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This archived statute consolidation is current to November 10, 1992 and includes changes enacted and in force by that date. |
1. All boundary lines of townships, ranges, sections or legal subdivisions of sections, blocks, gores, lots and commons surveyed and run, and all mounds, posts or monuments marked, erected, placed or planted at the angles of any townships, ranges, sections or other legal subdivisions, blocks, gores, lots, commons or other parcels of land, under the authority of the Province, are the true and unalterable boundaries of the townships, ranges, sections or other legal subdivisions, blocks, gores, lots, commons or other parcels of land respectively, whether they, on measurement, are or are not found to contain the exact area or dimensions mentioned or expressed in any patent, grant or other instrument, in respect of any township, range, section or other legal subdivision, block, gore, lot, common or parcel of land.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-2.
2. Every township, section or other legal subdivision, block, gore, lot, common or parcel of land consists of the whole width included between the mounds, posts, monuments or boundaries, respectively marked, erected, placed or planted by the authority of the Province, at the several angles of them, and no more or less, any quantity or measure expressed in the original grant or patent notwithstanding.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-3.
3. The division lines between lots and sections, in ranges and blocks, are straight lines joining the posts in front with the corresponding posts on the opposite side of the range or block, when the official plan or field notes show that the opposite posts were intended to be on the same straight line.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-4.
4. Every patent, grant or instrument purporting to be for an aliquot part of a section or other legal subdivision, block, gore, common, lot or parcel of land shall be construed to be a grant of the aliquot part of the quantity it may contain on the ground, whether the quantity is more or less than that expressed in the patent, grant or instrument.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-5.
5. (1) When a land surveyor is employed to run a dividing line or limits between lots, sections or other legal subdivisions, and the original corner, mound, post or monument from which the line or limit should commence cannot be found, he shall obtain the best evidence that the nature of the case admits of respecting the line, limit, corner, mound, post or monument.
(2) If it cannot be satisfactorily ascertained, then the surveyor shall measure the true distance between the nearest undisputed corners, mounds, posts or monuments and divide the distance into the number of lots, sections or other legal subdivisions, as the case may be, as contained in the original survey, giving to each a breadth proportionate to that intended in the original survey, as shown on the original plan of subdivision registered in the proper land title office or on the plan and field notes of record in the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing, and if a portion of the township, range or section line, as the case may be, on which the corner, mound, post or monument was or should have been planted in the original survey is obliterated and lost, then the surveyor shall run a line, similar to that shown on the original plan and field notes, between the 2 nearest points or places where the line can be clearly and satisfactorily ascertained, and shall plant all intermediate posts or monuments as he may be required to plant in the line ascertained, giving the exact breadth to any allowance for a road or roads set out in the original survey.
(3) The corner or dividing line or limits found shall be the true corner or dividing line or limits of the lot, section or other legal subdivision.
(4) This section applies to all surveys, whether made by or at the instance of the Province, of a municipality or of a private person, and whether the surveys are of land in a municipality or not in a municipality, and all surveys that have been made in accordance with this section shall be considered to have been made in a legal manner, so far as the mode of procedure is concerned.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-6; 1977-75-65; 1978-25-334; 1979-20-14.
6. If a land surveyor is employed to lay out a given half section or quarter section, where the land has been surveyed into sections of one mile square, with quarter section posts placed on the section lines every 40 chains, he shall effect the same by connecting the opposite original quarter section corners (if they are existing, or if they are not existing, by connecting the several points in place of them found in accordance with section 5) by straight lines. In laying out other and minor legal subdivisions in any quarter section, he shall give the legal subdivision its proportionate share of the frontage and intermediate breadth of the quarter section, and connect the points found by a straight line, and the lines or limits drawn as above on the ground shall in the respective cases be the true lines or limits of the half section or quarter section, or other legal subdivision, whether or not it corresponds with the area expressed in the original grant or patent of the land; for example:
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Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-7.
7. The dividing lines or limits between fractional sections, quarter sections, lots or gores, where no corresponding posts have been placed on the opposite sides, shall be drawn from the original corners, or the posts representing those corners, as defined on the ground, in accordance with this Act, in the line intended as the front of a fractional section, quarter section, lot or gore, at such an angle to the line as was intended in the original survey, as shown on the official plan and field notes of it.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-8.
8. For better ascertaining the original corner or limits of a township, range, section or other legal subdivision, lot or parcel of land, every British Columbia land surveyor acting in that capacity may administer an oath to each person whom he may examine concerning a corner, mound, post, monument or other boundary or original landmark, line, limit or angle of a township, range, section or other legal subdivision, lot or parcel of land which the British Columbia land surveyor is employed to survey.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-9
9. (1) Where a British Columbia land surveyor is in doubt as to the true corner, boundary or limit of a township, range, section, lot or parcel of land which he is employed to survey, and has reason to believe that a person is possessed of any important information touching the corner, boundary or limit, or of a writing, plan or document tending to establish the true position of the corner, boundary or limit, then if the person does not willingly appear before and submit to examination by the land surveyor, or does not willingly produce to him the writing, plan or document, the British Columbia land surveyor may apply to a justice for a subpoena accompanying the application by an affidavit or solemn declaration to be made before the justice of the facts on which the application is founded. The justice may issue a subpoena accordingly, commanding the person to appear before the British Columbia land surveyor at a time and place to be mentioned in the subpoena, and, if the case requires it, to bring with him any writing, plan or document mentioned or referred to in the subpoena.
(2) The subpoena shall be served on the person named in it by delivering a copy of it to him, or by leaving it for him with some grown person of his family at his residence, exhibiting to him or the grown person the original.
(3) If the person commanded to appear by the subpoena, after being paid his reasonable expenses, or having them tendered to him, refuses or neglects to appear before the surveyor at the place and time appointed in the subpoena, or to produce the writing, plan or document, if any, mentioned or referred to in it, or to give evidence and information he possesses touching the corner, boundary or limit in question, a warrant by the justice for the arrest of the person may be issued, and he may be fined a sum not exceeding $100, or imprisoned not exceeding 90 days, or both, in the discretion of the justice.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-10.
10. All evidence taken by a British Columbia land surveyor shall be reduced to writing, and shall be read over to the person giving it and be signed by that person; or if he cannot write, he shall acknowledge it as correct before 2 witnesses, who shall sign it as shall the British Columbia land surveyor, and the evidence, and any document or plan prepared and sworn to as correct before a justice by any British Columbia land surveyor with reference to any survey performed by him, shall be annexed to the field notes of the survey, and be deposited in the office of the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-269-11; 1977-75-65.
11. For the purposes of this Part,
"original monument" means a mound, post, mark or monument marked, erected, placed or planted lawfully to mark the boundaries of a township, range, section or other legal subdivision, block, gore, lot, common or other parcel of land, under this or another enactment;
"coordinate control monument" means a monument established in compliance with the requirements of the Surveyor General for the purposes of section 12 (2).
Historical Note(s): 1964-35-2.
12. (1) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations for the purposes of this Act, including regulations that
(a) constitute any portion of the Province an integrated survey area and define the boundaries in the regulation;
(b) redefine or readjust the boundaries of an existing integrated survey area; or
(c) extend, reduce, subdivide or annul any existing integrated survey area or merge it in whole or in part with another integrated survey area or areas.
(2) When an integrated survey area has been constituted under subsection (1), the Surveyor General shall file in the land title office of the district where the land is situated a plan of the integrated survey area made in compliance with the regulations made by the Surveyor General for this section and in which are set forth
(a) an authentication by the signature of the Surveyor General of the plan as the official plan of the location of the coordinate control monuments in the integrated survey area;
(b) identification by appropriate designations of the coordinate control monuments shown on the plan; and
(c) the respective coordinate values of the coordinate control monuments shown on the plan,
and the Surveyor General may make regulations for the purposes of Part 2.
(3) The Surveyor General may file in the land title office in which a plan has been filed under subsection (2) an amended plan showing any additional established coordinate control monuments authorized by him in any integrated survey area, and the amended plan then becomes the official plan of the coordinate control monuments shown on it.
(4) The Surveyor General may file in the land title office in which a plan has been filed under subsection (2) a certificate setting forth amended values of any monuments shown on the plan, and then those values become the official values for the affected monuments.
(5) On the constitution of an integrated survey area under subsection (1), all original monuments established after that within the integrated survey area pertaining to the creation of new townships, ranges, sections or other legal subdivisions, blocks, gores, lots, commons or other parcels of land, and all those set in furtherance of the provisions of sections 67 to 69 of the Land Title Act and all those established prior and being pertinent to the survey of the parcel of land shall be tied by survey to the nearest coordinate control monuments according to the procedures in regulations made for this section by the Surveyor General, and the Surveyor General may make those regulations.
(6) When a survey has been carried out in accordance with subsection (5), and the original monuments have in that way been tied to coordinate control monuments, and a plan of the survey has been deposited as required either in the proper land title office or with the Surveyor General, then the coordinates that may be derived from the plan for those original monuments are after that evidence of their positions and shall be considered when it becomes necessary to define or redefine the true position on the ground of any original monuments or the boundaries governed by them.
Historical Note(s): RS1960-368-43; 1964-35-2; 1978-25-334,335; 1983-10-21, effective October 26, 1983 (B.C. Reg. 393/83).
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