Real Estate Law Blog

Commercial landlords have, in the past year and a half, dealt with many novel issues in relation to COVID-19, often on an emergency basis. Few landlords have had to deal with both public health order violations and gang crime relating to the same tenant, as in a recent decision of the B.C. Supreme Court, Ivy Lounge West Georgia Limited Partnership v. TA F&B Limited Partnership,

This blog post highlights certain amendments to British Columbia’s Real Estate Development Marketing Act (“REDMA”) Policy Statements 5 and 6 which came into effect May 1, 2021.

Policy Statement 5 sets out circumstances under which a developer is deemed to have permission to begin early marketing of a real estate development before a building permit is issued for the ...

Under the Property Transfer Tax Act, RSBC 1996, c 378, (the “Act”), property transfer tax (“PTT”) would, generally speaking, be imposed on a lease with a term of 30 years or more, or a lease in conjunction with lease modification agreements that would result in a cumulative term of 30 years or more, would be subject to PTT under the Act. In the recent decision of M&N ...

On February 1, 2021, amendments to B.C.’s Environmental Management Act and the Contaminated Sites Regulation (the Stage 13 Amendments) will come into effect which will affect the application process for redevelopment of lands formerly used for specified industrial or commercial uses. These amendments will affect most subdivision, zoning, development permit and ...

Can commercial tenants suffering the effects of the pandemic on their business unilaterally stop paying rent?

In a recently reported decision of the B.C. Supreme Court, Hudson’s Bay Company ULC v. Pensionfund Investment Ltd., 2020 BCSC 1959, the court attempted to balance the competing and urgent interests of commercial landlords and tenants during the current ...

This blog post is an update to our post on the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy program (“CERS”).

On November 19, 2020, Bill C-9, an act to amend the Income Tax Act (Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy) (“Bill C-9”), received royal accent and CERS was enacted into law.

CERS will provide support directly to qualifying commercial Tenants and ...

Your Comprehensive Guide to Compliance with the Land Owner Transparency Act (British Columbia)

Note: You can read the full article below or you can download a pdf version here. 

British Columbia’s Land Owner Transparency Act, SBC 2019, c 23 (“LOTA”) will come into force on November 30, 2020. At the same time, British Columbia’s new beneficial ownership registry ...

On October 9, 2020 the Federal Government announced its intention to “introduce new, targeted support to help hard-hit businesses and other organizations experiencing a drop in revenue” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of this new support includes the roll out of the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (“CERS”). CERS will replace the Canada Emergency Commercial ...

On September 30, 2020 important changes to the Agricultural Land Commission Act, [SBC 2002] Chapter 36 and the associated regulations came into force that may significantly affect the prospects for removal of private land from the Agricultural Land Reserve (“ALR”). These changes are of particular note to private owners of ALR lands slated for future development. The ...

On September 20, 2020, the Province of British Columbia confirmed by Order in Council that most of the provisions of the Land Owner Transparency Act, SBC 2019, c 23 (“LOTA”), will come into force on November 30, 2020. The Province also released the Land Owner Transparency Regulation (the “Regulation”), which will come into effect concurrently with LOTA. The ...