Real Estate Law Blog

On March 7, 2025, the British Columbia Court of Appeal released its decision to uphold the ruling of the lower court. In this unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal agreed with both the Minister of Finance and the Supreme Court of British Columbia on the interpretation of “control” in the B.C. Property Transfer Tax Act, finding that the owner of the property in question ...

Recent unexplained wealth orders offer another good reason to keep proper documentation that explains the source of money and reasons for its transfer.

The introduction of unexplained wealth orders in British Columbia has given the government the power, where the province has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person or company, or their affiliate, is involved in ...

The average permitted residential rent increase the past 10 years in British Columbia hovered around 2.7%. Such increases are prescribed under the Residential Tenancy Act (the “Act”)^[1] and the Residential Tenancy Regulation (the “Regulation”).^[2] In a rare Residential Tenancy Branch (“RTB”) decision^[3] that was widely reported by the news media last ...

Retailers have typically negotiated their leases with landlords to include clauses restricting competitors from operating in the same shopping centres. This is achieved through including negotiated exclusivity clauses, which in many cases, are registered on title as restrictive covenants. Although the use of these exclusives/restrictive covenants by retailers ...

Bad actors can effect a transfer or mortgage of land without the knowledge or authorization of the registered owner.

Title fraud can befall homeowners as well as owners of commercial or investment property, such as where a scam or rogue director purports to deal in land without bona fide authorization of the full board. For example, in 1264777 B.C. Ltd. v Gill, 2023 BCSC 131

The B.C. Court of Appeal recently released its decision in Findlay v The Owner, Strata ESP401 (“Findlay”) where it states, for the first time, that strata corporations do not have standing to bring a claim against developers on behalf of individual strata unit purchasers for misrepresentation in the developer’s disclosure statements. This case involves an issue of ...

The BC government has announced new legislative changes aimed at strengthening depreciation reports for strata corporations, effective July 1, 2024.

Impact on Strata Owners and Council Members

Depreciation reports provide estimates of the long-term repair and replacement costs of a strata corporation’s shared property and assets. Previously, obtaining these ...

On April 25^th, the Province enacted a flipping tax on residential property (the “Flipping Tax”), as previously mentioned in the 2024 Budget (summarized in our blog post here). The Flipping Tax, will to apply to dispositions of residential properties (including mixed use properties) in B.C. beginning on January 1, 2025.

The Province states that the purpose of the ...

On February 29, 2024, Alberta’s Minister of Finance announced Alberta’s 2024 Budget, and in connection with this announcement, the Government of Alberta published its Fiscal Plan for the 2024 – 2027 period. In this Fiscal Plan, the Province outlined their proposal for the introduction of what they are calling a new “Land Titles Registration Levy”, which ...

On February 22, 2024, British Columbia’s 2024 Budget was introduced. Included in the Budget are the following measures relating to real estate taxes:

[1] New Home Flipping Tax: The home flipping tax will apply to income from the sale of certain residential property sold on or after January 1, 2025 that was owned for less than 2 years. The tax rate will be 20% for properties ...