Buying · Latent defect · Remedies
The order is not a suggestion. Every skipped step is paid for at the next one, and it is almost always the repair done too early that sinks the file.
A latent defect claim always follows the same sequence. Document the discovery. Give written notice to the seller, as article 1739 of the Civil Code of Quebec requires, within a reasonable time. Get an expert report before any repair. Put a number on the injury. Send a written formal notice allowing sufficient time, under article 1595. Then, failing a settlement, file before the competent court, inside the three-year prescription period in article 2925. Article 1590 lists what you can demand once the seller is in default: force specific performance of the obligation, obtain the resolution of the contract or the reduction of your own correlative obligation, or take any other measure provided by law.
Dated photos, written notes, physical preservation of whatever was removed. The file starts on the day of discovery, not the day you consult. A timeline written as events happen beats a reconstruction six months later.
Article 1739 of the Civil Code of Quebec requires a buyer who ascertains that the property is defective to give notice in writing of the defect to the seller within a reasonable time after discovering it. No number of days is set, which makes delay hard to defend and speed easy to justify. Both clocks are detailed in the latent defect deadlines.
That letter should also invite the seller to come and see. That is what protects everything that follows.
The expert establishes cause, age and seriousness. Anteriority decides most files, and it cannot be established once the work is done. See the expert report.
Two or three contractor quotes, the invoices already paid, the related costs actually incurred. An amount backed by exhibits can be negotiated; a round approximation gets contested.
The amount you claim already steers what follows: under the Small Claims threshold the procedure is simple and lawyer-free; above it, the file changes nature.
Article 1594 provides that a debtor may be put in default by an extrajudicial demand to perform the obligation addressed to him by his creditor. Article 1595 requires that demand to be made in writing and to allow the debtor sufficient time for performance, having regard to the nature of the obligation and the circumstances. See the formal notice.
Failing a settlement, the claim is filed before the competent court based on the amount. The Small Claims Division handles applications not exceeding $15,000 under article 536 of the Code of Civil Procedure; above that, it is the Court of Québec or the Superior Court, with a lawyer. All of it has to stay inside the three-year period in article 2925. See Small Claims.
Article 1590 of the Civil Code lists the creditor's remedies once the debtor is in default: force specific performance of the obligation, obtain the resolution or resiliation of the contract or the reduction of his own correlative obligation, or take any other measure provided by law. Article 1604 adds an important nuance: there is no right to resolution where the default of the debtor is of minor importance, but there is then a right to a proportional reduction of the correlative obligation.
In plain terms, three outcomes exist. A price reduction, by far the most common, matching the cost of the corrective work. Cancellation of the sale, reserved for very serious defects. And damages, which article 1728 grants on top of restoring the price where the seller was aware or could not have been unaware of the defect.
The seller first. But article 1442 provides that the rights of the parties to a contract pass to their successors by particular title if the rights are accessory to the property which passes to them or are closely related to it. That is what allows, in some files, going back up the chain of previous owners. Article 1730 adds that the manufacturer, any person who distributes the property under his name or as his own, and any supplier of the property, in particular the wholesaler and the importer, are also bound to a seller's warranty. Who ends up paying is covered in who pays for a latent defect.
That is the most common outcome. A majority of files settle between the formal notice and the hearing, often through a negotiated price reduction. Article 556 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that at Small Claims the court clerk informs the parties that they may, at no additional cost, submit their dispute to a certified mediator.
The clause changes a great deal but not everything. Article 1733 provides that a seller may not exclude or limit his liability unless he has disclosed the defects of which he was aware or could not have been unaware, with an exception where a buyer buys property at his own risk from a seller who is not a professional seller. See the legal warranty in English.
It depends on the court, the district and the complexity of the expert evidence. What is certain is that the court's processing time is added to yours: the later the notice, the further away the end.
The latent defect file: the four tests, the deadlines, the formal notice, the proof, the expert report, the six steps, small claims court, who pays, the seller who did not know, older homes, water infiltration, the roof, the inground pool and the septic system and the well.
Every article quoted here is reproduced from the official English text of the Civil Code of Quebec and the Code of Civil Procedure published by Légis Québec, both read on September 11, 2026. We give the article numbers so you can read them yourself. We are real estate brokers, not lawyers: we can tell you what the law provides and what your transaction left behind as evidence, but the analysis of your file belongs to a lawyer. When the amount at stake runs past a few thousand dollars, that call happens before the formal notice, not after.
The Loaa & Manseur team, led by Lotfi Manseur and Loaa Al Daow, is 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 of large residential teams according to the official RE/MAX ranking, computed on actual transactions. Its Google profile counts more than 220 reviews with a 4.9 rating. Its offices are at 55 avenue de l'Équinoxe in Brossard, one bridge from the island, and every broker's licence can be checked in the OACIQ public register. Three things to verify yourself before calling us, and to demand of any other broker.
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.