Québec land register fees: what consultation costs in a title search

Read first. This guide sets out the fees published by Québec's ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts, in force since April 1, 2026. It is not legal advice. Fees are indexed every year: check the schedule in force on the date of your file.

The land register does not charge for a title search; it charges for documents. Every index of immovables, every deed, every plan opened on screen is counted. The cost of a file therefore depends on its structure: how many indexes must be opened, how many deeds the search period requires you to read, and whether copies are ordered.

This guide sets out the current fee schedule, explains what makes the number of documents vary, then applies the calculation to a real file.

What you need to consult the register

The register is consulted online, and Québec.ca states that a Land Register client account is required to consult it (in French). Searches are made by lot: you need the registration division and the lot number. Éducaloi notes that the lot number can in principle be found on the government's Info-lot site (in French); for a transaction file, the certificate of location remains the reference to cross-check against.

The register lets you trace the history of transactions on a lot since its creation and consult the documents containing registered rights (in French). It is this document-by-document access that is charged.

The fee schedule in force since April 1, 2026

The amounts below come from the official summary of land register fees in force from April 1, 2026 (in French).

For the search:

Product	Unit	Fee
Consultation of a document (index of immovables, deed, cadastral plan, etc.)	Per document	$1.50
Uncertified copy	Per document	$27
Certified copy	Per document	$44
Certified statement of rights (search certificate, art. 3019 C.C.Q.)	Per statement	$17, plus $17 per copy of an application for registration included in the statement

For registration, when the file closes:

Product	Unit	Fee
Registration of a right (sale, hypothec, notice, etc.)	Per application	$145
Cancellation (acquittance, release, etc.)	Per application	$165, plus $101 per additional registration cancelled
Notice of address	Per notice or reference	$57

The distinction matters. Consulting a deed on screen costs $1.50. Ordering a copy costs 18 to 29 times more, depending on whether it is certified. In a search budget, orders carry the weight, not consultation.

In territory where the cadastre has not been renewed, paper copies of cadastral documents follow a separate schedule set by the Ministère: for example, $65.75 for an original plan with its book of reference, under the schedule in force since January 1, 2026 (in French).

The consultation fee has changed, and will keep changing

Until March 31, 2026, consulting a document cost $1. The Ministère explains that this fee had not changed since the land register was computerized in 2002, and that it rises to $1.50 per document consulted from April 1, 2026 (in French), a 50% increase.

The revision stems from the Act to implement certain provisions of the Budget Speech of March 25, 2025 (S.Q. 2025, chapter 32), cited in the notice of March 30, 2026 (in French). The same notice sets the indexation rate for the other fees at 2.05% as of April 1, 2026.

Two practical consequences:

• The consultation fee will now be indexed. According to the Ministère's notice, annual indexation of the consultation fee begins on April 1, 2027 (in French). A quote or fee template that hard-codes "$1 per document" is already wrong.
• The date matters. Two identical files, one consulted in March 2026 and the other in April, did not cost the same at the register. The schedule changes every April 1.

What drives the number of documents

The unit fee is low; it is the number of documents that separates one file from another. Five factors determine it.

1. The number of indexes. One lot, one index. But a renewed lot has an index that starts at cadastral renewal: the earlier history sits in the index of the former lot to which its concordance refers. If the renewed lot comes from several former lots, the index of each must be opened. Our guide on cadastral renewal and the former lot number (in French) walks through that path.

2. The search period. The further back the period goes, the more registrations the index retains, and the more deeds there are to open. The period is the notary's call, file by file; its effect on the number of documents is mechanical.

3. Cancelled deeds. Leaving them out saves consultations. Obtaining them anyway, for instance to check that a cancellation was regular, adds two per registration: the cancelled deed and the cancellation document.

4. Digitized sections. The index of a former lot may refer to a digitized section, an image of the old registers, which must be opened in turn.

5. The cadastral plan. The schedule lists the cadastral plan among the documents charged at the consultation fee. Checking it adds one document per lot.

A worked calculation on a real case

Take the anonymized file presented in our guide on cadastral renewal (in French): a lot in the cadastre of Québec created at renewal, whose index shows only two recent registrations (a sale and a hypothec). Its concordance refers to a former lot in a parish cadastre, whose index contains the seller's acquisition and a hypothec that was fully cancelled. Thirty-year period, cancelled deeds excluded.

Document consulted	Number	Fee	Total
Index of the renewed lot	1	$1.50	$1.50
Index of the former lot	1	$1.50	$1.50
Deeds retained: recent sale and hypothec, seller's acquisition	3	$1.50	$4.50
Consultation, at the April 2026 fee	5		$7.50

Three variations on the same file, at the same fees:

• Checking the cancellation of the old hypothec: the cancelled deed and the cancellation document, so 2 documents and $3.00 more.
• Consulting the cadastral plan of the renewed lot: 1 document, $1.50.
• Ordering a certified copy of the seller's acquisition deed: $44, nearly six times the cost of the entire consultation.

This calculation leaves out the digitized section of the former lot, which could not be obtained in this file.

What the example shows: on a renewed lot, half of the useful documents sat in the index of a lot that no longer exists. Consultation costs stay modest; what costs more is stopping at the current index and having to reopen the file later.

What consultation does not give you

Paying for consultation gives access to the document, not to its analysis. Québec.ca makes the point: reading the index of immovables is not always enough, and a rigorous analysis of the deeds is needed to know all the rights and their scope (in French).

Three limits to keep in mind:

• How current the index is. The header shows two update dates, one for rights and one for cancellations. A cancellation presented after the cancellations update date does not yet appear.
• Consultation is not a certified document. If the file requires a certified document or a certified statement of rights, that is a separate order, at the order fee.
• What is missing must be recorded. An unreadable digitized section or an index that cannot be found costs nothing at the register, but leaves a gap in the chain.

When software consults for you

NotairIA connects to the land register with your own credentials, encrypted before they are stored, and uses them only for the searches you launch. You keep paying your consultations directly to the register; NotairIA takes nothing on these transactions. The number of documents consulted follows the search period you set, and the execution log shows what was consulted, retained, set aside, and what could not be obtained.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to consult an index of immovables?

$1.50 per document since April 1, 2026, the same as for a deed or a cadastral plan. The fee will be indexed every year starting April 1, 2027.

What is the difference between consulting a deed and ordering a copy?

On-screen consultation costs $1.50 per document. An uncertified copy costs $27 and a certified copy $44, under the April 2026 schedule.

Why does a search on a renewed lot consult more documents?

Because the history before renewal is not in the current lot's index: you have to open the index of each former lot in the concordance, then the deeds it lists.

Further reading: the Québec land register, title searches in Québec and title examination.