lambert
In Saint-Lambert, the 1935 garage is often astride the line. Here is what the surveyor checks, what it costs and when to order it.
In Saint-Lambert, 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 The seller provides it at their expense if it is outdated or inaccurate. Saint-Lambert is a town of 1920s to 1950s homes on the irregular lots of the village, where a garage, a hedge or a staircase built sixty years ago sometimes encroaches by a few centimetres on the neighbour: the typical case where the certificate reveals an encroachment nobody knew about. 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the seller to provide, at their expense, a certificate that reflects the current state of the premises; if it is outdated or inaccurate, the new one is on the seller.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.
Saint-Lambert (QPAREB's Brossard-Saint-Lambert sector, an $803,000 median for the sector in the second quarter of 2026, but older village homes that often sell above a million) has the South Shore's oldest housing stock: 1920s to 1950s homes around avenue Victoria, the station and Parc de la Voie maritime, on lots whose boundaries were drawn before today's by-laws. The surveyor regularly finds a detached garage, a staircase, a hedge or a fence encroaching by a few centimetres on the neighbouring lot, or the reverse, and servitudes of passage between two homes joined at the back. The cadastral renovation, done in the sector, renumbered the lots: an earlier certificate carries the old number and must be redone. The extensions, dormers and closed verandas added over the decades are checked against the City's setbacks, which are strict in the village. In Préville and the north, the 1950s to 1960s bungalows have the usual pools and sheds. For a home of this value, an up-to-date certificate ordered at the decision to sell avoids a last-minute renegotiation.
| Brossard/Saint-Lambert (QPAREB, Q2 2026) | Median | 1 year | 5 years | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family | $803,000 | 2% | 26 % | 41 |
| Condo | $404,000 | -3 % | 29 % | 50 |
A certificate of location stops being "current" as soon as something is added to the lot. Yet in Saint-Lambert, of the 139 houses sold on Centris between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, 34% had a pool and 66% a garage: together with the shed, the fence and the extension, these are the most frequent additions that make the original certificate obsolete. And 91% 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 | 34% | $1,525,000 | $1,090,000 |
| A garage | 66% | $1,271,750 | $1,105,000 |
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 Saint-Lambert. 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 139 sales in Saint-Lambert in 12 months, the median time between listing and acceptance is 16 days (half of the sales close between 6 and 56,8 days). A sale that goes above the asking price closes in 5,5 days; a sale below asking in 29 days, and that is the case for 73% of transactions, with a median discount of $54,000 (4.5%). 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 Saint-Lambert, 36% of the listings that ended in 12 months were withdrawn, expired or cancelled without a sale (79 against 139 sold), and the withdrawn ones asked 19.8% 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 Saint-Lambert and the houses that do not sell in Saint-Lambert.
The median sale price of a house in Saint-Lambert is $1,175,000. A new certificate costs $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the property, or 0.1% to 0.2% of the price. The median discount granted by sellers who accept below asking is $54,000, 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 Saint-Lambert.
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 Saint-Lambert, 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.