Guides & articles
Neighbourhood notes, buying explainers, cost breakdowns, market context and homeowner guidance.
Your property tax bill is your MPAC assessed value multiplied by two rates. The part that confuses everyone is the assessed value: Ontario's province-wide reassessment has been postponed for years, so assessments for the 2026 tax year are still based on 1 January 2016 values. What that means, what to do if the figure looks wrong, and what else is on the bill.
Zoning decides what a property may be used for and what may be built on it — and in Ottawa there is a complication most people have not caught up with: two zoning by-laws are in effect at once, and the most restrictive provision of the two applies. How to check what your property is zoned, what the codes control, and what to do when your plan does not comply.
Three different moves get called relocating to Ottawa, and they have almost nothing in common. Arriving from another province means learning Ontario's closing costs. Moving across the river to Gatineau means changing province — a different tax, a notary instead of a lawyer, and a different everything else. And moving within the region is really a commute decision.
Ottawa is mostly rural by area, and a country property replaces three things you never think about in the city: the water comes from your well, the waste goes into your septic system, and the road may belong to you and your neighbours. What to check before offering, who regulates what, and the free water testing most owners never use.
An in-law suite, a granny flat, a garden suite, a basement apartment — an Ottawa lot with a principal dwelling may have up to two additional dwelling units, three in total, but how many you actually get depends on your servicing rather than your ambition. What makes a legal basement apartment, why a septic system caps you at one, and why converting an existing basement still needs a permit.
Ontario is a buyer-beware province, with one large exception that decides most disputes. A seller need not disclose a patent defect a buyer could see, but must disclose a known latent defect that makes the home dangerous or unfit — and concealing anything removes the protection entirely. Where unpermitted work sits, and how to sell a house honestly.
Two situations where the seller is not free to simply sell. Selling after separation or divorce, a matrimonial home cannot be sold or mortgaged without the other spouse's consent — whoever is on title. Selling an estate property, nothing closes until an estate trustee has authority, usually through probate and an estate certificate. What the law actually says, and what it means for the sale.
Between an accepted offer and the keys, a real estate lawyer does work you will never watch: searching the title, finding liens nobody mentioned, and arranging title insurance. What title insurance covers for its one-time premium, the exclusions that matter — including renovations done without permits — and why it is not a substitute for a survey.
Older Ottawa homes carry a short list of specific, findable problems: radon, knob and tube or aluminum wiring, vermiculite insulation, galvanized or lead plumbing, and a buried oil tank. None of them is a reason to walk away on its own. All of them are reasons to write a condition rather than waive one.
