Civil Code of Québec, 1991

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A judicial application filed before the prescriptive period expires can interrupt prescription if the demand is served on the person to be prevented from prescribing within 60 days after that expiry.

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A creditor’s demand to share in a distribution with other creditors interrupts prescription.

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Interruption does not occur if the demand is dismissed, or if the proceedings are discontinued or perempted.

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If a party’s demand is dismissed without a decision on the merits, and the prescriptive period has expired or will expire within three months, that party gets an extra three months from notification of the judgment to assert the right.

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2896. An interruption resulting from a judicial application continues until the judgment has become final or, as the case may be, until a transaction has intervened between the parties. The interruption has effect with regard to all the

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An interruption resulting from a class action benefits group members who have not asked to be excluded.

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2898. Acknowledgement of a right, as well as renunciation of the benefit of the time elapsed, interrupts prescription. 1991, c. 64, a. 2898; I.N. 2014-05-01; I.N. 2015-11-01.

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2899. A judicial application or any other act of interruption against the principal debtor or against a surety interrupts prescription with regard to both. 1991, c. 64, a. 2899; I.N. 2015-11-01.

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2900. Interruption with regard to one of the creditors or debtors of a solidary or indivisible obligation has effect with regard to the others. 1991, c. 64, a. 2900.

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An interruption affecting one joint creditor or debtor of a divisible obligation does not affect the others.

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2902. Interruption with regard to one of the coheirs of a solidary creditor or debtor of a divisible obligation has effect, with regard to the other solidary creditors or debtors, only as regards the portion of that heir. 1991, c. 64, a.

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2903. After its interruption, prescription begins to run again for the same period. 1991, c. 64, a. 2903; I.N. 2014-05-01.

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Prescription does not run against persons when it is impossible in fact for them to act for themselves or to be represented by others.

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2905. Prescription does not run against a child yet unborn. Nor does it run against a minor or a person of full age under tutorship or under a protection mandate with respect to remedies he may have against his representative or against

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Married or civil union spouses, and parental union spouses, do not prescribe against each other while the relevant relationship continues.

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An heir is exempt from prescription for claims against the succession.

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An application for leave to bring a class action suspends prescription for the group it benefits.

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Suspension of prescription for solidary and indivisible claims applies to creditors, debtors, and their heirs under the rules for interruption of prescription.

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2910. Acquisitive prescription is a means of acquiring a right of ownership, or one of its dismemberments, through the effect of possession. 1991, c. 64, a. 2910.

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Acquisitive prescription requires possession that meets the conditions in the Book on Property.

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A successor by particular title may combine possession with predecessors to complete prescription, and a successor by universal or general title continues the predecessor’s possession.

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Detention cannot be used as the basis for prescription, even if it lasts longer than the agreed term.

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2914. A precarious title may be interverted by a title originating from a third person or by an act performed by the holder which is incompatible with precarious holding. Interversion renders the possession effective for prescription, from

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Third persons may prescribe against the owner of property during dismemberment or while the property is held precariously.

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The institute and its successors by universal title or by general title must not prescribe against the substitute before the substitution opens.

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The period for acquisitive prescription is 10 years, unless law provides otherwise.

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A person who has possessed an immovable as owner for 10 years may acquire ownership only through a judicial application.

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A good-faith possessor of movable property acquires ownership after three years from the owner's dispossession.

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A subsequent acquirer needs to be in good faith only at the time of acquisition, even if effective possession starts later.

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2921. Extinctive prescription is a means of extinguishing a right owing to its non-use or of pleading a peremptory exception to an action. 1991, c. 64, a. 2921; I.N. 2014-05-01.

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The period for extinctive prescription is 10 years, unless another rule of law provides otherwise.

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Actions to enforce immovable real rights are prescribed after 10 years; an action to retain or obtain possession of an immovable may be brought only within 1 year of the disturbance or dispossession.

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A right resulting from a judgment is prescribed after 10 years if it is not exercised.

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An action to enforce a personal right or movable real right is prescribed by three years, unless another prescriptive period is set.

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If a right of action arises from progressive or delayed moral, bodily, or material injury, the period starts when the injury first appears.

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2926.1. An action for damages for bodily injury resulting from an act which could constitute a criminal offence is prescribed by 10 years from the date the person who is a victim becomes aware that the injury suffered is attributable to

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The prescriptive period for an action in nullity of contract starts when the person relying on the nullity learns of the cause, or when violence or fear ends.

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A surviving spouse must apply to have the compensatory allowance determined within one year after the spouse’s death.

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An action for defamation is prescribed one year after the defamed person learned of the defamation.

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A prior notice requirement or a shorter filing period cannot override the prescriptive period in this Book for an action seeking reparation for bodily injury caused to another.

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For a contract of successive performance, prescription runs for payments due even if the parties keep performing obligations under the contract.

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For an action to reduce a successive obligation, the prescriptive period starts when the obligation becomes due.

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A holder cannot be released by prescription from the prestation attached to detention, but the extent of that prestation and any arrears may be prescribed.

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Rights are published by registering them in the relevant register, unless another method is expressly allowed by law.

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Registration of rights in the land register is done by briefly describing the document and referring to the application.

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Any person, including a minor or a person under tutorship or a protection mandate, may request publication of a right for themself or another person.

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Any renunciation or restriction of a publishable right, and any related penal clause, has no effect.

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A publication of a right may be renewed if an interested person requests it.

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2938. The acquisition, creation, recognition, modification, transmission or extinction of an immovable real right requires publication. Renunciation of a succession, legacy, community of property, partition of the value of acquests or of

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Some rights and transfers of rights must or may be published.

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Some transfers of authority over immovables may be published, and registration is obtained by filing a notice with specified details.

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Publishing rights can make them enforceable against third persons and determine their rank; if the law provides, publication can also give them effect.

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A right’s publication is renewed by notice in the manner set out in the regulations, and the renewal keeps the right opposable at its original rank.

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A registered property right is presumed known to anyone acquiring or publishing a right in the same property.

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A land-register registration of a real right or related agreement takes effect only when the grantor’s or last holder’s title has been registered.

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2944. Registration of a right in the register of personal and movable real rights or the land register entails, as against all persons, a simple presumption of the existence of that right. 1991, c. 64, a. 2944; 2000, c. 42, s. 15; I.N.

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2945. Unless otherwise provided by law, rights rank according to the date, hour and minute entered on the memorial of presentation or, if the application concerning them is presented for registration in the land register, entered in the

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If two acquirers of an immovable take title from the same predecessor, the one who first publishes the right acquires it.

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If several registrations for the same property and the same kind of rights are filed at the same time, those rights rank concurrently.

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An immovable hypothec ranks only from registration of the grantor’s title, after the seller’s hypothec in the grantor’s act of acquisition.

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A hypothec over a universality of immovables ranks for each immovable only once it is registered against that immovable.

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A hypothec over a universality of movables ranks for each movable only when it is registered in the register, with the grantor’s name and the nature of the universality indicated.

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A hypothec on a movable that later became part of an immovable cannot be set up against third persons before registration in the land register.

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Legal hypothecs for people who took part in construction or renovation rank ahead of other published hypothecs for the increase in the immovable’s value.

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Hypothecs on movables transformed, mixed, or combined into a new movable keep priority if the hypothec is renewed against the new movable.

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A movable hypothec ranks from the time it is published, but after the seller’s hypothec if that hypothec was created in the grantor’s act of acquisition and published within 15 days after the sale.

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Registration of a notice of crystallization determines the rank of a floating hypothec.

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A cession of rank between hypothecary creditors must be published.

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2957. Publication does not interrupt prescription. 1991, c. 64, a. 2957; 2000, c. 42, s. 18.

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Certain rights published after registration of the notice of execution, and the minutes of a creditor’s seizure of an immovable, cannot be set up against that creditor if the seizure is followed by a sale under judicial authority.

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Registration of a hypothec preserves the creditor’s rank for certain interest, and registration of an annuity preserves the annuitant’s rank for certain periodic payments and arrears.

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A creditor or annuitant gets a hypothec for surplus interest due or annuity arrears only after registering a notice stating the amount claimed.

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2961. Substitution has no effect with respect to property acquired in replacement of substituted property unless the substitution is mentioned in the act of acquisition and is published. Publication of the substitution does not affect the

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Registration of certain ownership, redemption, transfer, and lease-related rights over specified movables preserves the seller’s or transferee’s rights, but those rights cannot be asserted against a third-party buyer in the ordinary course of business.

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Section 2962 is repealed.

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2963. Notice given or knowledge acquired of a right that has not been published never compensates for the absence of publication. 1991, c. 64, a. 2963; I.N. 2014-05-01.

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An interested person may raise absence of publication against any person, including minors, persons under tutorship or a protection mandate, and the State.

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An interested person may apply to the court to correct or cancel a registered entry if there is an error.

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Certain judicial applications may be registered in advance by notice.

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A person prevented, without fault, from publishing a right under a will may file a notice to advance-register the claimed right within one year after the testator’s death.

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Certain rights are deemed published from the time of advance registration if later publication happens within stated time limits.

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This section says the Land Registry Office keeps the land register, the register of mentions, and any other register required by law or regulation, and the Personal and Movable Real Rights Registry Office keeps the register of personal and movable real rights.

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Rights in immovables are to be published in the land register or land book; rights in movables and other rights are to be registered in the register of personal and movable real rights.

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Registers and other publication documents kept by the registrars are public documents.

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No one may use information from registrars’ registers or documents in a way that harms reputation or invades privacy.

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2972. The land register contains one land book for each registration division in Québec. Each land book contains an index of immovables, a register of real rights of State resource development, a register of public service networks and

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The index of immovables contains one land file for each immatriculated immovable on the cadastral plan for the registration division.

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2972.2. The register of real rights of State resource development contains one land file, opened under a serial number, for each such real right in the registration division the situs of which is not immatriculated. The register of public

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Land files for immovables, rights, or networks in territory without a cadastral survey must be opened in the manner set by regulations; in territory with a cadastral survey, this applies only where permitted by law.

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2972.4. Each land file contained in the index of immovables, the register of real rights of State resource development or the register of public service networks and immovables situated in territory without a cadastral survey lists the

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Section 2973 is repealed.

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Section 2974 is repealed.

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Section 2975 is repealed.

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2976. (Repealed). 1991, c. 64, a. 2976; 2000, c. 42, s. 25.

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Section 2977 is repealed.

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Certain owners or holders may ask the Land Registrar to consolidate multiple land files into one when the listed conditions are met.

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When an immovable that has not been immatriculated is parceled, new land files are opened.

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The register of mentions must contain, in cases prescribed by law, the mentions and entries required by law or regulation for entries linked to the land register or other registers kept by the Land Registrar.

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2980. The register of personal and movable real rights consists, with respect to personal rights, of files kept in alphabetical, alphanumerical or numerical order, under the description of the persons named in the application for

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Registration applications must include specified information about the rights and property concerned.

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If a land register application does not concern an immovable with an opened serial-number land file, it must include the name of the registration division where the immovable is located.

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Certain registration applications may state an end date for the registration’s effect; applications in the personal and movable real rights register must do so.

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A land register application is presented at the Land Registry Office on a technological medium, and the required act or notice format must be used.

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A land-register application based on a document transferred to a technological medium cannot be accepted unless the transferor’s signature is affixed under the applicable regulations, and the signatory must certify that the electronic version matches the source document and is intact.

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An application for registration is filed as a single copy in the Personal and Movable Real Rights Registry Office, and it is made by presenting a notice unless law or regulations provide otherwise.

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Applications for registration must be signed, certified, and presented as required by law, this Title, or the regulations, and they must be drawn up exclusively in French.

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A person who needs registration in the land register must file the summary and the act, extract, or other document it summarizes, for conservation and consultation.

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2986. Whatever the form of the application for registration in the register of personal and movable real rights, only those rights which are set out in the application and which shall be entered in the register are published

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A summary used for a registration application must not be used to summarize unrelated documents; one summary can be enough if the right to be published is shown in several documents.

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A notary who executes certain acts related to land register changes certifies, by signing the document, that the parties’ identity, quality and capacity have been verified and that the document reflects their will.

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A land surveyor who prepares minutes of voluntary boundary-marking operations certifies, by signing them, that the parties’ identity, quality, and capacity were verified and that the document reflects the parties’ expressed will.

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Certain officials who draw up specified public authentic acts must certify that they verified the parties’ identity when the act must be published by registration in the land register.

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A private writing used for land-register registration or removal, or for reducing an entry, must state the date and place it was drawn up and include a certificate from a notary or advocate.

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If land-register registration is required by a summary, the notary or advocate who prepares the summary must certify that it is accurate. If the notice is notarial, the notary’s signature alone is enough certification.

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A declaration must include the date made, the declarant’s name and quality, and the place where the declarant exercises functions or practises the profession, unless that information is implicit in the notary’s or land surveyor’s signature.

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If an act cannot be certified as required for land-register publication, the court may authorize publication of the rights it evidences. The registration application must include a copy of the judgment, and it is inadmissible unless the judgment is final.

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No certificate of verification is required for registration in the register of personal and movable real rights. For certain land-register registrations, signed documents with two witnesses may replace verification, except for listed notices.

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Boundary-marking minutes must state that the property boundaries match the cadastre lots; otherwise land-register registration is refused until specified amendment steps are recorded.

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If an Act requires a plan to be deposited at the Land Registry Office, the plan is published by presenting the plan and a notice describing the immovable shown on it.

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An heir or legatee by particular title may have rights in an immovable of the succession published by registration of a declaration made by notarial act en minute. For movable property, registration is allowed only for certain hypothecary-claim, restriction, or advance-registration cases.

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2999. The declaration sets forth the name and last domiciliary address, the date and place of death, the nationality and civil status, and the matrimonial or civil union regime, if any, of the deceased. It also sets forth whether the

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Registration of certain lease rights may be obtained by giving a notice to the Land Registrar, and the notice must include specified lease and property details.

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To register certain family-matter judgment rights in land records, a notice must be filed with the Land Registrar.

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A replacement notice for a hypothecary representative must be given to the Land Registrar by the replaced representative and the successor, unless the notice says the replacement conditions and terms have been met, in which case only the successor must give it.

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Certain notices about immovable property must be published in the land register, and a copy of the sale document cannot be issued before that publication in specified forced-sale situations.

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The person entrusted with an auction sale for non-payment of property taxes must, within 10 days after the adjudication, provide a list for each immovable sold and its acquirer and last owner, with the mode of acquisition and the last owner’s title registration number.

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An application based on a judgment for a land register correction or recognition of ownership in an immovable may be made only if the judgment is final.

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If a hypothec is transferred by subrogation or assignment, that transfer must be published in the relevant register, and a certified statement of registration must be given to the debtor in land-register cases.

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If subrogation to a hypothecary claim is acquired by operation of law, it is published by registering the act it comes from; if there is no act, it is published by filing a notice stating the causes of the subrogation.

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To register the assignment of two or more claims in the land register, separate applications must be filed for each claim unless the claims relate to the same immovable or the same debtor.

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For a business corporation dissolved by its sole shareholder, registration of the transmission of claims is obtained by filing a notice that states the dissolution, the transmission of rights to the shareholder, and refers to the certificate of dissolution.

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A certified summary may include certain cadastral or coordinate details about an immovable, and it may also include municipality or registration-division information and legally required transfer declarations.

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If an application must be accompanied by other documents, any non-French documents must also include a translation authenticated in Québec.

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The Land Registrar must record applications in the book of presentation and make the required register entries in order of presentation.

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The Registrar must receive applications, give the presenter a memorial showing the exact time of presentation and identifying particulars, and then make the required register entries promptly and in presentation order.

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The registrar must check that an application for a register entry includes the required particulars, meets the legal and regulatory requirements, and, if applicable, includes the accompanying documents.

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Certain certifications create presumptions that parties’ identity and capacity have been verified, and that a document summary is accurate, for land register registration applications.

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If an application is inadmissible or has inaccuracies or irregularities, the registrar must not enter it in the registers and must inform the applicant why registration was refused.

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On written request, the Land Registrar must redact certain names and impairment-related details from an application or accompanying documents, but not the name of a creditor, debtor, or other right holder subject to the application, or other particulars required for publication.

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The registrar must send the applicant a certified statement of the register entry made on the basis of the application.

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Applications are treated as presented when the registry office receives them.

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Section 3013 is repealed.

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Before registering certain claim-related acts, the registrar must check the registration number of the title of indebtedness, if one exists, and refuse registration if the number is inaccurate.

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3014.1. Upon registration in the land register of a hypothec on a claim secured by an immovable hypothec, a mention of the hypothec, together with its registration number, is entered in the register of mentions. 2000, c. 42, s. 50.

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If a registered right holder or grantor changes name, the registrar must update the register and link the old and new names; certain notices must include specified documents and details.

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The registrar must correct certain clerical errors or omissions in registers and related documents, and must record the date, hour, and minute of each correction or entry.

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The registrar must notify certain people and public bodies when specified property enforcement steps or tax-related sale notices occur.

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The registrar may not use the registers or documents for purposes other than prescribed purposes and publication-related functions, and searches by a person’s name are generally not permitted except for stated cases.

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The registrar must issue certified statements or copies on request, and the statement must show the last update time; if issued by the Land Registrar, it must also refer to the application.

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The registrar is not liable for injury resulting from information furnished due to an error not caused by the registrar’s own act or omission in identifying a person or describing property.

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Registrars must keep and protect register documents and entries, and they may not dispose of them or correct cadastral plans except in the limited case stated.

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The Land Registrar must keep all registers and documents in paper form for archival purposes, including items reproduced on a technological medium under a ministerial order.

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Certain creditors, right holders, spouses, and other interested persons may ask to have an address registered so they can receive registrar notices; they cannot demand registration for a right published in the land register’s index of names.

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A person for whose benefit an address has been registered may give notice to the registrar to change the address, the person’s name, or the address registration number reference, and may also ask the registrar to enter an omitted registration-number reference.

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For applications under this chapter, an immovable can be identified by its lot number in the cadastre or by the number of the land file under a serial number. It does not need to be described in a notice to change a registered person’s address or name.

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The Government may make regulations for implementing this Book and set registration, registry, and filing standards and procedures.

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The Land Registrar may change registry office business hours or temporarily close the office when circumstances require it.

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This section defines what immatriculation of an immovable consists in, and what completes it.

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The cadastral plan must be drawn up according to law, is part of the land register, and is presumed accurate.

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A cadastral plan takes effect when the land file is opened in the land register.

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