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Scarborough · Mississaugatlf@teleshlawfirm.ca
Power of sale timeline

A missed payment, in dates.

Enter the first mortgage payment you missed and your regular payment. This works out the arrears, the earliest day the lender can serve a Notice of Sale, the earliest day it can sell, and your deadline to defend if it sues, each with the section of the Mortgages Act or the rule it comes from.

The due date on your mortgage statement, not the day the bank called.
How often you pay
Accelerated bi-weekly counts as every two weeks.
What has the lender sent you
A Notice of Sale is a letter, usually by registered mail. A statement of claim is a court document with a court file number on it.

What you will get

  1. First missed payment

  2. Earliest Notice of Sale

  3. Earliest sale or claim for possession

  4. Statement of defence due

Enter the first missed payment and your regular payment.

Counted from the due date of the first missed payment, treating that day as the first day of default, which is the earliest reading and the safe one for you. The fifteen and thirty-five day periods are the lender’s minimums under section 32 of the Mortgages Act and are not shifted for weekends. Your own twenty days to defend run under rule 18.01, shifted to the next business day under rule 3.01 when they end on a weekend or holiday, with the unshifted date shown first. Read off e-Laws on September 4, 2026.

Not covered here

  • Foreclosure, which is a court proceeding under rule 64 of the Rules of Civil Procedure with its own clock, and where the lender takes the house instead of selling it.
  • A mortgage with no power of sale clause of its own. Part II of the Mortgages Act then gives the lender a statutory power after three months of default, on forty-five days' notice. Almost every standard charge term confers a power of sale, so this is rare.
  • A default for a reason other than a missed payment: unpaid property tax, a lapsed insurance policy, an unauthorised second mortgage. The same powers can follow without a payment being missed.
  • Second and third mortgages, whose lenders can start their own power of sale while the first is current.
  • CMHC-insured mortgages and any hardship or deferral program a lender offers, which are contractual rather than statutory.
  • What the house will sell for, and the shortfall the lender can sue you for afterwards.
  • Bankruptcy or a consumer proposal. Neither stops a secured creditor on its own, though either changes the conversation with the lender.

These dates are the minimum waiting periods in Part III of the Mortgages Act and the time to defend under rule 18.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. They are the earliest a lender can act, not a prediction of when it will: banks often wait longer, private lenders often do not. The arrears figure is your missed payments added up. The interest and payout figures are estimates on the rate and balance you enter, and the lender's legal and administrative costs, which you must also pay to reinstate, are not included. Nothing here is a payout statement; only the lender can give you one. This is general information, not legal advice.

The dates above are the floor, and a lender that has decided to move can hit every one of them. Reinstating under section 22, challenging a defective notice, or negotiating time to sell yourself all work better in the first weeks than the last. If you are behind on a mortgage anywhere in the GTA or Ontario, Telesh Law Firm Professional Corp can tell you where you stand, and what happens if you cannot pay your mortgage walks through the options in order.

Your counsel
  • Caleesis Telesh
    Founder & Principal Lawyer
  • Shaneisha Mattis
    Foreign Trained Lawyer
  • Diego Herrera
    Internationally Trained Lawyer
  • Daniel Osei
    Student Legal Assistant
The person reviewing your matter is the person who answers your call. Meet the team →
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More about the firm
Hours
Telesh Law Firm Professional Corporation is open Monday – Friday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Saturday by appointment. Sunday closed. Consultations are booked in advance; walk-ins are not seen without an appointment.
Offices
Telesh Law Firm has two offices: the Scarborough office at 1585 Markham Road, Scarborough, ON M1B 2W1, and the Mississauga office at 2960 Drew Road, Unit 139, Mississauga, ON L4T 0A5. Call 416-639-0887 or 416-299-8088, or email tlf@teleshlawfirm.ca.
Consultation and rates
Telesh Law Firm offers a paid one-hour consultation: a full review of your matter with a lawyer, so you leave knowing where you stand and what your options are. Rates for the work that follows are set out in plain language before any work begins.
Response time
A member of the team responds to consultation requests within one business day. For an urgent civil litigation matter, call rather than write.
Languages
Counsel is available in eight languages: English, Hindi, Urdu, Farsi (Persian), Punjabi, Spanish, and Tamil.
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Telesh Law Firm appears in the Ontario Court of Justice, the Superior Court of Justice, and Small Claims Court in Toronto and across the Greater Toronto Area.
Licensing
Telesh Law Firm Professional Corporation is a member of the Law Society of Ontario. Caleesis Telesh, Founder & Principal Lawyer, is an Ontario licensed lawyer. The firm is also a member of the Canadian Bar Association, Criminal Lawyers' Association, Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, and Durham Region Law Association.
Clients from
Civil Litigation clients come to Telesh Law Firm from the Greater Toronto Area, including Scarborough, Mississauga, Toronto, Brampton, Milton, Newmarket, Oshawa, Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton, and Bracebridge.
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