Property disclosure in Ontario: what sellers must tell buyers

In Ontario a seller must disclose latent defects, the hidden problems that make a home dangerous or unfit to live in. Anything a buyer or their inspector could reasonably find needs no disclosure. The property information statement is optional, carries no warranty, and every buyer must be told it exists.

In Ontario the duty is narrower than most people expect. A seller has to disclose a latent defect, which is a problem serious enough to make the home dangerous or unfit to live in and that a buyer would not find on a reasonable inspection. Anything a buyer or their inspector could reasonably find is a patent defect, and there is no duty to disclose it at all.

That single distinction decides most disclosure arguments, and it is worth understanding before you sign a listing agreement or an offer.

What does a seller have to disclose in Ontario?

Latent defects. The Real Estate Council of Ontario, the provincial regulator, defines a latent defect as one "that would make a property unfit for habitation, dangerous, or potentially dangerous, and is generally not apparent to someone exercising reasonable care in the inspection of the property."

Read that definition closely, because it has two halves and both have to be true. The problem has to be serious, in the sense of habitability or safety. It also has to be hidden from someone taking reasonable care. A defect that is serious but plainly visible is not a latent defect, and neither is a hidden flaw that is merely annoying.

In practice the ones that come up are the problems sitting behind something: a structural issue behind a finished basement wall, a water supply that is not safe to drink, a failed septic system. If you know about something in that category, it gets disclosed.

What is a patent defect, and why does it matter so much?

A patent defect is one "that can be detected by a potential home buyer or their home inspector by reasonable observation and inquiry", in RECO's words on the same page. There is no obligation to disclose one. RECO puts it plainly: it is a case of buyer beware, and the buyer is expected to do their own inspections and due diligence.

This is the part that surprises sellers who assume they have to volunteer everything, and buyers who assume silence means there is nothing to find. Neither is right. The law puts the visible problems on the buyer to find and the hidden dangerous ones on the seller to declare.

There is one exception and it is the one that produces litigation. RECO states that the buyer beware protection is lost if the seller attempts to conceal the defect. Painting over a stain, boxing in a crack or hiding a problem behind a new finish takes a defect the buyer was supposed to find and turns it into the seller's problem.

Do I have to fill out a property information statement?

No law makes you complete one, and RECO frames it as something your agent may ask you to do rather than a step in the transaction. Its guidance for sellers tells you to be clear with your agent about how the document would be used, and to talk through the pros and cons before preparing one.

There is one consequence worth knowing before you decide. RECO is explicit that if you give your agent an information statement, the agent has to disclose that fact to every interested buyer. It is not a document you can produce for one buyer and set aside for the next.

The form itself is the Ontario Real Estate Association's Seller Property Information Statement, form 220. It puts responsibility for the accuracy of every answer on the seller, states that the brokerage is not responsible for the accuracy of anything in it, and says the statement is not a warranty even when it is attached to the agreement of purchase and sale. It also tells buyers in writing that they must still make their own enquiries.

So the document does not transfer risk to your brokerage and it does not relieve a buyer of their own homework. What it does is create a written record of what you said, which cuts both ways depending on how carefully you answered.

Does a death, a crime or a former grow operation have to be disclosed?

RECO calls these stigmas, and defines one as "a non-physical, intangible attribute of a property that may elicit a psychological or emotional response" from a buyer. The examples it gives are a property used in ongoing criminal activity, a death that occurred at the property, previous ownership by a notorious person, reports of paranormal activity, and a remediated former marijuana grow operation.

RECO's position is that stigmas are not explicitly addressed in the legislation. There is no specific legal requirement to disclose one, and nothing in the legislation prohibits disclosing one either. That leaves it as a decision the seller makes with legal advice rather than a rule anybody can look up.

What RECO tells agents to do is more useful than the legal position. Where a seller has a stigma to consider, the agent should raise it, tell them to get legal advice on whether it should be disclosed, and take written instructions. Where a buyer is sensitive to something, the agent should ask directly and research it, because a stigma nobody asks about is unlikely to be volunteered.

What does your agent have to do?

More than pass along what you told them. RECO's guidance on material facts sets out four steps: take reasonable steps to determine the material facts, disclose them to the client promptly, advise the client on what disclosing them would mean, and make best efforts to get a written acknowledgement that the advice was received.

The bulletin is direct about the first step. Accepting a seller's verbal statement does not satisfy the requirement to take reasonable steps. Verification and documentation do.

A material fact is also not a fixed list. RECO describes it as depending on the client, since what matters to one buyer may not factor into another's decision at all. Condition, the type of infrastructure, zoning restrictions, a history of damage and what sits nearby are the ones it names as common.

Where a seller does have a legal obligation to disclose something, the seller's agent has to disclose it to every interested buyer, obtain a written acknowledgement from each of them, and give them a copy.

If you are selling

Sit down with your agent early and sort what you know into the two categories. The hidden, dangerous things get disclosed. The visible things do not have to be, and disclosing them anyway is a choice rather than an obligation.

Get legal advice before answering anything you are genuinely unsure about, and never guess on a form. An answer that turns out to be wrong is worse than no answer, because the wrong answer is in writing.

If you are working out what a sale actually leaves you with, our net proceeds calculator does that arithmetic, and our selling page covers the rest of the process.

If you are buying

Book the inspection. The whole patent defect rule is built on the assumption that you did, and skipping it does not shift anything onto the seller.

Ask directly about the things that would change your mind. That applies to stigmas especially, since there is no obligation to raise one unprompted, and it applies to anything specific to how you plan to use the property.

If a property information statement exists, read it as a record of what the seller said rather than a guarantee. The form says so itself.

This is general information about how disclosure works in Ontario, current as of August 2026, and it is not legal advice. A specific situation is worth an hour with a real estate lawyer before you sign anything.