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ARTICLE · 04 JUNE 2020

What Are The Applicable Time Limits When A Promise To Purchase Is Withdrawn?

What to do when the buyer or seller of a property withdraws after the offer to purchase has been accepted?

CanadaReal Estate and Construction

This article is a modified version of a commentary co-authored with Me Émile Marcoux and originally published by Éditions Yvon Blais in April 2020 (EYB2020REP2929).

What to do when the buyer or seller of a property withdraws after the offer to purchase has been accepted? One can pursue the matter in court to force the recalcitrant party to close the sale. This procedure, known as an "action in passing of title", must be instituted within a reasonable period of time.

In recent years, the notion of reasonable time has been a central concern of various actors in the justice system. There is no universal time limit for filing a lawsuit. While the prescriptive period is usually three years in civil matters (Art. 2925 C.C.Q.), this is not always the case. For an action in passing of title, the reasonable time period criterion is derived from case law.

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