The requisition date is the deadline written into an Ontario agreement of purchase and sale by which the buyer’s lawyer must deliver every title objection in writing. Miss it, and the buyer is generally taken to have accepted title exactly as they found it.
A requisition itself is “a formal written notice from the buyer’s lawyer to the seller’s lawyer, raised after the buyer’s lawyer has searched title to the property” — typically set “several business days before closing”. The agreement sets the date: “the agreement sets a date by which the buyer must complete searches and deliver requisitions in writing”, and the point of the deadline is to give the seller “a fixed moment after which they know exactly what they have to fix”. On the seller’s side, the obligation is symmetrical: the seller “must respond to requisitions raised on time and must clear those that your agreement requires you to clear — also before closing”.
The date matters because of what happens once it passes: “after it passes you are generally taken to have accepted the state of the title as you found it, and the objections you did not raise are gone”. A narrow exception survives for defects that go to the fundamental conveyance itself, but the same source is candid that this is “a difficult argument and an expensive one to run”. The practical lesson for an agent is timing discipline — “the date is usually set to leave working time before closing, but agreements get signed with short requisition periods more often than they should”, and short requisition windows compress the buyer’s own runway for financing and inspection follow-ups, not just their lawyer’s search time.
A listing agent knows the semi-detached house has an old open building permit from a deck built years ago. The agreement of purchase and sale sets a requisition date ten business days after acceptance. The buyer’s lawyer’s title search turns up the open permit and delivers a written requisition before the deadline, asking the seller either to close the permit or agree to a holdback at closing. Because the objection arrived on time, the seller’s lawyer is on the hook to respond and clear it. Had the buyer’s lawyer missed the date, the buyer would have no contractual footing left to insist on it — which is exactly why an agent who knows about a title wrinkle should flag it to both lawyers early, not wait for the search to find it.
See also: the statement of adjustments, time is of the essence and condition precedent.
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