{"id":8612,"date":"2024-11-26T22:22:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T22:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/quebecs-legal-battle-between-cnq-and-title-insurers-leaves-brokers-and-homeowners-in-limbo-ahead-of-mortgage-renewal-wave\/"},"modified":"2024-11-26T22:22:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T22:22:52","slug":"quebecs-legal-battle-between-cnq-and-title-insurers-leaves-brokers-and-homeowners-in-limbo-ahead-of-mortgage-renewal-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=8612","title":{"rendered":"Quebec\u2019s legal battle between CNQ and title insurers leaves brokers and homeowners in limbo ahead of mortgage renewal wave"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last year, the province\u2019s notary regulator\u2014la Chambre des notaires du Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>, or CNQ\u2014sparked confusion by claiming that residents are legally restricted from engaging with the country\u2019s two private title insurance providers, First Canadian Title (FCT) and Fidelity National Financial (FNF). <\/p>\n

\n
\"Michael
Michael LeBlanc, President and CEO of FCT<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The companies launched litigation<\/a> last February in response, but the legal dispute remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

According to FCT president and chief executive officer Michael LeBlanc, the recent filing was just the latest in a decade-long legal battle between the title insurers and the provincial regulator, but the stakes are higher this time around. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next 16 months, there\u2019s going to be a lot of people who want to renew their mortgage, and renewal is usually a time when our services are engaged, because in many cases, the consumer will be financed with a different institution for a better rate,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Though FCT and FNF continue to offer their services in the province, the uncertainty around their legal status may drive more Quebecers to work with a CNQ-registered notary, which LeBlanc says typically takes longer and costs more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve heard in the marketplace since they\u2019ve taken this position is they\u2019ll charge up to $2,500 or more dollars to do a transaction that we used to do for $900,\u201d LeBlanc says. \u201cIt takes somewhere around five to 10 days for us to do a transaction, and now people are waiting two, three, four weeks to get something done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest in an ongoing battle<\/h2>\n

This is not the first time the country\u2019s private title insurance providers have gone head-to-head with regulators in the province. In 2010, the CNQ accused FCT, which has provided title insurance to Canadians from coast-to-coast since 1991\u2014along with FNF\u2014of providing legal services without abiding by provincial requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premise of the action was that the services that we provided in respect to the completion of the transaction\u2014the issuance of a title insurance policy\u2014amounted to the practice of law, and that the services were restricted to notaries,\u201d says LeBlanc, who has been granted permission to also speak on FNF\u2019s behalf. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe litigation went on for some years, but in the late teens the Superior Court of Quebec determined that their position was not correct and that we were not practising law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The CNQ appealed the decision, but the matter was dropped when the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case<\/a> in 2018. LeBlanc assumed that would be the end of the dispute, but in October of 2023 Quebec lawmakers passed Bill 34<\/a>, intended to modernize the province\u2019s real estate industry by allowing notaries to offer legal services on digital platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CNQ determined that those legislative changes gave them the ability to argue that our services were not in concert with the new legislation,\u201d LeBlanc says. \u201cThey actually took a position that providing those title insurance refinancing services in the province of Quebec was illegal, and they indicated to notaries that they were not to work with the title insurers to support the title insured refinance transactions going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

When reached for comment, a CNQ spokesperson declined to provide a statement while the case is under judicial consideration.<\/p>\n

In a joint press release<\/a>, FCT and FNF accused CNQ of \u201cclearly overstepping and misinterpreting the law to extend the monopoly of notaries over the clerical services we provide,\u201d suggesting that they had no choice but to launch a legal action to defend their position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not generated by virtue of any concern over the quality or the service itself,\u201d LeBlanc says. \u201cIf you go back and read the earlier decision, the court determined that their actions were really about self-preservation rather than the protection of the public, which is what their mandate is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where that leaves brokers, lenders and consumers\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Nearly a year after the legal action was filed, LeBlanc says a court date is yet to be set, and the case is likely to take several more months to resolve. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel very confident in respect to the outcome of the decision, but now we\u2019re in that litigation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

LeBlanc emphasizes that the latest legal battle\u2014and those that came before it\u2014have not prevented FCT and FNF from providing their services in Quebec, though it has limited the number of notaries that will engage with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are notaries that are still prepared to work with us, we have been able to continue to offer the title insurance refinance transaction to consumers, but obviously the volumes have been impacted,\u201d he says, adding that there is no risk to brokers, lenders, or consumers. \u201cAt the end of the day, if there\u2019s an issue, it\u2019s not with the broker, it\u2019s not with the consumer, it\u2019s not with the lender; it\u2019s with FCT and FNF, and that\u2019s for the courts to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CNQ FCT FNF la Chambre des notaires du Qu\u00e9bec legal dispute litigation Michael LeBlanc Quebec title insurance title insurers<\/p>\n

Last modified: November 26, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Last year, the province\u2019s notary regulator\u2014la Chambre des notaires du Qu\u00e9bec, or CNQ\u2014sparked confusion by claiming that residents are legally restricted from engaging with the country\u2019s two private title insurance providers, First Canadian Title (FCT) and Fidelity National Financial (FNF). Michael LeBlanc, President and CEO of FCT The companies launched litigation last February in response,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[114,3038,763,3039,1011,3041,3042,638,3043,417,3037,336,3040,559],"class_list":{"0":"post-8612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mortgage","8":"tag-ahead","9":"tag-battle","10":"tag-brokers","11":"tag-cnq","12":"tag-homeowners","13":"tag-insurers","14":"tag-leaves","15":"tag-legal","16":"tag-limbo","17":"tag-mortgage","18":"tag-quebecs","19":"tag-renewal","20":"tag-title","21":"tag-wave"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}