Ontario moves faster than anywhere else in Canada. Your lender does not need a court hearing — once the Notice of Sale is served and 35 days pass, they can sell. The good news is that the same speed works in reverse: acting inside that window usually ends it outright.
60 seconds. We respond within 4 hours.
Hamilton's rapid appreciation over the last decade means many homeowners hold far more equity than they realize. Lower city and Mountain neighbourhoods in particular have seen values move well beyond what owners assume mid-crisis.
Once you are 15 days in default, your lender may serve a Notice of Sale Under Mortgage under the Mortgages Act. This is the document that starts everything.
The lender must wait 35 days after serving before selling. This is your entire statutory buffer, and it is also when reinstating is cheapest.
After the notice period the property can be listed and sold. The lender owes a duty to obtain fair market value, but challenging an improvident sale afterwards is a poor substitute for acting now.
The detail most Hamilton homeowners miss: during the notice period you can normally reinstate by paying the arrears plus the lender’s costs — not the full mortgage balance. That figure is usually a fraction of what people assume, and it stops the sale completely.
Power of sale explained → · Full Ontario guide → · What would you walk away with? →
A free 15-minute conversation tells you exactly where you stand and what it would cost to stop this.
Start the conversation →