How long does licence transfer and landlord consent take?

Deals frequently wait on someone who is not actually a party to the sale, and both licence transfers and landlord consent share the same underlying feature: the seller and buyer can prepare a complete request, but they cannot control how quickly the party reviewing it responds.

Licence transfers vary by regulator and licence type

A liquor licence transfer, a motor vehicle dealer registration, a commercial vehicle operator’s registration, or a municipal business licence each has its own application process, its own reviewing body, and its own internal timeline, and none of them follows a single Canada-wide standard. The most reliable way to know what to expect is checking directly with the specific regulator involved, since published guidance and current processing times can be confirmed only at the source.

Landlord consent runs on the lease and the landlord

A commercial lease typically requires the landlord’s consent before it can be assigned to a buyer, and how long that takes depends on what the lease itself says about the process, how responsive that particular landlord is, and whether the landlord wants additional financial information about the incoming tenant before agreeing. A landlord unfamiliar with the buyer, or concerned about creditworthiness, will generally take longer than one who already knows the business is stable.

A complete application is the biggest lever available

In both cases, an incomplete or unclear submission is one of the most common reasons a straightforward request takes longer than it needed to, since a regulator or landlord waiting on missing information cannot move the file forward regardless of how quickly they would otherwise respond. Preparing the full package before submitting, rather than sending an initial request and expecting to fill gaps later, is generally the single most effective way to avoid adding unnecessary delay.

Build these into the deal timeline early

Because neither process is within the buyer’s or seller’s direct control, experienced advisors generally recommend starting both a licence application and a landlord consent request as early in the deal as confidentiality allows, rather than treating them as a late-stage formality once other terms are settled.