Ontario law gives every buyer of a pre-construction condo a 10-day cooling-off period to cancel the purchase for any reason and receive a full refund of the deposit. The right comes from Section 73 of the Condominium Act, 1998, and it applies automatically to every new condo purchased directly from a builder or developer in the province. You do not have to negotiate for it, and a developer cannot make you sign it away.
The clock starts on the later of two dates: the day you receive a copy of the fully signed Agreement of Purchase and Sale, or the day you receive the developer's disclosure statement along with the required Condo Buyers' Guide. So if the disclosure package shows up three days after you sign, your 10 days run from the disclosure, not the signature.
These are calendar days, not business days. Weekends count. Sign on a Friday evening and the weekend ticks away while the sales office is closed, and holidays burn days off the clock the same way. Anyone who tells you the deadline is flexible is wrong, and the cost of being wrong here is losing the strongest legal position you will hold in the entire deal.
To exercise the right, you or your lawyer must deliver written notice of rescission to the developer or the developer's lawyer within the 10 days. Written means written. A phone call to the sales office does not count, and neither does a message passed through your real estate agent. Deliver the notice in a form you can prove, and get confirmation it was received.
Once valid notice is delivered, the developer is required to refund all money you have deposited, plus any applicable interest, without penalty or charge. Nothing gets deducted, and there is no fee for changing your mind. Your money also sits in trust in the meantime, since the Condominium Act requires deposits on new condo purchases to be held in trust rather than spent by the developer.
Pre-construction agreements are dense. Disclosure packages can run hundreds of pages, and buried inside them are the details that actually shape your ownership: projected maintenance fees, development levies, parking allocations, occupancy timelines, assignment restrictions. Most people sign in a sales centre after seeing a model suite and a floor plan, then go home with a stack of legal documents they have never read.
Ten days is a short period to review all of that, which is why most real estate lawyers recommend booking a legal review immediately after signing rather than waiting. When Advantage Group Real Estate works a pre-construction file, the lawyer review gets booked the same day the agreement is signed. The cooling-off period only protects you if you actually use it to look.
The 10-day right does not apply to resale condos, assignment sales, or any purchase made through the MLS system. Buy a five-year-old unit from its current owner and you are firm the moment your conditions are satisfied. This window belongs exclusively to new condos sold directly by a developer.
It also does not currently apply to new freehold homes. The Ontario government passed the Homeowner Protection Act, 2024, which introduces a similar 10-day right for new freehold purchases once it is proclaimed into force, but that proclamation has been delayed and is not expected before January 1, 2027. Until then, a buyer signing for a new freehold home has no equivalent statutory escape hatch, which surprises a lot of people who assume the condo rule covers everything new.
There is one more layer worth knowing. If the developer makes a material change to the disclosure statement after your initial cooling-off period has passed, you may be entitled to a second 10-day rescission window, running from the date you receive the amended disclosure. Think of changes that genuinely alter what you agreed to buy, not minor housekeeping edits.
Whether a change qualifies as material can be contested, and developers do not always agree that it does. Legal advice is essential in that scenario, because rescinding without a valid basis puts your deposit at risk instead of protecting it. This is one of those moments where a few hundred dollars of legal time protects tens of thousands in deposits.
Yes, within the 10-day cooling-off period. You do not need to give a reason, and the developer must refund all deposit money plus any applicable interest, without penalty or charge. The notice must be written and delivered to the developer or the developer's lawyer before the window closes.
No. It only applies to new condos purchased directly from a builder or developer. Resale condos, assignment sales, and purchases made through the MLS system have no cooling-off period, and new freehold homes will not have one until the Homeowner Protection Act, 2024 is proclaimed into force.
On the later of the day you receive the fully signed Agreement of Purchase and Sale or the day you receive the developer's disclosure statement together with the Condo Buyers' Guide. The days are calendar days, so weekends and holidays count toward the deadline.
Jeremy Van Caulart and Advantage Group Real Estate, operating under Royal LePage Signature Realty, treat the cooling-off period as a working deadline on every pre-construction file rather than a formality, because it is the only point in the deal where the buyer holds all the cards.
Related reading: What Is an Assignment Sale and How Does It Work in Toronto?, What Are Interim Occupancy Fees When Buying a Pre-Construction Condo in Ontario?, What Happens on Closing Day When Buying a Home in Ontario?, and What's the Difference Between Pre-Construction and Resale Condos in Toronto?.