What should I check about a home and its neighbourhood before I make an offer?

Freehold, condominium, co-op and POTL: what you actually own

With a freehold you own the land and everything on it. With a condominium you own your unit plus a share of the common elements, pay common expenses, and live under the declaration, by-laws and rules of a corporation governed by the Condominium Act, 1998. A parcel of tied land is a freehold lot tied to a common-elements condominium, usually for a private road. In a co-operative you own shares and a right to occupy, not title, which many lenders will not finance.

Each form changes the documents your lawyer reviews, the conditions your offer needs and the adjustments on closing, so settle it before the search narrows.

Resale or new build

A resale purchase uses a standard agreement, usually the Ontario Real Estate Association form, and you buy the home in its present condition. Sellers must not conceal known latent defects that make a home dangerous or unfit, but there is no general duty to disclose, so inspection and conditions carry the weight.

A new build uses the builder's own agreement with the mandatory Tarion addendum. HST applies, closing may be in two stages, delays are common and the statutory warranty replaces the seller's promises. Condominium purchasers from a declarant get a ten-day rescission right; freehold purchasers do not.

How your agent is regulated and what representation means

Real estate agents and brokerages are registered with the Real Estate Council of Ontario under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002. Since the December 2023 changes, a brokerage can offer designated representation, where a named agent represents you rather than the whole brokerage, and you may deal with a brokerage as a self-represented party with no duty of loyalty owed to you.

Read the representation agreement before signing it: it sets the term, the commission if the seller pays none, and whether you owe commission on a home the agent showed you after the agreement ends. Deposits are held in the brokerage's trust account, protected by RECO's insurance programme.

Checks that cost nothing before you offer

• Zoning and permits: the municipality will tell you the permitted uses, any open building permits and outstanding work orders.
• Property tax: the current bill and the MPAC assessment tell you the carrying cost and whether an assessment appeal is pending.
• Flooding and conservation: a conservation authority regulated area limits what you can build and can affect insurance.
• Tenancy: if a tenant lives there, the tenancy continues after the sale under the Residential Tenancies Act; ask what possession the seller is promising.
• Condominium: ask for the most recent status certificate and reserve fund study before you offer, not after.

Rural and waterfront extras

Outside a serviced town the questions multiply: is the water from a well, does the septic system have permits, is the road maintained year-round, is there a shore road allowance the Crown or municipality still owns, and does a right of way cross the property. Each needs its own condition and, often, a survey. Our cottage and rural page and the cottage guide go through them one by one.