Don't Sign a Bill of Sale Without Financing in Writing: The Ontario Rule Most Buyers Miss

Photo: American Honda (Honda US Newsroom). 2026 Honda Civic.

A real OMVIC case: a buyer we'll call Mark spent over an hour at a used car dealership in Ontario. He'd done his homework. He had a budget. He had a maximum rate in mind. The salesperson slid a bill of sale across the desk and said, "Just sign this to secure the vehicle. We will finalize the financing after."

The bill of sale listed the vehicle, the price, the taxes. It did not list a monthly payment, an interest rate, a term, an APR, or the total cost of borrowing. Mark asked about the rate. The salesperson assured him it would be fine. Mark signed. The next morning he got the call: 18% APR, longer term than he'd planned, thousands more than his budget. The dealer told him the financing was the financing, and he had signed the contract.

Under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, this is not how the deal is supposed to work. When financing is part of the transaction, the financing terms must be disclosed in writing before you sign. Verbal assurances do not replace written disclosure. OMVIC is seeing this pattern often enough that it published a bulletin in February 2026 specifically warning about it.

What the Consumer Protection Act actually requires

When a dealer arranges financing for a consumer, the consumer must be given enough information in writing to understand the full cost of the deal. The list of items the disclosure has to cover is specific:

Annual percentage rate (APR); the monthly payment amount; the term of the loan or lease; the total cost of borrowing or implicit finance charges; the total amount of all required payments and their timing; down payments, deposits, and any balloon or final payments; guaranteed residual values for open-ended leases; and the cash price of the vehicle itself.

If any of those items is missing from the bill of sale at the moment of signing, the disclosure is incomplete. OMVIC has been clear in its enforcement messaging that a bill of sale signed without those items in writing is a problem the dealer created, not the buyer.

Why "we'll figure out the financing later" is a red flag, not a courtesy

The verbal-assurance pattern is a sales tactic, not a customer service. Once you've signed a bill of sale that doesn't include the financing terms, you've committed to the vehicle. The dealer can then deliver any financing the lender approves — and the lender's approval is rarely the rate the salesperson quoted during the conversation.

OMVIC's Director of Complaints & Inquiries has said publicly that this exact pattern is driving an increase in formal complaints. The pattern almost always involves a significant gap between the rate the buyer was led to expect and the rate that comes back from the lender, plus a longer term that pushes the monthly payment into an apparently-affordable range while burying the total cost in the small print.

If the financing terms are not in writing on the bill of sale at the moment of signing, you don't have a financing deal — you have a verbal promise the dealer is not obligated to honour.

Photo: American Honda (Honda US Newsroom). 2026 Honda Civic.

What "in writing on the bill of sale" actually means

The disclosure isn't satisfied by a separate sheet the salesperson hands you after you sign. It isn't satisfied by a "we'll send you the loan documents later" email. The Consumer Protection Act requires the disclosure to be available to the consumer before the consumer is bound by the agreement. In practice, that means the financing terms must be on the bill of sale itself, in the same document you're signing to commit to the vehicle.

This is also why OMVIC's enforcement team looks at the bill of sale, not at what the salesperson said. The bill of sale is the contract. If the contract doesn't include the financing terms, the deal is incomplete, and the dealer is the one responsible for that incompleteness.

What to do if the salesperson asks you to sign before the financing is final

Don't sign. The pressure to sign "tonight to hold the car" is the same pressure that produces the Mark scenario. The car being held for you is not a favour — it's a sales tactic. If the dealer can't produce a bill of sale with the financing terms in writing, the deal isn't ready.

If the dealer pushes back when you ask for the financing terms in writing, that's the answer. A legitimate dealer, especially an OMVIC-registered one, will either produce the written disclosure or tell you the deal isn't ready to sign yet.

If you've already signed a bill of sale without the financing terms in writing and you're now stuck with a rate and term you didn't agree to, you have options. Document everything — the verbal promises, the rate you were quoted, the timeline of the signing. Then contact OMVIC's complaints team. The dealer's failure to provide written disclosure is a breach of the Consumer Protection Act, which OMVIC has the authority to enforce.

How this connects to the rest of your protections

The all-in pricing rule tells you what the vehicle should cost. The mandatory disclosure rule tells you what the dealer has to tell you about the vehicle's history. The Consumer Protection Act requirement above tells you what the dealer has to tell you about the financing. They work together.

When all three are honoured, you can compare two Honda offers apples-to-apples on price, on what you're buying, and on how you're paying for it. When one of them isn't honoured — and the financing disclosure is the one most often skipped — the apples-to-apples comparison collapses and the dealer's leverage becomes yours.

If you're shopping for a Honda at our store or anywhere else in the GTA, the bill of sale will have the financing terms in writing on it before you sign. If a salesperson anywhere tells you the financing will be "figured out later," treat it as the red flag it is and walk away.