Private legal and dative tutorships to the property of minors

Tutorships exercised by someone other than the Curateur public are known as private tutorships.

Assistance and supervision: these two words summarize the responsibilities of the Curateur public concerning private tutorships over the property of minors, whether these tutorships are legal (i.e. exercised by the parents) or dative.

Assistance

For the Curateur public to supervise the parents' administration, the value of the child's property must exceed $25,000, or the court must have ordered it to do so.

The Curateur public informs tutors and tutorship councils about how to fulfil their respective obligations, and assists them throughout the tutorship. It supplies them with the necessary documentation – guides, model forms (e.g. inventory), sample letters, etc. It may also advise them regarding certain decisions.

Supervision

In accordance with the Civil Code of Québec, the Curateur public is mandated to monitor, jointly with the tutorship council, the administration of private tutors and ensure the child's interests are protected. This supervision is based on the inventory of property belonging to the minor and the administration reports that private tutors have to file every year.

The Curateur public may ask to see receipts, invoices or other supporting documents and request auditing of financial statements by a chartered accountant when the value of the property exceeds $100,000 or there is good reason to suspect faulty administration.

Where the patrimony is worth over $25,000, the Curateur public ensures that the tutor holds security guaranteeing their administration.

Administrative aspect

The Curateur public opens a separate file for each minor child with assets being administered under the office's supervision. The file is then assigned to an employee who is responsible for verifying the tutor's administration, answering any questions they may have and if necessary, advising them. Every year, this employee will send the tutor a report form to fill out about their administration.

Finally, each tutorship is listed on a public register that can be consulted through our telephone information service.

Director of Youth Protection
and the minor's person

Anyone may report an abuse of the PERSON of a minor child to the Director of Youth Protection at a Centre jeunesse du Québec. The intervention powers of the Curateur public apply to property only.

Replacing the tutor

The Curateur public prefers to mediate wherever possible, but may ask the court to replace a tutor who is not fulfilling their obligations properly, if there is no other solution.

It may even ensure that this person is sued for losses suffered by the child.

Under the Public Curator Act, the Curateur public may also use investigative powers:

if it finds irregularities when verifying the tutor's administration report;
when someone reports an abusive situation affecting a minor's property, whether or not the tutorship is under the office's supervision.