Selling an Estate Home in Markham: Probate, Tax and Timing

Start with the court, not the market

Families usually come to us asking what the house is worth. It is a fair question and it is rarely the one that decides the timeline.

What decides it is whether the estate trustee has the authority to transfer title yet. A buyer’s lawyer will normally want to see a probate certificate before closing, so the court process sits underneath everything else. Get that moving first and the rest of the work can happen alongside it.

Everything below is general information about how the process runs in Ontario. It is not legal or tax advice and an estate needs both a lawyer and, usually, an accountant.

Which probate stream the estate falls into

Ontario has two, split by value:

Estate value	Process	What is issued
$150,000 or less	The simplified small estate process, available since April 1, 2021	Small Estate Certificate
More than $150,000	The regular application	Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee

An estate of any value can use the regular process. The simplified one is optional and exists to make modest estates cheaper and quicker.

In Markham, where the median sale price in August 2026 was $1,095,000, a home alone normally puts an estate well past the $150,000 line, so most families here are in the regular stream.

The estate administration tax, worked through

The rate is simple. Nothing on the first $50,000 of the value of the estate, then $15 for every $1,000 (or part of $1,000) above it.

Value of the estate	Estate administration tax
$50,000	Nil
$150,000	$1,500
$500,000	$6,750
$1,000,000	$14,250
$1,500,000	$21,750

Two things to hold on to. The tax is calculated on the estate as a whole rather than on the house alone. And it is paid as a deposit when the application is made, becoming the actual tax once the certificate is issued.

The 180 day filing nobody expects

After the certificate is issued, an Estate Information Return has to be filed with the Ministry of Finance within 180 calendar days.

It is required even where the calculation produces no tax at all. Supporting documentation has to be kept for four years, which is a practical reason to keep whatever you relied on to value the home rather than discarding it after closing.

Valuing the home, which is not the same as pricing it

This is the distinction that causes the most trouble. It is worth being precise.

Probate value is what the property was worth as at the date of death. That is the figure the estate reports.

Market price is what a buyer will pay on the day it sells, which may be months later.

Where a sale follows soon after a death the two are often close. Where a house sits for a year while a family sorts itself out, they may not be and the difference can have tax consequences. Where the value is significant or anybody is likely to dispute it, that is a job for a qualified appraiser rather than an agent’s opinion of value and the estates lawyer should say which is needed.

Capital gains and why an accountant comes before the agent

The Canada Revenue Agency’s principal residence exemption can eliminate the gain for the years a property qualified as a principal residence. There may also be a gain between the date of death and the date of sale.

That is the whole of what we will say about it, because it is the point where families most need advice specific to their circumstances. Get it from an accountant before the house sells rather than in the spring when the return is due.

Keeping the house safe while the process runs

An empty house needs looking after and the insurance point in particular catches people out:

• Tell the insurer it is unoccupied. An ordinary homeowner policy may not cover a home that nobody lives in and finding that out after a burst pipe is expensive.
• Keep the heat on through the winter, for the same reason.
• Keep utilities and property tax current, since arrears surface at closing.
• Secure the contents early, especially where several people hold keys.

Our post on Markham property tax covers how the bill works and what happens to it on closing.

Clearing the house is the long part

The court process has a floor you cannot move. The part families can control and routinely underestimate, is the contents.

A home lived in for thirty or forty years holds more than anyone expects and the decisions are emotional rather than logistical. Start it in parallel with the legal application rather than after it. Move managers and estate clearing specialists exist for exactly this and using them is a sensible decision.

Our downsizing guide covers the same ground for a family doing it while the owner is still living and much of the sequencing is identical. The senior downsizing checklist sets out the order we walk families through.

Where the family agreement usually breaks

In our experience an estate sale stalls for one of three reasons. None of them is the market.

Nobody agreed what the house is for. One beneficiary wants the money, another wants to keep it in the family, a third wants to wait for a better market. That conversation has to happen before the listing, not during it.

The trustee was left alone with it. The person named in the will is usually grieving as well as administering. Bringing everyone into the process early is both kinder and faster.

Everything was done in sequence. Probate, then clearing, then repairs, then listing. Run them in parallel where you can and the timeline shortens by months.

If you are the estate trustee for a Markham property and want to understand what the sequence looks like before you commit to anything, that conversation costs nothing. We will also tell you honestly when the right answer is to wait. We work alongside your lawyer and accountant rather than around them.