Canada & Ontario mortgage rule watch
See verified rules, programs and important dates without confusing a regulator’s role with an individual lender’s approval policy.
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Clear status labels prevent an announcement or proposal from being mistaken for a rule already in force.
Newest relevant date first
128 published items match this view. We prioritize the effective date, then the announcement or last-update date.
Many prescribed mortgage-sector records must be retained for at least five years, although the starting date varies by record. Privacy, brokerage and other legal retention requirements may also apply.
Yes. Suspicious Transaction Reports are based on reasonable grounds to suspect specified financial-crime activity, not on reaching a fixed dollar threshold, and attempted transactions can also be relevant.
Because mortgage brokers and lenders must take reasonable measures in prescribed circumstances to identify politically exposed persons, heads of international organizations and certain family members or close associates.
Mortgage-sector reporting entities have third-party determination duties for specified records and reports. They may need to understand whether the named client is acting for someone else or whether another person controls the transaction.
Because identifying the individuals who ultimately own or control an entity helps prevent anonymous companies, trusts or partnerships from hiding who is behind a mortgage transaction.
FINTRAC recordkeeping rules require mortgage-sector information records to include a person’s occupation or a sole proprietor’s principal business, and entity records must include the nature of the entity’s business.
Usually yes. The longer amortization can reduce the required payment, but CMHC applies a 20-basis-point insurance-premium surcharge to eligible 30-year insured mortgages, and slower principal repayment can increase total interest.
For a first HBP withdrawal made from 2022 through 2025, temporary relief generally delays the start of the 15-year repayment period until the fifth year after the withdrawal year.
Possibly, but not automatically. FCAC expects federally regulated institutions to consider waiving prepayment penalties when appropriate for qualifying consumers in severe financial difficulty.
The withdrawal must meet CRA’s qualifying-withdrawal conditions, including first-time-buyer status at the required time, a written agreement for a qualifying home, Canadian residency, acquisition timing and an intention to occupy the home as a…
No. Up to $50,000 is the qualifying-expenditure ceiling for an eligible renovation—not the cheque amount. The refundable credit is a percentage of eligible costs and the rate can depend on the tax year.
No. Ontario NRST exemptions and rebates have specific purchaser, spouse, immigration, occupancy, registration, documentation and deadline conditions. Expecting future status does not by itself remove tax at closing.
Generally, yes. CRA says all assignment sales of newly constructed or substantially renovated residential housing are taxable for GST/HST purposes when the agreement is entered into after May 6, 2022.
Yes. Toronto says an undeclared property can be deemed vacant, the tax forms a lien on the property and a purchaser can become responsible. Buyers and sellers should address the declaration and tax status…
No. Some units first occupied for residential purposes after November 15, 2018 are exempt from the annual rent-increase guideline, but other Residential Tenancies Act rules can still apply.
Ontario’s standard lease is required for most residential tenancies signed on or after April 30, 2018, and the landlord must give the tenant a copy within 21 days after signing.
Not always. Ontario’s first-time-homebuyer land-transfer-tax refund is capped at $4,000. It can eliminate provincial land transfer tax on a lower-priced home, but a buyer owes any amount above the refund.
An Ontario first-time-buyer refund application generally must be received within 18 months of the conveyance or disposition. The maximum provincial refund is $4,000 for qualifying transactions.
How to read this centre
Sets laws, program requirements or prudential boundaries. FSRA regulates; it does not write every lender’s underwriting policy.
Applies only when the mortgage or client fits that insured product or program. It should not be generalized to every conventional deal.
Decides its own acceptable income, property, credit and exception policy inside the applicable rules.
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