What do I legally have to tell a buyer about my house?

Caveat emptor and its limits

The starting rule is caveat emptor: the buyer takes the home as they find it and is expected to inspect. The rule has three exceptions developed by the courts. A seller who knows of a latent defect that makes the home dangerous or unfit for habitation must disclose it. A seller may not actively conceal a defect so that an inspection will miss it. And a seller may not make a false statement, whether fraudulently, carelessly or innocently; each kind of misrepresentation carries remedies.

Everything else, including patent defects a buyer could see, is for the buyer to discover.

What counts as a latent defect

A latent defect is one a reasonable inspection would not reveal. Water entering behind finished basement walls, a structural repair hidden by drywall, mould inside a wall cavity, wiring that does not meet code behind a new ceiling, a buried oil tank, a former grow-op that has been cosmetically restored, contaminated soil. The duty attaches only to defects you actually know about, and only to those serious enough to make the home unsafe or unfit, or unfit for a purpose the buyer has told you about.

A patent defect is the opposite: worn shingles, a cracked driveway, a furnace past its expected life. No duty, so long as you do not hide it.

The Seller Property Information Statement

The SPIS is a questionnaire about the home's systems, history and problems. Ontario does not require it. If you complete one, every answer is a representation the buyer is entitled to rely on, and an inaccurate answer is the most common basis for a claim after closing. The safest answers are precise: what you know, what you were told, what you do not know.

Many sellers instead attach a short written disclosure of specific known issues, drafted with a lawyer. It tells the buyer what matters without turning every system in the house into a warranty.

Stigma, deaths and the neighbours

No Ontario statute requires a seller to disclose a death in the home, a crime, or a reputation. The courts have generally treated these as matters for the buyer to ask about. The exception is a former grow-op or drug operation, which lenders and insurers treat as a physical and financial defect and which sellers have been found liable for concealing.

Whatever the topic, a direct question must be answered truthfully or declined; a false answer is misrepresentation. Neighbourhood noise, planned development and difficult neighbours fall in the same category: no duty to volunteer, no licence to mislead.

Your agent's separate duty

Under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 and its code of ethics, your agent must disclose material facts they know about the property to a buyer, and must not mislead. Telling your agent about a problem is therefore not a way of keeping it private; it usually means it will be disclosed, and it should be. The Real Estate Council of Ontario disciplines registrants who conceal.

The flip side is that your agent's obligation does not replace yours. If you know something the agent does not, the duty to disclose a dangerous latent defect is still on you.

Limiting your exposure

Disclose known issues once, in writing, before the offer, and attach the paperwork. An as-is clause tells the buyer they take the home in its present condition and limits claims about condition, but it does not protect a seller who knew of a dangerous latent defect or who misrepresented. An entire-agreement clause keeps conversations at showings from becoming terms.

Under the Limitations Act, 2002 a buyer generally has two years from discovering a problem to sue, so keep your disclosure, permits and invoices well beyond closing.