The Offer to Purchase and Your Notary

Whether you are a real estate investor or looking for your first home, you will need to sign an offer to purchase to buy a property.

The offer to purchase is a written contract with legal validity, which is why it’s important that you have a clear understanding of this document before you go ahead with your real estate project.

What is the purpose of an offer to purchase?

An offer to purchase is a contract in which you promise to buy a property, and the seller promises to sell it.

Let’s say you visit a house or a building, and you fall in love with it. You are ready to buy!

But first, you must send the seller an offer to purchase. The seller can accept, reject it or even make a counter-offer.

If the seller accepts your offer, the document becomes a legal contract.

The offer to purchase conditions

• The offer to purchase may contain several conditions of sale to protect you. For example:
• A commitment to sign, by a specific date, a deed of sale before a notary;
• The obligation on the seller’s part to deliver the property in the condition it was in at the time of viewing;
• Inclusions and exclusions, such as appliances, lamps, etc.

The two most common conditions are the offer contingent on a favourable inspection result, and the offer contingent on the sale of the buyer’s property (if you have another property that you need to sell prior to moving).

What is Your Notary’s role?

Excellent question! Your Notary plays a key role in drafting the offer to purchase and advising you on what clauses should be included.

Your Notary also checks the conformity of the documents before making the deed of sale official. A common example is to check that the certificate of location is up-to-date (certificates older than 10 years must be reissued).

Your Notary also makes sure that the seller has the right to sell the property. In some cases, there may be a co-owner or former spouse who has certain rights to the property.

Working with Your Notary for a real estate purchase is not only good practice but is essential to avoid headaches in the future!

Did you know that whether you buy with or without a real estate broker, the legal implications are the same and the legal guarantee applies? It’s thus important to be familiar with the various rules and obligations related to real estate purchases.

Or working with a team of notaries specializing in real estate law who can do this work for you… It’s a good thing we know one!