How much does home closing insurance cost in Canada?

What you pay, when you pay it, and what a failed closing costs without it.

You insured the house. Nobody insured the sale. That gap sits behind almost every question we get about home closing insurance cost in Canada, and the answer starts lower than most sellers expect.

Most sellers already pay every year to protect the home itself against fire, water damage and theft. The sale of that home, often the largest single transaction of their lives, usually carries no protection at all.

A firm offer is a binding agreement, but it is not a promise that the buyer arrives on closing day on time. Most trouble starts as a delay, a buyer who needs another week. Sometimes the buyer never closes. Either way, the carrying costs, the legal bills and any lower resale price land on the seller.

Home closing insurance is how a seller insures the sale, and the seller is the insured party. Policies start at $349, all in, and go up from there depending on the level of coverage selected. Nothing is paid until the deal goes firm.

Here is what you pay, when you pay it, what moves the price, and what that premium is measured against.

How much does home closing insurance cost in Canada?

Home closing insurance starts at $349, all in, and goes up from there. "All in" means the policy fee and tax are included in that starting figure. It is a starting point, not a price: your own premium depends on the level of coverage selected for your sale.

The starting figure is not a quote. Your premium is set when you get a quote on your own sale, and that quote holds for 120 days.

Two terms matter as much as the price. Nothing is paid until the deal goes firm. And once a policy is purchased it is not refundable: premiums, fees and taxes are fully earned on purchase.

When do you pay for home closing insurance?

You pay when the deal goes firm, not before. A seller can get a quote at the start of a listing and hold it without paying anything. The premium becomes payable when the agreement of purchase and sale goes firm, with every condition waived or satisfied. Not at listing, not at offer, and not on conditional acceptance.

That timing matters most when a conditional deal falls apart. If the buyer's financing or inspection condition is not met and the deal collapses, the seller has paid nothing. They re-list, and the quote is still there under the 120 day rate hold.

There is one deadline: coverage must be in place at least 14 days before the closing date. A seller whose offer went firm three weeks ago is eligible on the same terms as one whose offer went firm yesterday, as long as closing is still more than 14 days away.

That is why we suggest having the cost conversation at the start of a listing, not at the end of a deal. The price is known early, and payment only arrives once there is a firm sale to protect.

What changes the price of home closing insurance?

The level of coverage the seller selects is what moves the premium. More protection costs more. The $349 floor is where the entry level of coverage starts, and the premium rises from there.

We do not publish a rate card, because the right amount of protection depends on the sale. A seller whose next purchase closes two days after their sale may want more room than a seller with no linked purchase at all. A quote on your own sale is the only accurate number.

What does not change the price is asking early. A quote costs nothing, commits you to nothing and holds for 120 days. Nothing is paid until the deal goes firm.

What does the premium actually cover?

The premium buys protection against two events between a firm offer and closing day: a buyer who delays, and a buyer who defaults. The seller is the insured party in both.

If the buyer delays. Delay is the more common event. When a covered delay occurs, the policy advances the seller's carrying costs through the delay, subject to the policy terms, so the seller is not stranded waiting on a late buyer. The listing commission is advanced through the delay too, and that advance is repaid to the insurer once the property closes. Because the original buyer still closes, any unused portion of the advance goes back to the insurer when the transaction completes.

If the buyer defaults. When the buyer does not close at all, coverage extends to:

• The shortfall between the original firm price and the final resale price, up to the policy limit. If the home resells for more, the seller keeps 100% of the net profit.
• Carrying costs between the default and the resale, including mortgage interest, property taxes, utilities and home insurance.
• Legal fees related to the failed transaction. SecureMyOffer takes on the burden and cost of pursuing the defaulting buyer.
• The cost of additional bridge financing needed to unlock equity.
• Staging, marketing and resale costs while the home is re-listed.
• The listing commission on the resale, as part of the seller's cost of selling the home a second time. It sits inside the policy limit, not on top of it.

Coverage runs up to a maximum of $250,000 per transaction, depending on the coverage selected. An Emergency Advance Payment of up to 50% of the policy limit can go to the seller's real estate lawyer's trust account, as early as the same day, to meet immediate cash needs.

The policy is underwritten by Accelerant Insurance Company of Canada, rated Excellent by AM Best. Full terms, conditions and limits are set out in the policy.

How exposed is your sale? Put your own numbers into our Closing Risk Tool and see what a delay or a failed closing would cost you before you choose a level of protection.

Is there insurance for home sellers if a buyer backs out?

Yes. In Canada, home closing insurance protects a seller financially when a buyer backs out of, or delays, a firm deal before closing day. The seller is the insured party. It is available across Canada except Quebec, for resale homes, and most sellers with a firm, unconditional agreement can apply. Eligibility varies by territory.

It is often mistaken for three products that do different jobs. It is not title insurance, not a home warranty and not CMHC mortgage insurance. We compare it with CMHC mortgage insurance and title insurance in separate guides, and our overview covers everything a seller needs to know.

Two limits are worth knowing before you ask for a quote. It does not cover a seller who changes their own mind about selling. And new build and pre construction properties are excluded.

What does a failed closing cost a seller without protection?

A failed closing can cost a seller far more than the deposit covers, and the recovery can take years. A 2026 Ontario decision shows both.

In Chu v. Kumar et al. v. Sethi et al., 2026 ONSC 2748, the Kumars sold their Brampton home unconditionally for $1,040,000, with a $50,000 deposit and a June 21, 2022 closing. The sale was funding their purchase of a home in Cambridge, closing two days later.

On June 14, their buyers said they could not close. The first cost was a delay. The Kumars paid $5,000 in liquidated damages to push their own purchase back a week, to June 30, and topped up that deposit by $25,000. They still could not close. The Cambridge home was re-listed and sold for $220,000 less than the Kumars had agreed to pay.

The court ordered the Kumars' buyers to pay them $188,075.22, after crediting the buyers' $50,000 deposit, plus $75,000 in costs across the two actions. Working from the reported figures, the Kumars' documented losses came to $238,075.22 before that credit, so the deposit covered about 21% of them (modelled: $50,000 ÷ $238,075.22).

The Kumars won. The closing failed in June 2022, and the decision is dated 2026.

Two details from that file matter here. The $5,000 paid for one week's extension was the first cost, not the biggest. And a deposit is not cash in hand. In Ontario, RECO guidance says a brokerage holding a deposit held in trust can release it only when both buyer and seller sign an agreement to release it, or a court orders it.

We cannot say how any policy would have applied to that file; every claim is assessed on its own terms. The point is the scale. When we modelled every line item of a collapsed sale on a national average Canadian home, the total came to $150,000.

Financing pressure is part of the backdrop too. In CREA's September 2026 release, senior economist Shaun Cathcart noted that fixed mortgage rates have already increased on higher bond yields. For a seller, that is one more reason a buyer's financing can look different on closing day than it did on offer day.

Home closing insurance cost in Canada: FAQ

How much does home closing insurance cost in Canada?

Home closing insurance starts at $349, all in, and goes up from there depending on the level of coverage selected. Nothing is paid until the deal goes firm, and the starting figure is not a quote.

When do I pay for home closing insurance?

You pay when your sale goes firm. You can get a quote at listing and hold it for 120 days without paying anything, and if a conditional deal collapses, you have paid nothing.

Is home closing insurance refundable?

No. Once a policy is purchased, premiums, fees and taxes are fully earned. That is one more reason payment waits until the deal goes firm.

What is the deadline to buy home closing insurance?

Coverage must be in place at least 14 days before your closing date. That is the only deadline.

Who does home closing insurance protect?

The seller is the insured party. A buyer can include it to make an offer more competitive, but the protection itself belongs to the seller.

What it costs to insure the sale

Home closing insurance cost in Canada comes down to one number and one trigger: it starts at $349 all in and goes up from there with the level of coverage selected, and nothing is paid until the deal goes firm.

The better question is what your sale costs without it. Put your own figures into our Closing Calculator and see your exposure from firm offer to closing day.

You insured the house. Now you know what it costs to insure the sale.