Content of the notice of repossession

► DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE BROKER
 

When you represent the buyer, you must take into account the repossession periods to establish the date of signing of the deed of sale and the date of occupancy of the premises.

It is important to remember that any promise to purchase an income property should be conditional upon a review of the leases. The OACIQ provides real estate brokers with the form Promise to Purchase – Immovable (PDF), which is recommended, among other things, for the purchase of a chiefly residential immovable containing five or more dwellings and in which clause 9.1 provides such a condition.

The buyer must also be the owner before sending the notice of repossession. In addition, the decisions of the Tribunal administratif du logement are to the effect that in order for the sale to be enforceable against the lessee, the deed of sale must have been previously registered in the Land Register.

Example:

A triplex for sale has one-year leases, all of which expire on June 30. The buyer wishes to occupy the ground floor unit and proposes to do so through the repossession of the dwelling, as provided by law.

To achieve this, since the buyer must give six months’ notice before the scheduled expiry of the lease and be the owner at the time of giving such notice, the promise to purchase must take into account the following elements:

1. The date for signing the deed of sale should be early enough in December to allow the acting notary to proceed with the signing of the deed of sale and to register it in the Land Register. Even if publication is possible online, the Land Register Office is not open every day and is closed during the holiday season.
2. Only once the deed of sale has been registered can the buyer send his notice of repossession to the lessee concerned. Thus, the buyer will have to make sure that the lessee has received the notice by December 31 at the latest in order to be able to occupy the dwelling on the following July 1. It may therefore be advisable to bring the date of signing of the deed of sale forward, and setting the date of occupancy a few months later.
3. In the event that this does not suit the parties, the alternative is to set the date of sale desired by the buyer later, and to include a clause stating, as a condition of the promise to purchase, that the seller undertakes to obtain, at his own expense, a commitment from the lessee to vacate the dwelling concerned on a specific date.