The certificate of location: obligations, 23 items and timelines.

What is a certificate of location?

A certificate of location is a technical report, accompanied by a plan, prepared by a land surveyor to describe a property's current state and situation. It sets out the lot's boundaries and boundary markers, the buildings and improvements on it, apparent or published servitudes, and any encroachments — on either side of the line. It is a snapshot of the property at a given date, not a guarantee about its future.

In Québec, the document belongs to the land surveying profession, and its content is governed by the Land Surveyors Act (RLRQ c. A-23) and the practice standard made under it (s. 9, RLRQ c. A-23, r. 10). That standard sets out 23 items, from the surveyor's mandate details to their final observations, by way of the description of the lot and the built environment.

In a real-estate transaction, the certificate feeds the notary's work directly: they cross-check its content against the chain of title to spot discrepancies — an encroachment with no explanation in the titles, a servitude missing from the report, a lot number that does not match. Buyers and lenders also rely on it to know what is actually on the ground.

Is a certificate of location mandatory?

There is no single answer. No general rule imposes a certificate of location for every transaction, and the requirement varies with the context: lenders' practice, the notary's expectations, the property's nature and history. In practice, it is generally required for a sale or a mortgage financing — the buyer wants to know the property's actual state, and the lender wants its security to rest on documented reality.

The question connects with the legal warranty: in a sale, the seller must deliver the property and warrants ownership (art. 1716 C.c.Q.), and also warrants the buyer against latent defects (art. 1726 C.c.Q.). A certificate revealing an encroachment or an undisclosed servitude can therefore raise questions beyond the document itself. But every file is different: a recent urban home does not raise the same questions as a rural lot with old boundaries.

In short: in general, plan for a recent certificate when selling or financing, but the decision is made case by case. For your specific situation, consult a notary or a land surveyor. This guide is published for information only; it is no substitute for professional advice.

The 23 items, in plain language

Section 9 of the practice standard (RLRQ c. A-23, r. 10) sets out 23 items the land surveyor's report must address. We do not reproduce the official list here — refer to the standard itself — but the items fall into four broad families.

Two families draw most of the notary's attention: servitudes and encroachments, and the final observations. That is generally where problems surface — a fence spilling onto the neighbouring lot, a shed sitting out of bounds, a servitude published at the Land Register that the report never mentions.

Conversely, a certificate with no particular observation does not end the analysis: the lot it describes must still match the one in the published titles, and nothing may have changed since the report was prepared. The certificate witnesses physical reality; the titles tell the legal reality — the meeting of the two is what counts.

Timelines and validity: order early

Preparation time varies with land surveyor availability, the region, the season and the complexity of the terrain. During busy periods — spring and early summer in particular — the wait can stretch. The healthy reflex: order the certificate as soon as the transaction takes shape, not on the eve of signing at the notary's.

On validity, there is no fixed period. The certificate describes the property's state on its preparation date; as long as nothing has changed — no building, servitude or boundary change — it can still reflect reality years later. An extension, a pool, a shed, a moved fence or a servitude published since can, however, leave it silent on part of that reality.

That is why, in practice, buyers and lenders often ask for a ‘fresh’ certificate. If yours is dated, the real question is not ‘has it expired?’, but ‘does it still describe the property as it stands today?’ — a question the notary and the land surveyor settle case by case, depending on the file.

Cross-reading with the chain of title

The certificate is never read alone. The notary cross-reads it with the chain of title reconstructed from the Land Register: each document sheds light on the other, and confronting the two is what surfaces problems.

This cross-reading is the heart of title examination: it turns two documents into a solid conclusion. Our guides on title examination and the chain of title walk through the full method, link by link.

How NotarIA analyzes the certificate of location

You upload the certificate (PDF or scan, read by self-hosted OCR). NotarIA extracts its 23 items, flags problematic observations and cross-checks everything against the property's chain of title. Every finding is cited and filed to a dated report; the notary confirms or rejects each point, then concludes.

Scope reservation: NotarIA has no direct access to the Land Register — entries come into the file through uploaded documents or manual input, and the report states this explicitly. And as always, the AI never declares a title ‘good and marketable’: the conclusion belongs to the notary.

Frequently asked questions

Go further

• Title examination in Québec, step by step
• The chain of title at the Land Register
• Title examination in NotarIA
• Glossary of Québec notarial law