Executor Selling a House in Mississauga: The 7 Steps, In Order

Before anything else, find the original will and confirm you are named as the executor. Not a copy. The original.

Ontario calls this role the Estate Trustee, which is just the formal name for executor. Same job, fancier title.

While you are at it, do the boring protective things immediately. Secure the home with new locks if anyone else has keys. Call the insurance company and tell them the home is now unoccupied, because in Ontario a home left empty for more than 30 days can be treated as vacant, and an insurer can reduce coverage or deny a claim on that basis. You may need a vacancy permit or a separate vacant home policy. Do not assume the existing policy simply carries on. Keep the utilities on. Order several copies of the death certificate, because you will be asked for one roughly a dozen times.

You cannot sign anything on behalf of the estate until the court confirms your authority. But you can and should protect the asset from day one.

This is the step people skip, and it is the one I would most like you not to skip.

You need a retrospective appraisal from a licensed appraiser, valued as of the date of death. Not the MPAC assessment. Not a number your cousin found on a real estate website. A proper written appraisal.

Two reasons.

First, the Estate Administration Tax is calculated on fair market value at the date of death. In the GTA, the gap between an MPAC assessment and actual market value can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that gap is tax.

Second, and more importantly, it protects you. The Ministry of Finance has up to four years after you file to audit an estate, and its systems now cross-reference your filing against land registry and MPAC data. If the home turns out to have been undervalued after the money has been distributed and spent, the Ministry does not chase the beneficiaries. It chases the executor, personally.

An appraisal turns your valuation from an opinion into a defensible professional document. It is the cheapest insurance in this entire process.

Order it before you clear the house, not after. The appraiser is valuing the home as it was.

Now you apply to the Superior Court of Justice for what everyone still calls probate. The official name is a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee.

If the estate is valued at $150,000 or less, you may qualify for a Small Estate Certificate instead, which is a lighter process.

You will pay the Estate Administration Tax as a deposit when you apply. In Ontario, there is no tax on the first $50,000 of estate value. Above that, it is $15 for every $1,000, which works out to roughly 1.5 per cent. I walk through the full probate process in more detail in my Ontario probate guide.

Most executors sit still while probate processes. That is months of nothing, followed by a panicked scramble.

Run the two tracks in parallel instead. While the court has your application, get the house ready.

Clear it in passes, not marathons. Photograph every room before anything moves. Invite the beneficiaries to identify sentimental items early, in writing, because this is where families actually fall apart. Set aside anything specifically named in the will. Then work through the closets, the pantry, the garage, the basement. The room-by-room clearing list inside my free Calm Moves guide is built for exactly this stage.

Handle the small repairs that quietly cost thousands at offer time. Leaky taps, scuffed walls, burnt-out bulbs, an overgrown yard.

What you should not do is start a renovation without thinking it through. Whether to fix up an estate home or sell it as is deserves its own answer, and I wrote one here: As Is or Fix It First? What Executors in Peel Should Know. Read that before you spend a dollar on the property.

Here is what surprises most executors: you can list the home and even accept an offer before the certificate arrives. What you cannot do is close.

The transfer of title requires the certificate, because the land registry will not move the property without it.

So the agreement needs a probate clause. This is a condition stating that completion of the sale is subject to the estate obtaining the Certificate of Appointment, with the ability to extend closing if the court is slow. Without it, you have promised a closing date you have no power to guarantee, and the estate can be sued for breach of contract.

Your real estate lawyer drafts this. Your real estate agent should be raising it before you ever sign a listing agreement. If an agent does not mention a probate clause, that tells you something about how many estate sales they have handled.

Your legal duty as an executor is to the beneficiaries. That means getting fair value, not getting it over with.

This is where I will be honest about my bias, because staging is what I do. A vacant estate home shows badly. Empty rooms photograph smaller, dated furniture shrinks a space, and buyers walking through a home that clearly belonged to someone elderly tend to mentally subtract renovation costs that are not actually required.

Presentation is not vanity here. It is the difference between a number the beneficiaries accept quietly and a number they question for years.

Keep utilities on through closing. Confirm your insurance actually covers a vacant home. Secure valuables off site before the lockbox goes on.

Closing day feels like the end. It is not.

Two things still need to happen.

The Estate Information Return. You must file this with the Ministry of Finance within 180 calendar days of the certificate being issued. Not 180 days from closing. From the certificate. It is a detailed breakdown of every asset, and penalties for not filing start at $1,000 and can reach twice the tax payable. Calendar this the day the certificate arrives.

The CRA clearance certificate. Before you distribute the money, get a clearance certificate confirming the estate's taxes are paid. It commonly takes several months. Distribute without it and you can be held personally liable for tax the estate still owed. This is the last trap in the process, and it catches people who thought they were done.

Also worth knowing: for tax purposes the property is treated as sold at fair market value on the date of death. Any increase in value between that date and the actual sale is a gain in the estate's hands. Your accountant will handle this, but it is another reason that Step 2 appraisal matters.