Selling · Certificate of location · Sainte-Julie
In Sainte-Julie, the builder's certificate of 2012 shows neither the pool of 2016 nor the shed of 2020. Here is what the surveyor checks, what it costs and when to order it.
In Sainte-Julie, 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 The seller provides it at their expense if it is outdated or inaccurate. Sainte-Julie is a town of recent 1990s to 2020 homes, often sold with a builder's certificate dating from delivery: the pool, the shed, the terrace and the fence added since make it inaccurate, even if it is less than ten years old. 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the seller to provide, at their expense, a certificate that reflects the current state of the premises; if it is outdated or inaccurate, the new one is on the seller.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.
Sainte-Julie (QPAREB's Sainte-Julie-Varennes sector, a $630,000 median in the second quarter of 2026, sold in 22 days) is a young town: most homes date from 1985 to 2020 and were delivered with a builder's certificate of location, often kept by the owner as if it were permanent. Yet the in-ground pool, the shed, the covered terrace, the spa and the fence added in the five or ten years after construction change the state of the premises: the certificate does not show them, and the notary or the lender demands a new one. In the recent sectors of Domaine des Hauts-Bois and toward Mont Saint-Bruno, the surveyor also checks the setbacks on wooded lots and the protection strips of the streams, and the servitudes of drainage between neighbouring lots, frequent in the developments of the 2000s. In Varennes, the riverfront properties carry Seaway servitudes and flood zones to check. With 22 days on market, the certificate ordered at the decision to sell keeps an accepted offer from waiting six weeks for the surveyor.
| Sainte-Julie/Varennes (QPAREB, Q2 2026) | Median | 1 year | 5 years | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family | $630,000 | 0% | 49 % | 22 |
| Condo | $391,000 | 6% | 61 % | 28 |
A certificate of location stops being "current" as soon as something is added to the lot. Yet in Sainte-Julie, of the 239 houses sold on Centris between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, 52% had a pool and 42% a garage: together with the shed, the fence and the extension, these are the most frequent additions that make the original certificate obsolete. And 37% 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 | 52% | $698,000 | $628,000 |
| A garage | 42% | $800,000 | $607,000 |
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 Sainte-Julie. 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 239 sales in Sainte-Julie in 12 months, the median time between listing and acceptance is 7 days (half of the sales close between 4 and 20 days). A sale that goes above the asking price closes in 5 days; a sale below asking in 18 days, and that is the case for 46% of transactions, with a median discount of $17,900 (2.3%). 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 Sainte-Julie, 34% of the listings that ended in 12 months were withdrawn, expired or cancelled without a sale (122 against 239 sold), and the withdrawn ones asked 29.3% 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 Sainte-Julie and the houses that do not sell in Sainte-Julie.
The median sale price of a house in Sainte-Julie is $660,000. A new certificate costs $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the property, or 0.2% to 0.4% of the price. The median discount granted by sellers who accept below asking is $17,900, 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 Sainte-Julie.
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 Sainte-Julie, drawn from Centris listings:
Each page is recalculated from the past year's actual sales, aggregates only.
One of the team’s Sainte-Julie listings, for sale right now:
Its co-ownership fees are $119 a month, against a $317 median in Sainte-Julie across 105 sales in twelve months: a detached building shares no elevator, no corridors and no roof.
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.