What a car dealer must disclose in Ontario, and what the 90-day cancellation covers

A dealer who sells or leases a vehicle to anyone other than another dealer has to write a set list of facts about it into the contract. The list is section 42 of O. Reg. 333/08, which runs to 25 paragraphs. It reaches a new vehicle contract through paragraph 22 of section 39(2), a used vehicle contract through paragraph 1 of section 40(2), and a lease, other than a fleet lessor’s, through paragraph 11 of section 41(1). Behind all three sits section 30(1) of the MVDA, which makes a dealer disclose in writing the information the regulation prescribes.

Four of the 25 items, and misuse of the two fallback distance statements, carry a right to cancel the contract within 90 days of taking the vehicle. The rest do not, and collision damage is among the rest. Deposits, contract conditions and the missing cooling-off period are in There is no cooling-off period on a car in Ontario; this guide is about the disclosure list and what each part of it lets a buyer do.

What does section 42 make a dealer disclose?

Most items apply only where they are true of the vehicle. The trim level and the make, model and model year go on every contract.

What the contract has to say	Paragraph of s. 42
For a new vehicle, the maximum odometer reading at delivery, or, where the contract names no specific vehicle, an initialled statement that none is specified. For a used one, the total distance driven; if that cannot be determined, a reading as of a past date with a statement that the total is believed higher, or a statement that the total is unknown and may be substantially higher	1 to 5
An odometer that is broken or faulty, has been replaced, has been rolled back or reads in miles	6
Previous use as a daily rental, a police cruiser or emergency vehicle, or a taxi or limousine. The daily rental item drops away once a person who was not a dealer has owned the vehicle since	7
Fire damage, and immersion in liquid up to at least the interior floorboards	8, 9
Structural damage, or any repair, replacement or alteration to the structure	10
Anti-lock brakes that do not work, and airbags that are missing or do not work	11, 12
Repair needed to the engine, transmission or power train, the subframe or suspension, computer equipment, the electrical system, the fuel operating system or the air conditioning	13
A vehicle materially different from its original or advertised production specifications	14
Two or more adjacent panels replaced, not counting bumper panels	15
The trim level, and the make, model and model year	16, 17
A badge or other marking for a different model	18
Repairs to fix the damage from one incident costing more than $3,000, with the total if the dealer knew it	19
A cancelled manufacturer’s warranty	20
A total loss declared by an insurer, whether or not the vehicle was classified irreparable or salvage	21
Past treatment in another jurisdiction equivalent to an Ontario permit or trade, and which jurisdictions, unless Ontario permits cover at least the seven previous consecutive years	22
How the vehicle was last classified, if it has been classified irreparable, salvage or rebuilt under section 199.1 of the Highway Traffic Act	23
Recovery after the vehicle was reported stolen	24
Any other fact that could reasonably be expected to influence a reasonable purchaser’s decision to buy or lease on the contract’s terms	25

Paragraph 25 catches what the first 24 miss, and its test is a reasonable purchaser, not the particular one at the desk. The buyer has a line of their own as well. Paragraph 27 of section 39(2), which section 40(2) carries into used vehicle contracts, gives the purchaser a statement of any facts about the vehicle they consider material to the purchase. A buyer who was told the car has never been in a collision can have that written there.

A sale to another dealer uses a shorter list, in section 5 of the Code of Ethics, O. Reg. 332/08. Its catch-all reaches only facts that affect the vehicle’s structural or mechanical quality or performance.

Does the 90-day right cover an undisclosed accident?

Not by itself. Section 50(1) lets a buyer who is not a dealer cancel where the dealer did not accurately disclose paragraph 3, 7, 17 or 23 of section 42: the distance driven, the previous daily rental, police, emergency, taxi or limousine use, the make, model and model year, or the irreparable, salvage or rebuilt classification. Three further grounds cover a dealer who used one of the substitute distance statements in paragraphs 4 and 5 when it could have stated more, or whose past-date reading was wrong.

Collision damage sits in paragraphs 10, 15, 19 and 21, and none of them is on that list. A collision repair costing more than $3,000 left off the contract breaches paragraph 19, and often paragraph 25, but it does not open the section 50 cancellation. The exception is damage that ended in a salvage or rebuilt classification, which falls under paragraph 23, one of the four.

The discipline side treats a missed repair history as a breach in its own right. On February 13, 2026, OMVIC’s Discipline Tribunal fined Hitech Auto Sale and Services $5,000 after it sold a 2014 Toyota Corolla carrying accident repairs valued at $2,474, $3,339 and $8,729, and a 2011 Toyota RAV4 carrying $4,816 in repairs, with no written disclosure to either buyer. The agreed facts cite paragraph 19 for both vehicles and paragraph 25 for the Corolla. Discipline is a separate track from the buyer’s money: OMVIC’s complaints process page says it cannot compel or order a dealer to cancel a contract, return money, or carry out repairs.

Who can use the 90-day cancellation, and how?

A buyer or lessee who is not a registered dealer, against the dealer they contracted with. The notice and the deadline work like this:

• The notice has to be in writing, and it may be worded any way that shows the intention to cancel, under section 50(6).
• It goes to the dealer’s address in the contract. Where the buyer never got a copy, or the contract gives no address, it may go to an address on record with the Government of Ontario or of Canada, one the buyer knows, or one on file with the administrative authority, under paragraphs 3 and 4 of the same subsection.
• Sent by any means other than personal service, it counts as given on the day it is sent, under section 50(7).
• The deadline is 90 days after actually receiving the vehicle, under section 50(5), not 90 days after signing.
• A distance counts as accurate within the lesser of 5 per cent or 1,000 kilometres, under section 50(4), and the dealer’s honest belief is no answer to an inaccurate one, under section 50(2).

A lease is covered, since section 50(1) speaks of a vehicle “purchased or leased”. The one carve-out is the lease buyout: a lessee who agrees with the dealer to buy the leased vehicle during or after the lease term cannot cancel that purchase contract, under section 50(3).

What happens after the notice of cancellation is sent?

Section 50 sets the return and the refund on a timetable:

1. Within 20 days of the notice, the dealer has to make reasonable efforts to agree a time and place to meet, for the vehicle to come back and the refund to be paid, under section 50(8). The meeting cannot be later than 30 days after the notice, under section 50(9).
2. If they agree, the buyer returns the vehicle at that time or up to 15 days after it, and the dealer immediately refunds every payment under the contract and under any extended warranty or service plan the dealer sold or facilitated, under section 50(10).
3. If no agreement is reached within the 20 days, the buyer returns the vehicle on or after day 21 and no later than day 30 after the notice, and the dealer refunds immediately, under section 50(11). The dealer is deemed to consent to the return either way, under section 50(12).
4. Until the vehicle goes back, the buyer has to take reasonable care of it, under section 50(13).
5. Once the vehicle is returned on time, the notice cancels, as if they never existed, the contract, any extended warranty or service plan contract, guarantees of money payable under the contract, and the security interests, credit agreements and other payment instruments the dealer arranged or facilitated for the purchase or lease. The buyer’s obligations under the guarantees and the financing pass to the dealer, under section 50(14), and the dealer has to tell the lender promptly, under section 50(14.1).
6. The dealer does not have to return a trade-in. It refunds the amount paid for it or the credit given, under section 50(15).
7. A dealer who does not refund can be sued, under section 50(16), and in that action oral evidence about the trade or the cancellation is admissible despite the written contract, under section 50(17).

What can a buyer do when the missing fact is not one of the four?

The MVDA leaves every other remedy open. Section 30(2) says that where a dealer fails to make a required disclosure, the person owed it is entitled to the prescribed remedies “in addition to any other remedies that may be available”. Section 50 is the prescribed one. Another, for a buyer who is a consumer, meaning an individual acting for personal, family or household purposes, is the Consumer Protection Act, 2002. That Act is the one in force. Its replacement, the Consumer Protection Act, 2023, is Schedule 1 of the Better for Consumers, Better for Businesses Act, 2023 and awaits proclamation.

Under paragraph 14 of section 14(2) of that Act, failing to state a material fact is a false, misleading or deceptive representation if the failure deceives or tends to deceive. Section 17 makes one such act an unfair practice. Section 18(1) then lets the consumer rescind an agreement entered into after or while the unfair practice happened, with any remedy available in law, damages included. The rest of section 18 sets the terms:

• Notice within one year after entering into the agreement, under section 18(3), expressed any way that states the intention to rescind and the reasons, under section 18(4), and delivered by any means, under section 18(5).
• If the vehicle can no longer be returned, the consumer can recover the amount by which the payment exceeded the vehicle’s value to them, or damages, or both, under section 18(2).
• With no satisfactory response within 30 days of the notice, the consumer may sue, under section 18(8) and section 22 of O. Reg. 17/05, in the Superior Court of Justice, under section 18(9). The court may add exemplary or punitive damages, under section 18(11).
• A court may disregard the notice requirement where it is in the interest of justice, under section 18(15).

The two routes run on different clocks and different tests. Section 50 counts 90 days from delivery and needs only an inaccurate item on the list. Section 18 counts one year from the agreement and needs an unfair practice, which for a missing fact means one that deceived or tended to deceive. Every new and used vehicle sale contract carries a reminder of the wider picture: the statement prescribed by section 39(4) tells the buyer to contact the dealer first, then OMVIC, names the Motor Vehicle Dealers Compensation Fund, and its prescribed wording ends “You may have additional rights at law.” Section 39(5) adds OMVIC’s contact information to that statement and puts its trade mark at the end.

What should a salesperson check before the contract is signed?

The vehicle’s known history, against paragraphs 10, 15, 19 and 21, before the contract is written rather than after the buyer finds it. A single incident above $3,000 needs a statement, and the total where the dealer knows it. Where the distance cannot be confirmed, the fallback statement in paragraph 4 or 5 holds only when the dealer really could not state more, because clauses (b) and (d) of section 50(1) make either one a ground to cancel where it could have. On a lease buyout the section 50 right does not apply, but the buyout is a sale, so section 40(2) still carries the section 42 list into its contract. The disclosures guide sets out each paragraph with its wording, and the rescission guide takes section 50 subsection by subsection.