The closing appointment in Ontario: what happens at your lawyer's office, step by step

Know the process · 8 min read

The short answer first. A first purchase in Ontario involves two separate events that guides often merge into one. The signing appointment, usually a day or two before the closing date, is the buyer's active part: a meeting with the lawyer, in person or virtually, to sign the transfer and the mortgage documents and to hand over the balance of the money. Closing day itself then happens between the two lawyers' offices, electronically, and mostly without the buyer in the room. Knowing which event needs you, and what it needs from you, removes most of the anxiety around both.

Before the appointment: what your lawyer has already done

By the time the appointment is booked, the file has been open for weeks. Once the deal went firm, the buyer sent the lawyer the full agreement of purchase and sale with every amendment, plus the mortgage commitment. At that early stage the lawyer also asks a question buyers are often unprepared for: how the home will be owned. The choice is joint tenants, where the survivor automatically owns the whole property, or tenants in common, where each owner's share passes under that owner's will. It is a decision to make at home, not across a desk with a pen waiting.

The lawyer then searches title and the off title records, covering property taxes, utility arrears, work orders, and liens, and sends any problems found to the seller's lawyer as written requisitions by the requisition date in the agreement. Missing that date can cost the buyer the right to insist on fixes, which is why it anchors the lawyer's calendar.

About a week or two before closing, the numbers land. The lawyer prepares the statement of adjustments, which credits the seller for items prepaid past the closing date, such as property taxes, utilities, or condo fees, and confirms the exact balance the buyer owes. That balance is the purchase price still owing, plus Ontario land transfer tax and the legal fees and disbursements, minus the mortgage money the lawyer expects to receive from the lender. In practice there is no closing without a lawyer at the centre of it: a transfer of title in Ontario is registered electronically, and the law statements on that transfer can only be made by a lawyer licensed in Ontario.

The appointment itself, step by step

1. Identity check. Bring government issued photo ID for everyone signing. The appointment cannot do its work without it, and municipal ID does not count. Send copies ahead if the office asks, and bring the originals.
2. The signing stack. Expect the transfer, the lender's mortgage documents, various statutory declarations, and a written authorization allowing the lawyer to register the documents on the buyer's behalf. The lawyer walks through the key points of each document before it is signed. This is the moment to ask questions; after closing day, the signatures are registered facts.
3. The title holding, confirmed. The joint tenants or tenants in common choice made earlier is confirmed and built into the transfer. Changing it later is a new legal step, not an edit.
4. The insurance details. Home insurance arrangements belong in the file the lawyer holds, with cover starting on the day of possession. Buyers are typically asked for their insurance details as part of the closing package the lawyer assembles.
5. The money, in the right form. The buyer delivers the closing funds: the remaining balance of the down payment plus all closing costs, as one exact amount the lawyer confirms a few days before the meeting, down to the cent. The usual forms are a certified cheque or bank draft at the appointment, or a wire where the office directs one. An ordinary personal cheque is not on that list, because the lawyer must be able to treat the funds as cleared.
6. Instructions for closing day. Before leaving, confirm how and when keys will be released, who to call if anything runs late, and where the keys will physically be picked up.

What success looks like: the buyer leaves the appointment having signed everything the lawyer needs, with the exact closing funds already in the lawyer's trust account, and knowing that their own tasks are finished. Everything after this point is procedure between offices.

Closing day after you leave: escrow, registration, keys

On the morning of closing day, the lawyer rechecks title. The lender sends the mortgage funds into the lawyer's trust account, where they are combined with the buyer's funds. The buyer's lawyer then wires the full purchase price to the seller's lawyer's trust account.

The exchange runs on escrow for a practical reason the Law Society of Ontario gives: purchase funds, keys, and some paper documents cannot travel through the electronic registration system. Both lawyers therefore sign a document registration agreement and hold the money, keys, and documents in escrow until the transfer is registered. Registration happens through Teraview, Ontario's electronic land registration system, and Ontario land transfer tax is payable at the moment the transfer registers.

That sequence is also the whole answer to the keys question. Teraview takes registrations from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time, Monday to Friday. Everything held in escrow has to be in place before the buyer's lawyer can register, so the keys follow the registration, whenever inside that window it happens. A late afternoon key handover is the system working normally, not a sign that something went wrong. Planning a move for the morning of closing day is planning against the registration window.

After completion, one more package arrives: the lawyer sends the purchaser a final report containing the seller's closing documents and copies of the documents registered on title. File it with the agreement and the statement of adjustments. It is the record of what was registered, and it is the first place to look if a question about the purchase surfaces later.

If something is not ready: extensions and the honest risks

Two failure points account for most delayed closings, and both are visible early. The first is money: a bank draft obtained for the wrong amount, or funds that cannot reach the lawyer in cleared form by the appointment. The exact figure a few days before closing exists to prevent exactly this, so a buyer whose bank needs lead time for a draft should work backwards from the appointment date, not the closing date. The second is paper: unsigned lender documents, missing ID, or an insurance arrangement that is not yet in place.

If documents or funds genuinely are not ready, the lawyers can agree in writing to extend the closing date. That agreement is the safe route. Without an agreed extension, the side that cannot close may be in breach of the agreement, which can put the deposit and damages in play. The document registration agreement does not solve that problem; it covers only the closing procedure itself, and a deal that cannot close on its scheduled date raises separate questions that the two sides' lawyers work out for that transaction.

The practical defences are unglamorous. Book the appointment as soon as the lawyer offers it rather than the day before closing. Get the draft after the exact amount is confirmed, and not before. Keep the closing week free of travel. Answer the lawyer's and lender's requests the day they arrive. Closing rewards boring, and boring is entirely within the buyer's control.

General information only, not legal advice. Closing procedures and document requirements vary by transaction, lender, and law office, so follow your own lawyer's instructions for dates, amounts, and acceptable forms of funds.

, Penny Hughes, Money Writer. Saving Desk