Region served
Unpaid municipal taxes on a Grand Montréal property get paid at funding, with the city ranking ahead of the lender. What the notary checks.
What counts is your ratios after the debts are paid off, not today’s. Tax debt weighs more than a credit card: Revenu Québec and the CRA can register a claim on the property, and most lenders want it paid out of the refinancing.
A list of your debts with exact balances and payments, your latest mortgage statements and your notices of assessment. If there’s tax debt, request the official statement of account. That’s the only figure the lender will use.
What you plan to do with the property weighs more than its price. Living in it, renting it out or a bit of both changes the down payment required and which lenders will look at a Grand Montréal file.
The paperwork depends on the property: leases and the tax bill for a revenue building, the declaration of co-ownership for a condo, a location certificate every time. If there is work involved, add the quotes and proof of compliance. Ask early, it varies in Grand Montréal.
The appraiser works from recent sales, not from the asking price. Where comparables are thin (a rural sector, an unusual property), the value can land under what you agreed to pay, and you make up the gap in cash.
Municipal and school taxes vary from one municipality to the next, and they count in your ratios. The lender works from the Grand Montréal tax bill, plus heating, insurance and upkeep. Do the same math before it does.
To prepare
Yes. It all runs by phone, email or video call, and documents go through online. We can meet in person, but most files get settled without anyone having to travel.
Often yes, but not always with your cash. Paying down a card improves your ratios. Emptying your account to do it weakens the down payment. You have to run both numbers at the same time.
Pick the situation closest to yours.
Contact
Buying, renewing, refinancing, or something a bit out of the ordinary: tell us where you’re at, even if it’s still fuzzy. Mathieu gets back to you with next steps and the documents to pull together.