Inspection delays on a Promise to Purchase

In Quebec, mandatory forms are prescribed for the sale of residential real estate. The request for a Buyer's inspection is provided by a clause that our laws help define. Buyers and Sellers have to agree on, as part of the negotiating process, the number of days delay to allow the Buyer to complete the inspection and inspection report review.

Buyers should be careful when deciding on the delay to specify in an inspection condition when writing a Promise to Purchase. The delay should be long enough to allow for negotiations if repair work is identified during the inspection.

For example, if you request 7 days total in the inspection clause, the inspection is performed on day 5 and it takes 2 more days to receive the report, then, according to how the condition is written, your review time is finished. The 4 days mentioned that follow this delay are only there to provide a delay to advise the seller in writing to void the Promise to Purchase due to issue(s) discovered that may significantly reduce the value of the property.

Should a condition be identified that could potentially devalue the property, then the Buyer might want to engage a specialist to provide a deeper understanding of the problem and risk. To do so, the Seller must agree to provide an time extension to the Buyer. The Seller is not obliged to do so.

For this reason, a Buyer who has not negotiated enough time, at the outset, to investigate potential areas of concern risks the ability to understand a potential problem and the transaction may be at risk of failing. To reduce the possibility that this situation occurs, agents should be able to explain to both Sellers and the Buyers the ramifications of this clause before entering into a Promise to Purchase.