Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34

• Jurisdiction: Ontario

Conveyancing and Law of Property Act

R.S.O. 1990, Chapter C.34

Consolidation Period: From March 31, 2021 to the e-Laws currency date.

Last amendment: 2020, c. 16, Sched. 3, s. 13.

CONTENTS

Interpretation

Definitions

1 (1) In this Act,

“conveyance” includes an assignment, appointment, lease, settlement, and other assurance, made by deed, on a sale, mortgage, demise, or settlement of any property or on any other dealing with or for any property, and “convey” has a meaning corresponding with that of conveyance; (“acte translatif de propriété”, “transport”, “transporter”)

“land” includes messuages, tenements, hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorporeal, and any undivided share in land; (“bien-fonds”)

“mortgage” includes a charge on property for securing money or money’s worth; (“hypothèque”)

“mortgage money” means money or money’s worth secured by a mortgage; (“créance hypothécaire”)

“mortgagee” includes a person from time to time deriving title under the original mortgagee; (“créancier hypothécaire”)

“mortgagor” includes a person from time to time deriving title under the original mortgagor or entitled to redeem a mortgage according to the original mortagor’s estate, interest or right in the mortgaged property; (“débiteur hypothécaire”)

“property” includes real and personal property, a debt, a thing in action, and any other right or interest; (“bien”)

“puffer” means a person appointed to bid on the part of the seller; (“faux enchérisseur”)

“purchaser” includes a lessee, a mortgagee and an intending purchaser, lessee or mortgagee, or other person, who, for valuable consideration, takes or deals for any property, and “purchase” has a meaning corresponding with that of purchaser; but “sale” means only a sale properly so called. (“acquéreur”, “acquisition”, “vente”) R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 1 (1).

Free and common socage, fief, seignory, etc.

(2) Despite their repeal, section 43 of The Clergy Endowments (Canada) Act, 1791 (Imperial) and sections 31 and 32 of The British North America (Trade and Lands) Act, 1822 (Imperial), as they applied in Ontario immediately before their repeal, continue in effect in Ontario. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 1 (2).

Conveyance of corporeal tenements

2 All corporeal tenements and hereditaments, as regards the conveyance of the immediate freehold thereof, lie in grant as well as in livery. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 2.

Form and operation of feoffments

3 A feoffment, otherwise than by deed, is void and no feoffment shall have any tortious operation. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 3.

Estate tail to be construed as fee simple

4 A limitation in a conveyance or will that before the 27th day of May, 1956, would have created an estate tail shall be construed as an estate in fee simple or the greatest estate that the grantor or testator had in the land. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 4.

Limitation

5 (1) In a conveyance, it is not necessary, in the limitation of an estate in fee simple, to use the word “heirs”. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 5 (1).

Idem

(2) For the purpose of such limitation, it is sufficient in a conveyance to use the words “in fee simple” or any other words sufficiently indicating the limitation intended. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 5 (2).

Effect of conveyance without words of limitation

(3) Where no words of limitation are used, the conveyance passes all the estate, right, title, interest, claim and demand that the conveying parties have in, to, or on the property conveyed, or expressed or intended so to be, or that they have power to convey in, to, or on the same. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 5 (3).

Saving

(4) Subsection (3) applies only if and as far as a contrary intention does not appear from the conveyance, and has effect subject to the terms of the conveyance and to the provisions therein contained. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 5 (4).

Operation of section

(5) This section applies only to conveyances made after the 1st day of July, 1886. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 5 (5).

Statement of consideration

6 A statement of consideration money or other consideration in the body of a conveyance is a sufficient discharge to the person paying or delivering the conveyance without any receipt being endorsed on it. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 6.

Statement as evidence for subsequent purchaser

7 A statement of consideration money or other consideration in the body of a conveyance or endorsed thereon is, in favour of a subsequent purchaser not having notice that the money or other consideration was not in fact paid or given wholly or in part, sufficient evidence of the payment or giving of the whole amount thereof. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 7.

Rights of purchaser as to execution

8 A purchaser may not require that the conveyance be executed in the purchaser’s presence or in presence of the purchaser’s solicitor but the purchaser may require that it be attested by a person appointed by the purchaser and the purchaser’s solicitor may be appointed for that purpose. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 8.

Requirement of deed for certain interests

9 A partition of land, an exchange of land, an assignment of a chattel interest in land, and a surrender in writing of land not being an interest that might by law have been created without writing, are void at law, unless made by deed. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 9.

Disposal of certain interests in land by deed

10 A contingent, an executory, and a future interest, and a possibility coupled with an interest in land, whether the object of the gift or limitation of such interest or possibility is or is not ascertained, also a right of entry, whether immediate or future, and whether vested or contingent, into or upon land, may be disposed of by deed, but no such disposition, by force only of this Act, defeats or enlarges an estate tail. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 10.

Exchange or partition, “give” or “grant”

11 An exchange or a partition of any tenements or hereditaments does not imply any condition in law, and the word “give” or the word “grant” in a conveyance does not imply any covenant in law, except so far as the word “give” or the word “grant” may, by force of any Act in force in Ontario, imply a covenant. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 11.

Application of ss. 9-11

12 Sections 9, 10 and 11 do not extend to any deed, act or thing executed or done, or to any estate, right or interest created before the 1st day of January, 1850. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 12.

Effect of grants, devises, etc., to two or more

13 (1) Where by any letters patent, assurance or will, made and executed after the 1st day of July, 1834, land has been or is granted, conveyed or devised to two or more persons, other than executors or trustees, in fee simple or for any less estate, it shall be considered that such persons took or take as tenants in common and not as joint tenants, unless an intention sufficiently appears on the face of the letters patent, assurance or will, that they are to take as joint tenants. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 13 (1).

Spouse

(2) This section applies notwithstanding that one of such persons is the spouse of another of them. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 13 (2); 1999, c. 6, s. 13 (1); 2005, c. 5, s. 13 (1).

Definition

(3) In subsection (2),

“spouse” means,

(a) a spouse as defined in section 1 of the Family Law Act, or

(b) either of two persons who live together in a conjugal relationship outside marriage. 1999, c. 6, s. 13 (2); 2005, c. 5, s. 13 (2, 3).

Section Amendments with date in force (d/m/y)

1999, c. 6, s. 13 (1, 2) - 01/03/2000

2005, c. 5, s. 13 (1-3) - 09/03/2005

Land acquired by possession by two or more

14 Where two or more persons acquire land by length of possession, they shall be considered to hold as tenants in common and not as joint tenants. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 14.

What included in conveyance

15 (1) Every conveyance of land, unless an exception is specially made therein, includes all houses, outhouses, edifices, barns, stables, yards, gardens, orchards, commons, trees, woods, underwoods, mounds, fences, hedges, ditches, ways, waters, watercourses, lights, liberties, privileges, easements, profits, commodities, emoluments, hereditaments and appurtenances whatsoever to such land belonging or in anywise appertaining, or with such land demised, held, used, occupied and enjoyed or taken or known as part or parcel thereof, and, if the conveyance purports to convey an estate in fee simple, also the reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders, yearly and other rents, issues and profits of the same land and of every part and parcel thereof, and all the estate, right, title, interest, inheritance, use, trust, property, profit, possession, claim and demand whatsoever of the grantor into, out of or upon the same land, and every part and parcel thereof, with their and every of their appurtenances. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 15 (1).

Application of section

(2) Except as to conveyances under former Acts relating to short forms of conveyances, this section applies only to conveyances made after the 1st day of July, 1886. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 15 (2).

Meaning of “mining rights”

16 Unless the contrary appears to be the intent of the instrument, where in a conveyance the “mining rights” in respect of any land are granted or reserved, the grant or reservation shall be construed to convey or reserve the ores, mines and minerals on or under the land, together with such right of access for the purpose of winning the ores, mines and minerals as is incidental to a grant of ores, mines and minerals. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.34, s. 16.

Meaning of “surface rights”

17 Unless the contrary appears to be the intent of the instrument, where in a conveyance the “surface rights” in respect of any land are granted or reserved, the grant or reservation shall be construed to convey or reserve the land therein described with the exception of the ores, mines and minerals on or under the land and such right of access for the purpose of winning the ores, mines...