If you are reading this because you have missed mortgage payments, the most useful thing I can tell you first is that the process is slower than it feels, and that you often have more time than the letters suggest.
That is not reassurance for its own sake. It is a factual point about how the timeline works in Ontario, and knowing it changes what you are able to do.
The timeline
Ontario lenders enforce mortgages mainly through power of sale, under the Mortgages Act. It is not the same thing as foreclosure, and the difference matters: in a power of sale the lender sells the property but never takes ownership of it. Foreclosure — where the lender takes title outright — is a separate, court-supervised process and it is comparatively rare here.
The statutory sequence looks roughly like this:
Default. You miss payments, or otherwise breach the mortgage terms.
Fifteen days. The lender generally cannot issue a Notice of Sale until the default has continued for at least fifteen days.
In practice, it depends on who holds your mortgage. Major banks usually spend the first month or two sending letters and making calls before starting the formal process. Private and non-traditional lenders often move much sooner, sometimes right at the fifteen-day mark. Neither is a guarantee. The law allows the faster route, so treat the fifteen days as the real deadline, not the bank's usual habits.
The Notice of Sale. A formal document stating the amount in arrears and what must be paid to bring the mortgage back into good standing. Receiving one is serious. It is not the sale.
Thirty-five days, usually more. The sale generally cannot proceed for at least thirty-five days after the notice is given — forty in some circumstances, including where the property is owner-occupied and the notice was sent by mail. This window is commonly called the redemption period.
Listing and sale. Only after that does the lender list the property, and then it has to actually sell — which takes as long as selling a house takes.
Add it up and the realistic distance between a first missed payment and a completed sale is usually months, not weeks. During the redemption period the Act also restricts the lender from pursuing other remedies without court approval.
I am not telling you this so you will relax. I am telling you because people in this situation often believe they have days, freeze, and lose the window in which their options are widest. Your options are best at the beginning and they narrow steadily. What you do in the first two weeks matters more than what you do in the last two.
What you can generally do
Five things. Which of them are actually open to you depends on facts I do not know — your equity, your income, your lender, and how far along this has gone.
1. Bring the arrears current. The right to redeem — to pay what is owed plus the lender's costs and bring the mortgage back into good standing — continues through the redemption period. If the shortfall is bridgeable from savings, family, or a lump sum you have coming, this is the cleanest outcome. Note that the number is not just the missed payments; it includes the legal and administrative costs the lender has incurred, and those grow the longer this runs.
2. Negotiate with your lender. Lenders do not want your house. Realizing on a property is slow, expensive, and generates complaints. Many will consider a repayment arrangement that spreads the arrears across future payments, a temporary interest-only period, or a term extension. This is a genuine option and it is underused, largely because people in arrears stop opening the mail and stop answering the phone. Call them before they call you. Ask specifically what arrangements they can offer.
3. Refinance. Replacing the existing mortgage with a new one, sometimes with a different type of lender, pays out the arrears and resets the clock. Whether it is available depends on equity and on how far the default has progressed — and refinancing while a notice is outstanding is harder and more expensive than refinancing before one is issued. Which is the argument for moving early. Speak to a mortgage broker who handles these files rather than only your existing lender.
4. Sell it yourself. If the arrears are not bridgeable and refinancing is not available, selling on your own terms is usually the option that protects the most. You control the listing, the price, the timing, and the presentation. You are selling a house rather than having a lender sell a distressed asset. And the surplus — whatever remains after the mortgage, the costs, and any subsequent encumbrances are paid — belongs to you.
That last point is worth stating plainly because a lot of people assume that once a power of sale starts they walk away with nothing. That is not how it works. The lender is entitled to what it is owed plus its costs, and no more. If there is equity, it is yours. Selling before the process runs its course generally preserves more of it, because it avoids the accumulating legal costs and it avoids selling into the "as is, where is" discount that lender-run sales attract.
5. Insolvency advice. If the mortgage is one problem among several, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee can explain options a REALTOR cannot — consumer proposals and bankruptcy among them. This is specialist territory and it is free to have the first conversation. If your debts are broader than this house, start there rather than here.
What I can and cannot do
I am a real estate broker. I can tell you what your property is realistically worth today, what a sale would likely net after costs, and how long it would take. I can list and sell it if that is the road you choose. I can point you to a real estate lawyer, a mortgage broker, or a Licensed Insolvency Trustee, and I would rather send you to the right one early than be the only person you talk to.
I cannot give legal advice, negotiate with your lender on your behalf, or tell you that a power of sale can be stopped. Whether it can depends on facts and on your lender, and anyone who promises otherwise before knowing your situation is not being straight with you.
What a conversation with me costs is nothing, and it commits you to nothing. It is not shared with your lender. If the answer is that you should be talking to a lawyer or a trustee instead, I will tell you that and you will have lost half an hour.
The one thing worth doing tonight
Open the letters. All of them, including the ones you have been avoiding. Find the date on the most recent one and the number it is asking for.
You cannot evaluate any of the five options without those two facts, and almost everybody in this situation is working from a worst-case guess rather than the actual figures. The real numbers are frequently better than the imagined ones. When they are not, at least you know what you are dealing with, and you can start making decisions instead of bracing.
The full timeline and all five options, laid out step by step → Facing a Power of Sale
Or call or text me directly at 647-584-7782. Nothing you tell me goes to your lender.
This is general information about the Ontario process, not legal or financial advice, and not a description of your particular mortgage. Timelines and rights depend on your mortgage documents and your circumstances. Speak to a real estate lawyer about your specific situation.
Carmine Cupelli, Broker, SRS, CLHM, ABR, SRES, RENE — RE/MAX Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd., Brokerage · 647-584-7782
