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A notice of sale is not the end of the road and it is not a foreclosure. You still own the house, there is a defined window in which you decide what happens to it, and if there is equity in the property it is still yours to protect. Here is the actual timeline in Ontario, what each option involves, and where the equity ends up in each one.
We are REALTORS®, not lawyers, and this page is general information rather than legal advice. What the notice means for your specific mortgage, and whether your lender has followed the required procedure, are questions for a real estate or insolvency lawyer. If you do not have one, call us and we will point you to a few in Windsor. There is no charge and no obligation for that.
The deadlines below come from Ontario's Mortgages Act and are the ones most people are never told clearly. They are shorter than you would like and longer than you are usually led to believe.
Usually a missed payment, though a default can also be triggered by unpaid property taxes or a lapsed insurance policy. Under the Mortgages Act your lender cannot issue a notice of sale until you have been in default for at least 15 days. Calling the lender during this window is free and occasionally ends the whole thing, because a bank would generally rather restructure than sell.
This is the document that starts the clock properly. It sets out the amount owing, including arrears, interest, and the lender's costs, and it opens a redemption period of 35 days. It is not a court order and it is not an eviction. It is notice of what the lender intends to do once that period runs out.
The most valuable time you have. You can bring the mortgage current by paying the arrears plus costs, and the process stops. You can refinance, if a lender will take you. You can sell the house yourself and discharge the mortgage from the proceeds. Or you can do nothing, which hands the decision to the lender. This is the window where the outcome is still yours to choose.
Once the redemption period expires the lender can list and sell the property. It has a duty to obtain a proper price rather than simply enough to cover its debt, but its interest ends at being made whole. Any surplus after the mortgage, interest, legal and selling costs, and any second mortgage or lien flows back to you.
People use the two words interchangeably and they are not the same thing. In a foreclosure the lender applies to the court to take title to the property outright. If it succeeds, the house is theirs and whatever equity was in it goes with the house, even if it sells for far more than the debt. In a power of sale the lender never takes ownership. It sells the property as your mortgagee, recovers what it is owed plus interest and costs, pays out any second mortgage or lien registered on title, and the surplus comes back to you.
Power of sale is by far the more common route in Ontario, precisely because it is faster and does not require a court proceeding. That is good news in the sense that your equity survives the process. It is worth being clear-eyed about the incentive, though. Your lender is required to obtain a proper price for the property, but the moment a sale covers the debt, the interest, and the costs, the lender has no financial reason to push for more. Every dollar above that line was yours, and nobody in the transaction is being paid to chase it.
That gap is the entire practical argument for selling the house yourself while you still can. On a home near the regional average of $541,019 with a $380,000 mortgage, the difference between a sale that is merely adequate and one that is properly marketed can be tens of thousands of dollars, and all of it lands on your side of the ledger.
Pay the arrears plus the lender's costs inside the 35 days and the mortgage carries on as if nothing happened. Sometimes possible with family help, a lump sum, or by liquidating something else. The cheapest outcome by a wide margin when it is available.
A private lender or B lender may refinance around a default that a bank will not. It is more expensive money, sometimes considerably, and it works when the problem is genuinely temporary. It does not work when the payment was unaffordable to begin with, and it costs you a set of fees to find that out.
In most cases you can sell while the process is running, discharge the mortgage out of the proceeds, and keep the surplus. You control the price, the timing, and how it is marketed, and the sale reads as an ordinary listing rather than a distress sale. Where there is equity, this is usually the option that preserves the most of it.
You are not obligated to act. The lender sells, takes what it is owed, and forwards any surplus. The risk is straightforward: the lender stops caring about the price at the point its own debt is covered, and everything above that number was yours.
Notices of sale are registered on title and are public, which is why the letters and calls start arriving within days. Some of those offers are legitimate and one of them may even be reasonable. What they have in common is a price 10 to 20 per cent below market, and a pitch built on the idea that you are out of time. You are not, at least not yet. Find out what the house is worth before you answer any of them, then compare. Here is that comparison worked out in full.
Every option on this page gets easier to weigh once you know what the house is worth and how fast it would realistically sell. Tell us about it and you will have a real range with the comparable sales behind it, usually the same day. Handled discreetly, nothing to sign, and no obligation to list with us. If you would rather just talk it through first, call Cesar directly at 519-903-5117.
Thirty-five days from the date on the notice. Ontario's Mortgages Act also requires a full fifteen days of default before that notice can be served at all, so counted from the payment you missed, the runway is closer to seven weeks. Inside the thirty-five days the mortgage can still be reinstated: settle the arrears and whatever the lender has spent chasing them, and the file closes. Let the clock run out and the house goes on the market without you in the room. Spend the first day of that window on a lawyer and the second finding out what the property is worth.
No, and the difference is your money. In a power of sale the lender sells the property, takes what it is owed plus interest and costs, pays out any subsequent encumbrances, and the surplus goes to you. In a foreclosure the lender takes title to the property outright and any equity in it goes with the house. Power of sale is far more common in Ontario, and if there is equity in your home you generally want to protect it rather than let the process run its course.
In most cases yes, and it usually ends better than the alternative. Nothing changes hands until a sale actually closes, so the house remains yours to put on the market, pay the mortgage out of, and pocket the remainder. Three things come with doing it that way: you set the asking figure, you choose the closing date, and the listing looks like every other listing instead of advertising that you are under pressure. Where you stand exactly depends on your particular notice and mortgage, so have a lawyer confirm it before you commit to anything.
Only when the sale brings in more than everything standing against the property. That means the balance owing, the interest piled on top of it, whatever the lender spent on lawyers and marketing, and anything registered behind the first mortgage such as a second charge or a construction lien. What survives all of that is yours. The catch is incentive rather than law: your lender is obliged to sell for a proper price, but no one there is paid to fight for the last ten thousand dollars once the debt is covered. You are the only party in the transaction with a reason to care about that money.
The missed payments that led to it are already on your credit report and will stay there for about six years, and the mortgage default is reported as well. Curing the default within the 35-day redemption period, or selling and discharging the mortgage in full, stops further damage. It does not erase what has already been reported. A licensed credit counsellor or an insolvency trustee is the right person to map out the recovery.
Yes, immediately, and before you sign anything from anyone. We are REALTORS and not lawyers. What we can tell you is what your house is worth this week and how quickly it can realistically sell. What the notice means for your specific mortgage, whether the lender has followed the required procedure, and what your options are under the Mortgages Act are questions for a real estate or insolvency lawyer. If you do not have one, we will point you to a few in Windsor.
If you decide to sell, the realistic timelines for a fast sale in Windsor show what can and cannot be compressed, and what selling a house here takes covers costs and the current market in full. If the pressure is coming from a renewal rather than a default, the renewal math for 2026 is the place to start instead.
Whether you’re selling a waterfront estate, buying your first home, or quietly building a portfolio, start with a private call.