Quebec allows exactly three will forms under article 712 of the Civil Code: the notarial will, the holograph will, and the will made in the presence of witnesses. Only the notarial will, received by a notary en minute, needs no probate after death.
Applies in: Quebec
Written November 13, 2026
Quebec does not import another province's will. Article 712 of the Civil Code of Québec closes the list: the only forms of will that may be made are the notarial will, the holograph will, and the will made in the presence of witnesses. The notarial will is the distinct Quebec route. A notary receives it en minute, keeps the original, and registers it. After your death it takes effect at once, with no probate. The other two forms are cheaper to make and cost work later: each must be probated before it can be used. This guide covers the three forms and their signing rules only. It gives no advice on what your will should say.
French terms appear once, in the FAQ and the table above, because the registers and the notary's office use them. The rest of this guide stays in English.
There is no fourth option in the article. A video message, a signed note that fits none of the three forms, or a will form built for another province does not become a Quebec will by calling it one. Start by choosing which of the three boxes your document will sit in, then follow that box's rules and no others.
In practice, the choice turns on one trade, and it is worth stating bluntly. Pay the formal cost now, in a notary's office, and your succession skips probate later. Or pay almost nothing now — a pen, a sheet of paper, two neighbours as witnesses — and leave the probate file, the affidavits, the notices to successors, and the search certificates to whoever settles your affairs after you are gone. Neither answer is wrong. They simply bill different people, at different times.
Article 716 sets the frame in two sentences. A notarial will is executed by a notary, en minute, in the presence of a witness or, in certain cases, two witnesses. The date and place of the making of the will shall be noted on the will.
En minute means the notary keeps the original in the notarial record and issues copies from it. You never hold the only copy. Lose your certified copy and the will still exists, in the notary's vault, exactly as signed.
Registration follows automatically. Notaries must register every notarial will they receive in the Register of Testamentary Dispositions of the Chambre des notaires du Québec, and the provincial notarial will page adds two results of that system worth knowing before you sign: the will takes effect as soon as you die, with no probate first, and no rule requires it to be read aloud in front of your heirs after your death. Because the document is an authentic act, a succession does not open with an argument about whether the paper is really yours. It opens with a certified copy of a will a notary already holds. That is the spine of this form. No other province covered alongside this guide has anything like it.
To use this route, book a notary, bring identification and your instructions, and sign in the setting article 716 describes. Keep the certified copy you receive, and tell your liquidator which notary holds the original. The register records that the will exists and where it was received. It does not hold the will itself.
Article 726 is short, and it is the whole rule. A holograph will is written entirely by the testator and signed by the testator, without the use of technical means, and it is subject to no other formal requirement.
Work through each phrase before you write:
Store the original where it will be found. A holograph will that cannot be produced after death cannot do the work you wrote it to do, and the probate step in Step 5 starts from the original.
The third form is the will made in the presence of witnesses. You may write it yourself, have a third person write it, or have it produced by technical means. The signing is what makes it this form.
Before two witnesses of full age, you declare that the document you present is your will. You do not have to disclose its contents to them. You then sign the will, or, if you have already signed it, you acknowledge your signature. If you cannot sign, another person may sign for you in your presence and according to your instructions. The witnesses sign the will forthwith, in your presence.
One page rule catches typed wills. Where the will is written by a third person or by technical means, article 728 requires the testator and the witnesses to initial or sign each page of the act that does not bear their signature. A multi-page typed will with only the last page signed is unfinished work under that rule. Initial each unsigned page at the signing, while all three of you are still in the room.
Choose witnesses who take nothing under the will. Under article 760, a legacy to a witness is without effect, so a beneficiary who signs as a witness risks the very gift the will tries to make. Two adults who inherit nothing are the safe pair for this form.
Quebec's probate page states the split in its first lines, and there is no softening it: holograph and witnessed wills must be probated after death; a notarial will, being an authentic act, need not be.
What does probate actually do? Four things, on that page. It establishes the will was in fact written by the deceased, or at the deceased's request. It confirms the form is valid. It makes the will available for public consultation. And it lets certified copies be issued, which is what banks and land offices will ask for. Any interested person may apply — usually the liquidator — or a legal professional may apply for one. Two doors are open: a notary, or the Superior Court. The notary door has a conflict rule bolted to it. A notary may probate the will only if it was not filed with that notary's firm, and only if the notary does not work, and has not worked, at the office where the will was filed.
If the application goes to the Superior Court, the district follows the deceased's last place of residence if the deceased lived in Québec, or, if not, the district of the place where the property is located, the place of death, or the place where the defendant is domiciled. A fee must be paid to probate the will. The page does not state the amount, so this guide states none.
The application must be accompanied by the original will, the copy of the act of death issued by the Directeur de l'état civil, an affidavit from one of the witnesses for a witnessed will or from a person who recognizes the deceased's signature and writing for a holograph will, proof that notice to successors was sent, and the will search certificates issued by the Chambre des notaires du Québec and the Barreau du Québec. Successors must be informed that the will is being probated, unless the court exempts the applicant where notice is impractical, too onerous, or not necessary. A will written in a language other than French or English must first be translated by a translator recognized by the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec.
Read that document list now, while you can still make it easy to assemble. Keep the original findable, and, for a witnessed will, keep the witnesses findable too. One of them will need to swear the affidavit.
A notarial will is registered by rule. For the other two forms, registration is a choice you have to make. The Chambre des notaires register page states that the Register of Testamentary Dispositions was created in 1961 to make it possible to locate a person's last will on death, that notaries must register any will or protection mandate they receive, and that the Chambre does not receive or hold wills or mandates — notaries keep them and only declare receipt to the registers. Your notary can also register a non-notarized will or mandate: holograph wills and wills before witnesses may be declared to the registers in the same way, through a notary, with the document recorded as an act of deposit and kept in the notary's office.
Whichever route you take, tell your liquidator the form you chose, where the original sits, and, for a notarial will, the name of the notary who received it. After a death in Quebec, the search runs in both registers — the Chambre des notaires and the Barreau du Québec — and the probate document list above asks for both search certificates. A will that is never found settles nothing.
The Civil Code articles and the Government of Québec pages opened for this guide state the three forms, the signing rules, and the probate rule, but they do not state what a notary charges to receive a notarial will, what the Superior Court probate fee is in dollars, or how long probate takes, so this guide gives none of those figures. Third-party cost ranges were not carried, because no opened official page stated them. Ask the notary who will receive your will for the current fee before you book.
| Notarial will (testament notarié) | Received by a notary en minute before a witness, or two witnesses in certain cases; original kept by the notary; no probate after death |
|---|---|
| Holograph will (testament olographe) | Written entirely by your hand and signed by you, with no technical means and no witnesses; must be probated after death |
| Will made in the presence of witnesses (testament devant témoins) | Declared to be your will before two witnesses of full age, signed by you and by them; must be probated after death |
Article 712 of the Civil Code of Québec lists these three forms only. The probate step for the second and third forms is called probate on the Government of Québec pages; it renders the will usable after death.
Three, and only three. Article 712 of the Civil Code lists them: the notarial will, the holograph will, and the will made in the presence of witnesses — in French, testament notarié, testament olographe, testament devant témoins. A document in any other shape is not a Quebec will, whatever its author called it.
A will a notary receives. Under article 716 the notary executes it en minute, with a witness in the room — two witnesses in certain cases — and notes the date and place on the document itself. Then the machinery takes over. The notary keeps the original. Registration in the Register of Testamentary Dispositions of the Chambre des notaires du Québec is mandatory, not optional. And on your death the will works at once. No probate. No court file opened just to prove the paper is yours.
Your hand, and nothing else. Article 726: written entirely by the testator, signed by the testator, no technical means used, no other formal requirement at all. So a typed page fails. A printed kit with the blanks filled in by hand fails too — half machine, half hand is not entirely hand. No witnesses are needed. Probate after death, though, is unavoidable for this form.
Short ceremony, specific order. Two witnesses of full age. You present the document and declare it is your will — its contents stay private, nobody has to read it aloud. You sign, or acknowledge a signature you already made, or direct someone else to sign for you while you watch. The witnesses sign next, right there, in front of you. One trap for typed wills: article 728 makes you and both witnesses initial or sign every page that does not already carry a signature.
The holograph will does. So does the witnessed one. A notarial will does not — it is an authentic act, usable the day you die. Probate, done by a notary or by the Superior Court, is what turns the other two into usable documents: it confirms the writing is the deceased's, confirms the form holds, puts the will on public record, and opens the door to certified copies.
Do not build a will that way. Under article 760 of the Civil Code, a legacy made to a witness, even a supernumerary witness, is without effect, though the rest of the will stands. Pick witnesses who inherit nothing.