Civil Code of Québec, C.c.Q.

Registration benefits the persons whose rights are thereby published.

The registration is valid only for the rights requiring or admissible for publication that are mentioned in the application, or where the application is in the form of a summary, in the accompanying document.

Renunciation of a succession, legacy, community of property, partition of the value of acquests or of the family patrimony, and the judgment annulling renunciation, also require publication.

Other personal rights and movable real rights require publication to the extent prescribed or expressly authorized by law. Modification or extinction of a published right shall also be published.

Transfers of authority between the government of Québec or Canada and legal persons established in the public interest may also be published.

Registration of a transfer is obtained by filing a notice describing the immovable to be transferred and specifying the extent of the authority transferred, the term of the transfer and under which Act it is made.

Rights produce their effects between the parties even before publication, unless the law expressly provides otherwise.

A person who does not consult the appropriate register or, in the case of a right registered in the land register, the application to which the registration refers, and the accompanying document if the application is in the form of a summary, may not invoke good faith to rebut the presumption.

This rule does not apply where the right of the grantor or last holder was acquired without a title, in particular by natural accession, or where the title concerned is an original title of the State.

Where publication by delivery is authorized by law, rights rank according to the time at which the property or title is delivered to the creditor.

If several hypothecs have been registered before the grantor’s title, they rank in the order of their respective registrations.

Registration of a hypothec against immovables acquired subsequently is obtained by presenting a notice containing the description of the immovable acquired and a reference to the act creating the hypothec, and setting forth the specific amount for which the hypothec was granted.

However, if the hypothec was not published in the land book for the registration division in which the immovable acquired subsequently is located, its registration is obtained by means of a summary of the act creating the hypothec, containing a description of the acquired immovable.

The first hypothec registered in the land register has priority of rank, whether it be the hypothec on the movable subsequently incorporated into the immovable, or the immovable hypothec on the same immovable.

Registration in the land register of the hypothec on the movable is obtained by presenting a notice containing the description of the immovable concerned, a reference to the act creating the hypothec and its registration in the register of personal and movable real rights, and an indication of the particular sum for which the hypothec was granted.

If several floating hypothecs are the subject of notices of crystallization, they rank among themselves from their respective registrations, regardless of the registration of the notices of crystallization.

Where it occurs, the rank of the creditors is inverted, to the extent of their respective claims, but in such a manner as not to prejudice any intermediate creditors.

Similarly, the registration of an annuity preserves, in favour of the annuitant, the same rank for the periodic payments for the current year and the arrears for the three preceding years as for the prestation.

However, interest due or arrears owing at the time of registration of the hypothec or annuity are preserved by the registration if the amount is stated in the application.

Publication of the substitution does not affect the rights of third persons who have already published the rights they derive from the institute under an act by onerous title.

Registration preserves the rights for a period of ten years; the period may be extended if the registration is renewed.

These rules also apply to the registration of rights of ownership under leasing contracts and of rights under leases with a term of more than one year, or of any transfer thereof, in respect of a universality of movable property of the same kind that may be involved in such contracts in the ordinary course of business between persons operating enterprises.

A judicial demand concerning a movable real right entered in the register of personal and movable real rights may also, by means of a notice, be the subject of an advance registration.

Rights under a will that was prevented from being published are also deemed published from the time of their advance registration, provided the will is published within thirty days after the obstacle is removed or after the will is obtained or probated and within three years from the opening of the succession.

In addition, a register of personal and movable real rights is kept in the Personal and Movable Real Rights Registry Office.

The Land Registrar and the Personal and Movable Real Rights Registrar are charged, respectively, with keeping such registers.

Rights concerning a movable and any other rights are published by registration in the register of personal and movable real rights; if the movable real right also pertains to an immovable, registration shall also be made in the land register in accordance with the standards applicable to that register and determined by this Book or by the regulations under this Book.

Each land book contains an index of immovables, a register of real rights of State resource development, a register of public service networks and immovables situated in territory without a cadastral survey and an index of names. The index of names comprises all the entries that cannot be made in the index of immovables or the other registers kept by the Land Registrar.

The register of public service networks and immovables situated in territory without a cadastral survey contains one land file, identified by a serial number, for each such non-immatriculated network or immovable in the registration division, even if two or more networks or immovables belong to the same owner.

A directory of real right holders completes the two registers.

The same applies to the holder of a real right of State resource development of which the situs is not immatriculated, provided the real rights of development are of the same nature, of the same duration, contiguous and charged with the same real rights.

The owner or holder presents an application containing the description of the immovable resulting from the consolidation and identifying the related land files and any subsisting entries to be carried over to the new land file. The registrar indicates the correspondence between the old and the new land files and carries over the entries.

In the document evidencing the partition shall be included a declaration containing a description of the immovables concerned and identifying the original land file and any subsisting entries to be carried over to the new land files.

The registrar establishes the correspondence between the old and the new land files and carries over the entries.

Rights under a lease on movable property are registered in files kept solely under the description of the lessee named in the application whenever a file is otherwise kept under the identification number of the leased property.

The registrations pertaining to the person or the movable property are listed in each file.

Applications for registration in the register of personal and movable real rights identify the holders and grantors of the rights, state the nature of the rights, describe the property concerned and mention any other fact that is relevant for registration purposes, as prescribed by law or by the regulations under this Book.

An application for registration in the register of personal and movable real rights of a hypothec or of such a restriction or right must fix the date after which the registration ceases to have effect.

The application is made by presenting the act itself or an authentic extract of the act, by presenting a summary of the act or, where the law so provides, by means of a notice.

Nevertheless, where authorized by regulation, reference in the registration to the document under which registration is required is permitted to identify the situs of the right or the extent of the right.

However, one summary is sufficient where the right intended to be published is evidenced in several documents.

The application for registration must be accompanied with a copy of the judgment; the application is not admissible unless the judgment has acquired the authority of res judicata.

Documents presented for registration in the land register of declarations of family residence, immovable leases or notices prescribed by law, other than notices required for the registration of a legal or movable hypothec or the cadastral notice for the registration of a right, need not be certified by a notary or advocate, but by two witnesses, including one under oath.

If the minutes do not state that the boundaries coincide, registration of the minutes in the land register shall be refused until an amendment to the plan is indicated in the land register and notice of the amendment relating to the lots concerned is registered in that register.

This provision does not apply to cadastral plans.

However, where movable property is concerned, the right of an heir or of a legatee by particular title may be registered only if it relates to the transmission of a hypothecary claim or of a restriction on the right to alienate, or to an advance registration. The declaration takes the form of a notice in which, where applicable, reference is made to the will.

It also sets forth whether the succession is legal or testamentary, the quality of the declarant as heir, legatee by particular title or married or civil union spouse, the degree of relationship between each of the heirs and the deceased, any renunciations, the description of the property and of the persons concerned, and the right of each in the property.

The notice must refer to the lease concerned, identify the lessor and the lessee and contain the description of the immovable in which the leased premises are situated. It must also, unless the registration concerns the assignment of the lease or the extinction of rights under the lease, indicate, in particular, the effective date of the lease and the date of expiry, if any, or the particulars needed to determine such dates, as well as any rights existing in respect of the renewal of the lease.

The accuracy of the content of the notice must in all cases be verified by a notary or an advocate.

Where an immovable is sold by way of a forced sale or a sale following the exercise of a hypothecary right, no copy of the act evidencing the sale may be issued before the sale is published, at the purchaser’s expense, by the person entrusted with the sale.

The sale is registered with the mention that it was an adjudication for non-payment of immovable taxes.

A certified statement of registration must be furnished to the debtor, together with the application for registration in the case of registration in the land register and, if such application is in the form of a summary, the accompanying document.

If these formalities are not observed, the subrogation or assignment may not be set up against a subsequent assignee who has observed them.

A summary certified by an advocate or a notary may include, even if the act contains no mention thereof, the name of the municipality or registration division in which the immovable is situated, and the date and place of birth of the persons named in the act, as well as the declarations required by law for certain transfers of immovables.

3006.  Where the law prescribes that the application shall, upon presentation, be accompanied with other documents, any such documents drawn up in a language other than French or English shall themselves be accompanied with a translation authenticated in Québec.

Subsequently, in the order of presentation of the applications and with all possible diligence, the registrar makes the entries, mentions and references prescribed by law or by the regulations under this Book, in the appropriate register. The entries, mentions and references required by applications for the registration of rights are made day by day, giving priority in all cases to those entries, mentions and references over any that are required by applications to strike or reduce an earlier entry.

Subsequently, day by day, in the order of presentation of applications, and with all possible diligence, he makes the entries prescribed by law or by the regulations under this Book in the register.

The identity of the persons is also held to have been verified where it is attested by one of the persons mentioned in article 2990.

The identity of parties to any other application for registration in the land register or in the register of personal and movable real rights is presumed to be accurate and their capacity is held to have been verified.

If several applications are delivered to the registry office by the same mail delivery or are presented by the same bearer, they are deemed presented simultaneously. Applications forwarded in bulk by a technological means determined by regulation are considered to be presented simultaneously; however, they all bear the date, hour and minute of reception of the last application forwarded in that way.

Applications delivered to the registry office of the registration division in which the immovable concerned is situated, or to the Personal and Movable Real Rights Registry Office, outside the hours for the presentation of documents or when the office is closed, are deemed presented at the time activities resume in the office ; applications delivered to the Land Registry Office outside the hours for the presentation of documents at the registry office of the registration division in which the immovable concerned is situated, or when the latter registry office is closed, are deemed presented at the time activities resume in the latter registry office.

Where the registration is made in the land register, a mention of the subrogation, assignment or renewal, together with its registration number, is entered in the register of mentions.

To obtain registration of a change of name in the land register, the description of the immovable concerned shall also be included in the notice.

Any interested person may, upon noting such an error or omission, request the registrar to make the appropriate correction, entry or mention ; if an applicant notes such an error or omission, he is bound to make such a request.

In all cases, the registrar indicates the date, hour and minute the correction, entry or mention is made.

Similar notification shall be sent to the Attorney General in the case of any property charged with a hypothec or in the case of a published prior claim in favour of the State.

A person having required the registration of an electronic address is deemed to have been notified upon simple proof that the information the registrar is required to notify has been transmitted to that address.

Nor may the registrar use the registers or documents to furnish to any person a list of owners, hypothecary creditors or other holders of rights, a list of debtors or grantors of rights or a list of the properties owned by a person. Furthermore, no search by reference to a person’s name is permitted in the registers and documents kept by a land registrar, unless it concerns a notice of address, is carried out in the index of names or concerns an immovable, a real right of State resource development or public service network which is not immatriculated.

The registrar is also bound to issue, to any person requesting it, a copy of documents kept in the registry offices or a certified statement of a particular entry.

(1)   to keep, in their original form or in any other form, in the registry offices, the documents transmitted to them for publication purposes;

(2)   to make entries in the registers so as to ensure the integrity of the information;

(3)   to protect the entries in the registers against any alteration;

(4)   to establish and keep in a safe place other than the registry offices, a copy of the registers and other documents kept on a computer system;

(5)   for archival purposes, to maintain a record of entries in the register of personal and movable real rights which are no longer effective;

(6)   for archival purposes, to keep, in the registry offices or in any other place, the registers and documents in paper form which were converted to electronic form pursuant to a ministerial order under the Act respecting registry offices.

Registrars may not surrender the registers and documents or be required to produce a copy of them outside the registry office except in judicial proceedings in improbation or in contestation of the authenticity of a document.

In addition, they may not correct or amend the cadastral plans; if there are omissions or errors in the description, dimensions or number of any lot, or in the name of the owner, the mode of acquisition or the registration number of the title, they shall report the error or omission to the Minister responsible for the cadastre who may, where necessary, correct the original and the copy and certify the correction.

Registration of an address in the land register is valid for a period of thirty years; it may be renewed. Registration of an address in the register of personal and movable real rights is valid for as long as the publication of the right to which it relates subsists.

Applications for the registration of an address require no certification.

The person may also, by means of a notice, require the registrar to enter in the register an omitted reference to the registration number of the address.

However, the immovable need not be described in a notice to change the address or name of a person that is registered in the register.

The Government may also determine the standards and criteria which allow the particulars identifying a movable to be specified, the categories and abbreviations which may be used in the description of a movable and the manner of opening, keeping and closing files.

The Government may also determine the form, medium and content of any register or file kept by a registrar, the system for keeping applications, the method of numbering the land files of immovables, the manner of making various entries in the registers. It also fixes the business days and business hours of the registry offices, the procedure for examining registers and the rules governing the issuance of statements or certificates.

Immatriculation is completed by the identification of the owner, an indication of the mode of acquisition, the registration number of the title and, where applicable, the correspondence between the old and new cadastral numbers, or between the serial number of the file for the immovable and the new cadastral number.

In the case of discrepancy between the boundaries, measurements and area shown on the plan and those mentioned in the documents presented, those on the plan are presumed accurate.

The cadastral plan, if transmitted in paper form and not converted to electronic form, is kept in the registry office for the registration division in which the immovables represented on the plan are situated.

The opening of land files shall be made in the order of receipt of cadastral plans, with all possible diligence.

If the publication is not renewed, the rights recorded by the initial registration have no effect with respect to other creditors or subsequent purchasers whose rights are duly published.

No declaration of co-ownership or of co-emphyteusis may be registered unless a cadastral plan of the immovable has been made, and contains the immatriculation of the private and common portions.

However, connections between a network and the immovables served by it are not shown on the cadastral plan.

Where the right which is to be published pertains to an immovable composed of several whole lots, each lot shall be individually described.

Failing such description, the application for registration of a right shall be refused, unless a notice containing the description of the immovable is presented, with the act itself or an extract or summary thereof, in accordance with the rules established in this Book.

The cadastral notice for registration of the right shall be made in the manner prescribed in the regulations made under this Book.

After the file is opened, any person who drafts an act which shall or may be published is bound to describe the immovable to which the file applies by the number assigned to it, and to indicate that the immovable corresponds, wholly or in part, to the immovable for which the file was opened. If this indication does not appear in the application, the registration shall be refused.

No application for the opening of a file is necessary, if the application in respect of the immovable, network or right does not pertain to any real right established by agreement or to any agreement relating to a real right; however, until a land file is opened, registration may only be effected in the index of names.

A land file identified by a serial number cannot be opened in respect of a real right of State resource development unless the right is declared by law to be property separate from the land in which it is held.

The description of a part of lot as the remainder after separation of other parts of the lot, or by reference to the names of the owners of its adjoining properties, is not admissible.

(1)   if the network is immatriculated, the cadastral number assigned to it;

(2)   if the network is not immatriculated, the description of the cadastres traversed by it or, in territory without a cadastral survey, a description sufficient to identify it, unless a land file has been opened for the network.

In an application for the opening of a land file for a network which is not immatriculated, a description shall be given of the cadastres or territory served by it.

The assignment of an immatriculation number includes the description of the immovables on which the real right of State resource development is exercised, in order that the relevant correspondences be entered in the land register.

The number of the land files of the immovables on which the right is exercised shall be included in the application for the opening of the land file of that right, so that the relevant correspondences may be entered in the land register, either in the index of immovables or in the register of public service networks and immovables situated in territory without a cadastral survey; the right is enforceable against third persons only from the time the relevant correspondences are entered in the register.

No transfer under the Expropriation Act nor cession of the required part of the lot may be registered before the plan comes into force.

The first paragraph also applies to municipalities authorized by law to appropriate, without formality or indemnity, a right of superficies above, on or under an immovable, for public use.

The acceptance by the minister of a plan the purpose of which is to amend, by parcelling, the plan of a lot the ownership of which has been acquired by a person otherwise than by agreement compensates for the absence of the signature of any other person having rights in the lot represented on the plan.

The minister may also, in case of error, correct a plan or change the number of a lot, supply any omitted number or strike out or replace the existing numbering. He shall in such a case notify the amendment to the owner registered in the land register and any person having caused his address to be registered. Such notification includes reasons and is accompanied with extracts from the old and the new cadastral plans.

Upon the dividing up of a lot, the parts resulting therefrom shall be immatriculated simultaneously.

The consent is given by notarial act en minute, and shall be registered and transmitted, with a certified statement of registration, to the minister responsible for the cadastre.

When opening a land file required by a cadastral renumbering, the registrar establishes, where applicable, according to what is shown on the plan, the correspondence between the old lot number or the old serial number of the land file and the new lot number.

(1)   a separate cadastral number to the acquired part and to the remainder; or

(2)   a separate cadastral number, where the acquired part is amalgamated with a contiguous lot, to the immovable resulting from the amalgamation and to the immovable resulting from the partition.

The order is published in the Gazette officielle du Québec; it comes into force on such date after its publication as is fixed therein.

On receipt of the document, the minister prepares the amendment providing a separate cadastral number for each part of a lot resulting from the alienation.

To cancel a registration in the land register, the entry is made in the register of mentions.

Cancellation is voluntary or, failing that, judicial; it may also be legal.

Nevertheless, the registration in the land register of a hypothec or of a restriction to the right to dispose of property, or of any other right with a fixed term, which has expired because the date after which it ceases to be effective has arrived, or the registration of a hypothec which is extinguished because the time prescribed by law has elapsed, may be cancelled on presentation of an application made by any interested person ; the registration in the register of personal and movable real rights of a hypothec, or of such a restriction or right which, according to the register, has expired, or the registration of an address that no longer has effect, may be cancelled by the registrar on his own initiative. The cancellation of a registration in the register of personal and movable real rights must give reasons and be dated.

The registration of the legal hypothec of a syndicate of co-owners on a fraction of the co-ownership is cancelled, on the application of any interested person, upon the expiry of three years after its date, unless an action has previously been brought and published.

However, where an action has been brought and published, cancellation is obtained by registering the judgment dismissing the action or ordering the cancellation, or by filing a certificate of the clerk of the court attesting that the action has been discontinued.

Except where the spouses consent to the cancellation, the application shall be accompanied with a death certificate and an attested declaration of the liquidation of the succession or a copy of the judgment or the notarized joint declaration of dissolution, as the case may be.

It may also order cancellation where the immovable against which a declaration of family residence that had been registered has ceased to be used for that purpose.

The creditor is bound to register the acquittance if he receives a sufficient amount to pay the registration fee and the costs of sending the application to the registry office; he may not claim any other amount, notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary.

The application for cancellation must refer to the act constituting the undivided co-ownership and the act terminating the undivided co-ownership with respect to the co-owner and contain the description of the co-owner and the registration number of his address in the register.

A notice of advance registration of rights arising from a will is cancelled upon the application of any interested person, if the will was not published within three years of the date of opening of the succession. The application must be accompanied with the act of death of the testator.

It is also cancelled by filing a certificate of the Minister or Deputy Minister of Revenue or of a person designated by the Minister of Revenue, stating that the hypothec is extinguished or reduced, if the hypothec was created by virtue of an Act under the administration of that Minister.

It may further be cancelled by filing a copy of an order of the Government, certified by the clerk of the Executive Council.

Where the sale is not proceeded with, registration of minutes of seizure and notices is cancelled only upon the filing of a certificate attesting to that fact issued by the clerk of the court or by the person designated to proceed with the sale.

Applications for the cancellation of a registration in the land register under this article may be in the form of a summary of the document.

Registration of the prior notice of sale for non-payment of immovable taxes is also cancelled following the production of the list of immovables that have not been sold.

The cancellation of a registration under this article may be applied for by means of a summary of the document.

In the notice, the minister shall include the description of the abandoned or revoked right and identify the land file concerned; the abandonment or revocation is entered on the land file concerned and on the land file of the immovable on which the right was exercised.

Where the abandonment or revocation concerns a right of which the situs has been immatriculated, the registrar informs the minister responsible for the cadastre so that he may, by virtue of his office, cancel the immatriculation of the right.

Provisional execution of a judgment relating to the correction, reduction or cancellation of a registration is not admissible.

The clerk of the court is bound to issue a certificate attesting that no appeal lies from the judgment or that, the time for appeal having expired, no appeal has been taken or that, on the lapse of thirty days from the date of judgment, no motion in revocation of judgment has been filed.

In no case does registration of such an order affect the rights of a third person in good faith who published his right after a cancellation made without right or following an error.

In the absence of such indication, the registrar is only required to proceed with the registration of the right.