Exclusion of the legal warranty of quality: impacts on the subsequent buyers of an immovable

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August 22, 2018 Real Estate and Construction

Florence Lane Bossé, articling law student

This post, published on Éditions Yvon Blais’ blog on latent defects on August 2, 2018 (FR), discusses the judgment in Compagnie d’assurances ING du Canada v. Gervais  (Full Text | Fiche Quantum), in which the Court of Quebec reiterated the rule that a subsequent buyer has a direct recourse against a previous seller of an immovable.

However, this decision reminds us that a subsequent acquirer will have the burden of proving that all the necessary conditions for the legal warranty of quality to apply (namely that the defect (i) existed at the time of the sale, and (ii) was unknown to the buyer, (iii) serious, and (iv) latent) were met upon all of the sales of the immovable in question, from the sale to said subsequent acquirer to the sale to the previous seller in question.

Therefore, a sale with an exclusion of warranty will preclude a subsequent buyer from suing any previous sellers who sold the property before it was sold with an exclusion of warranty, even if said previous sellers sold it with the legal warranty.

This bulletin provides general comments on recent developments in the law. It does not constitute and should not viewed as legal advice. No legal action should be taken on the basis of the information contained herein.

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