LAND TITLE ACT (2 of 27)

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LAND TITLE ACT – Continued
[RSBC 1996] CHAPTER 250

Part 1 – Definitions, Interpretation and Application

Definitions

1 In this Act:

"absolute certificate of title" means a certificate of title issued on the registration of an absolute fee and includes such a certificate issued before October 31, 1979;

"approving officer" means, as applicable,

(a) the municipal approving officer under section 77,

(b) the regional district approving officer under section 77.1,

(d) the Provincial approving officer under section 77.2, or

(e) the Nisga'a approving officer under section 77.3;

"apt descriptive words" means a metes and bounds description and includes an abbreviated description;

"book" includes a file, index and an electronic data bank;

"building scheme" means a scheme of development that comes into existence where defined land is laid out in parcels and intended to be sold to different purchasers or leased or subleased to different lessees, each of whom enters into a restrictive covenant with the common vendor or lessor agreeing that his or her particular parcel is subject to certain restrictions as to use, the restrictive covenants constituting a special local law applicable to the defined land and the benefit and burden of the covenants passing to, as the case may be, the purchaser, lessee or sublessee of the parcel and his or her successors in title;

"Category A Lands" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Category B Lands" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"charge" means an estate or interest in land less than the fee simple and includes

(a) an estate or interest registered as a charge under section 179, and

(b) an encumbrance;

"designated highways official" means an employee of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways designated, by name or by title, by the minister responsible for that ministry as a designated highways official for the purposes of the applicable provision of this Act;

"director" means the Director of Land Titles referred to in section 9;

"distinguishing letter" includes a distinguishing number;

"duplicate indefeasible title" means a certificate issued under section 176 (1) or a duplicate certificate of indefeasible title issued before August 1, 1983;

"encumbrance" includes

(a) a judgment, mortgage, lien, Crown debt or other claim to or on land created or given for any purpose, whether by the act of the parties or any Act or law, and whether voluntary or involuntary, and

(b) in respect of Nisga'a Lands, a judgment, mortgage, lien, debt owed to the Nisga'a Nation or a Nisga'a Village or other claim to or on Nisga'a Lands created or given for any purpose by any Nisga'a law, and whether voluntary or involuntary;

"endorse", "enter" or "note" means to store information in the records, including information respecting a cancellation;

"explanatory plan" means a plan that

(a) is not based on a survey but on existing descriptions, plans or records of the land title office, and

(b) is certified correct in accordance with the records of the land title office by a British Columbia land surveyor or by a person designated under section 121 (7) of the Forest Act or section 5 (3) of the Highway Act for the purposes of those sections;

"former Act" means the Land Registry Act, R.S.B.C. 1960, c. 208;

"highway" includes a public street, path, walkway, trail, lane, bridge, road, thoroughfare and any other public way;

"indefeasible title" means

(a) a certificate of indefeasible title issued by the registrar under this Act or the former Act, at any time before August 1, 1983, and

(b) that part of the information stored in the register respecting one title number, that is required under section 176 (2) to be contained in a duplicate indefeasible title;

"instrument" means

(a) a Crown grant or other transfer of Crown land, and

(b) a document or plan relating to the transfer, charging or otherwise dealing with or affecting land, or evidencing title to it, and includes, without limitation

(i) a grant of probate or administration or other trust instrument, and

(ii) an Act;

"judgment" means a judgment as defined in the Court Order Enforcement Act or that is deemed to be or to be made registrable in the same manner as a judgment under that Act by any other Act;

"land title district" includes a land registration district under the former Act;

"land title office" includes a land registry office under the former Act;

"lease or agreement for lease for a term not exceeding 3 years if there is actual occupation under the lease or agreement" means a lease or agreement for lease for a term that, at its beginning, does not exceed 3 years if there is actual occupation under the lease or agreement, and, if an option or covenant for renewal is included in the lease or agreement, the option or covenant must not extend the total lease periods beyond 3 years;

"Nisga'a certificate" means a certificate of the Nisga'a Lisims Government referred to in paragraph 7 (b) of the Land Title Chapter of the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Corporation" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Final Agreement" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement Act;

"Nisga'a Lands" means those Nisga'a Lands, as defined in the Nisga'a Final Agreement, to which this Act applies under the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a law" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Lisims Government" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Nation" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a road" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Village" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Village Government" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"Nisga'a Village Lands" has the same meaning as in the Nisga'a Final Agreement;

"owner" means a person registered in the records as owner of land or of a charge on land, whether entitled to it in the person's own right or in a representative capacity or otherwise, and includes a registered owner;

"parcel" means a lot, block or other area in which land is held or into which land is subdivided;

"posting plan" means a plan filed as a posting plan under this or the former Act;

"records" includes the register, books, indices, drawings, plans, instruments and other documents or any part of them registered, deposited, filed or lodged in the land title office, and those recorded or stored by any means, whether graphic, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, in any location approved by the Attorney General;

"register" means

(a) as a noun, that part of the records where information respecting registered indefeasible titles is stored or, if the context requires, the register of absolute fees, and

(b) as a verb, to register under this Act;

"registrar" means a registrar appointed under this Act and includes a deputy registrar or acting registrar;

"right to flood" means a right or power to flood or otherwise injuriously affect land for purposes related to the construction, maintenance or operation of a dam, reservoir or other plant used or to be used for or in connection with the generation, manufacture, distribution or supply of power;

"rural area" means an area outside a municipality;

"sketch plan" means an adequately dimensioned drawing of the area affected by a lease of all or part of a building located on land shown on a plan of survey deposited in the land title office;

"solicitor" includes a barrister;

"statutory right of way" means an easement without a designated dominant tenement registrable under section 218;

"statutory right of way plan" means a plan prepared by a British Columbia land surveyor and deposited under section 113;

"subdivision" means the division of land into 2 or more parcels, whether by plan, apt descriptive words or otherwise;

"transfer" includes a conveyance, a grant and an assignment;

"transferee" includes a grantee and an assignee;

"transferor" includes a grantor and an assignor;

"transmission" means a change of ownership

(a) effected by the operation of an Act or law,

(b) under an order of a court, or

but does not include

(d) an amalgamation of 2 or more corporations, however effected, whether or not the amalgamation is in respect of a beneficial or a trust estate or interest in land, or

(e) an amalgamation under the Strata Property Act.

References

2 (1) A provision in this Act or in another enactment relating to the duties and powers of the registrar is a reference to the registrar of the land title district in which the land described in the instrument or document is located.

(2) A reference in this or in another enactment to the land title office is a reference to the land title office designated under section 6 for the land title district in which the land described in the instrument or document is located.

Application to Strata Property Act

3 (1) This Act, except Parts 7 and 8, applies to the Strata Property Act, unless inconsistent with that Act.

(1.1) Despite subsection (1), provisions of Parts 7 and 8 of this Act apply to the Strata Property Act if stated to apply by the Strata Property Act.

(2) Part 9 of this Act applies to the Strata Property Act only to the extent expressly stated in the Strata Property Act or in Part 9.

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