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This archived statute consolidation is current to November 5, 2001 and includes changes enacted and in force by that date. For the most current information, click here. |
LAND TITLE ACT – Continued
[RSBC 1996] CHAPTER 250
Part 11 – Registration of Title in Fee Simple
Division 1 – First Registration
169 (1) If an application is made for the registration of indefeasible title to land, the registrar must register the title claimed by the applicant, if the registrar is satisfied that
(a) the boundaries of the land are sufficiently defined by the description or plan on record in the registrar's office or provided by the applicant, and
(b) a good safe holding and marketable title in fee simple has been established by the applicant.
(2) If the registrar considers it advisable, the registrar may, before registration under subsection (1), direct that a person named by the registrar be served with notice of the registrar's intention to register the title of the applicant at the expiration of a period set in the notice unless within that period the person served lodges a caveat or registers a certificate of pending litigation contesting the applicant's right to registration.
(3) If a caveat is lodged or a certificate of pending litigation is registered under subsection (2), the registrar must defer consideration of the application until the caveat expires or is withdrawn or the adverse claim is disposed of.
170 On an application for the registration of title in favour of an owner in fee simple, a mortgagee, or other person entitled by right to the possession of documents of title, the registrar must require the person applying to be registered as owner in fee simple, as mortgagee or otherwise, to produce all title deeds of the land to which the registration is intended to refer unless their nonproduction is satisfactorily explained to the registrar by means of an affidavit.
171 An application founded in whole or in part on adverse possession must not be accepted by the registrar unless permitted by this Act and supported by a declaration of title under the Land Title Inquiry Act.
172 If 2 or more persons are owners of different estates or interests in the same land, by way of remainder or otherwise,
(a) the first owner of an estate of inheritance must be registered as the owner of the fee simple but, in the register, the owner of the estate of inheritance must not be shown to be possessed of a larger or different estate from that to which he or she is by law entitled, and
(b) the estates or interests of the other owners must be registered by way of a charge according to their priority.
173 The registrar may effect registration of the fee simple at the instance of a joint tenant or tenant in common, or of several persons, who together are entitled to the complement of the fee simple.
174 (1) The registered owner of the absolute fee of land under the Acts repealed by the former Act may apply in writing to the registrar for registration of indefeasible title to the land and the application must be in the prescribed form.
(2) Section 158 applies to this section.
(3) The registrar, on his or her own initiative, in respect of any land in the absolute fees register, may convert the absolute fee into an indefeasible title without an application from the registered owner of the absolute fee.
Division 2 – The Register and Duplicate Indefeasible Titles
175 (1) The registrar must keep a register and enter or store in it
(a) all indefeasible titles and all matters required by this Act or the regulations to be registered or entered on an indefeasible title and affecting land included in it, and
(b) any other matter required by the director.
(2) The registrar may remove records of indefeasible titles from the register where they were required to be kept or stored, and on removal those records may be kept in a manner and for a period that the director may direct.
(3) The registrar may convert existing records in a land title office, including records of indefeasible titles, into another form in order to facilitate computerization of those records, and on conversion the substituted form must, for all purposes, be accepted and received as the original record.
(4) If a record is converted under subsection (3), evidence of the original record must be preserved among the records of the land title office.
(5) The registrar may duplicate any record in a land title office in the form and manner directed by the director and, if an original record so duplicated becomes lost, damaged, destroyed or not immediately available for use, the registrar may declare that the duplicate has the same effect as the original.
(6) The registrar may remove from the register any record that has been cancelled if the registrar retains evidence of it.
(7) The registrar may establish, keep and maintain the register, books and indices required for the purpose of this Act by any means, whether chemical, electronic, mechanical or otherwise.
176 (1) The registrar must, on the written application of the registered owner in fee simple of land that is not subject to a registered mortgage or agreement for sale, issue a certificate to be known as a duplicate indefeasible title.
(2) A duplicate indefeasible title must contain all information contained in the register respecting the indefeasible title to the land in question together with all conditions, exceptions and reservations, charges, liens or interests to which the title of the applicant is subject.
(3) A duplicate indefeasible title must be in the prescribed form and must be certified by the registrar as an accurate statement of the information referred to in subsection (2) as it is stored in the register.
(4) The registrar must endorse a note in the register that the duplicate indefeasible title has been issued, and the registrar must not issue a second duplicate indefeasible title until the first one has been cancelled or deemed to be cancelled.
(5) The registrar may deliver a duplicate indefeasible title
(a) by mailing it to the person who made the application or the person named in the application for that purpose at the person's address set out in the application, or
(b) by personal delivery to that person, in which case the person to whom it is personally delivered must sign a receipt for it.
(6) Unless the registrar otherwise directs, a duplicate indefeasible title that is returned to a land title office is cancelled, whether or not a note of the cancellation is made on it.
177 If, on the registration of the title to land under an instrument or document, 2 or more persons are joint tenants, the registrar must enter in the register, following the names, addresses and occupations of those persons, the words "joint tenants".
178 (1) Despite section 158 (1), an indefeasible title must not cover more than one parcel unless the registrar permits a greater number to be covered.
(2) A registrar may require an application under section 158 (1) to be limited to the number of parcels that can be covered by an indefeasible title under subsection (1).
(3) The registrar may cancel an indefeasible title that covers more than one parcel and substitute in its place a single indefeasible title for each parcel that was covered by the cancelled title or any other combination that the registrar sees fit.
179 (1) Except as provided in the Strata Property Act and in Part 9, the owner of the surface of land is alone entitled to be or remain as registered owner of the fee simple, and the owner of a part of land above or below its surface who is not also the owner of the surface is only entitled to register that person's estate or interest as a charge.
(2) If no Crown grant of the surface has been registered, the registrar may enter the Crown in the register as owner of the surface.
(3) If the title of an owner to certain minerals or to certain timber or to an undivided interest in them is registered in the register of absolute fees and the owner applies to become the registered owner of other minerals or other timber in the same land or a further undivided interest in the minerals or timber, the registrar must
(a) consolidate the ownership of the minerals or timber or the interests in them, and register the title to them as a single charge in the register of indefeasible fees, subject to registered charges, if any, affecting that title, and
(b) cancel the entry in the register of absolute fees, together with any outstanding absolute certificate of title.
180 (1) If land vests in a personal representative or a trustee, that person's title may be registered, but particulars of a trust created or declared in respect of that land must not be entered in the register.
(2) In effecting registration in the name of a personal representative, the registrar must add, following the name and address of the personal representative, an endorsement containing any additional information that the registrar considers necessary to identify the estate of the testate or intestate and a reference by number to the trust instrument.
(3) In effecting registration in the name of a trustee, the registrar must add, following the name and address of the trustee, an endorsement containing the words "in trust" and a reference by number to the trust instrument.
(4) The trust instrument must be filed with the registrar with the application for registration of title.
(5) If an instrument, other than a will, creating or declaring a trust has been executed outside British Columbia, and also affects or deals with land or other property outside British Columbia, or the trusts of the instrument are being administered outside British Columbia, the registrar,
(a) on satisfactory proof of the facts and that the original instrument is required for use outside British Columbia, and
(b) on production of the original or a copy certified by the officer in charge of the public record office in which the original is filed,
may accept for filing the certified copy, or a copy that the registrar has compared with the original and certified as a true copy.
(6) A copy certified under subsection (5) has the same effect as the original.
(7) If an endorsement has been made in the register under subsection (2) or (3), an instrument purporting to transfer, mortgage or otherwise deal with the land must not be registered unless
(a) expressly authorized by law or by the instrument creating or declaring the trust, or
(b) an order has been obtained from the Supreme Court construing the instrument as authorizing the transfer, mortgage or other dealing, or ordering and directing the transfer, mortgage or other dealing, and a certified copy of the order has been filed with the registrar.
(8) Subsection (7) does not apply to a dealing in land by the Public Guardian and Trustee.
(9) If
(a) a registered owner appears on the face of the register to be beneficially entitled to land, and
(b) from an instrument creating or declaring a trust, it is established to the satisfaction of the registrar that the registered owner was at the time that person became registered and the person still is a trustee on the trusts set out in the instrument,
the registrar,
(c) on application, may make an endorsement in the register similar to that required under subsection (3) and of the date on which it is made, or
(d) if, in the registrar's opinion, the circumstances require, may register a new indefeasible title in the name of the trustee.
(10) If registration has been completed in accordance with this section and an instrument produced and filed is effective
(a) to modify the terms or conditions of the trust, or
(b) for the purpose of evidencing an alteration of or among the beneficiaries by operation of law, or on the happening of an event contemplated by the trust instrument, and not being a transfer or assignment of the rights of a beneficiary made while the transferor or assignor is living,
the registrar, on application, may add to the existing endorsement a note of the fact of the modification or alteration and of the filing number of the instrument.
181 (1) On an application to register a person as owner in fee simple of land under an instrument by which
(a) an estate or interest in the land transferred remains in the transferor,
(b) a restrictive covenant is entered into by the transferee for the benefit of other land registered in the name of the transferor, or
(c) a condition, exception, reservation, easement, statutory right of way or other right in or on the land covered by the application is imposed, reserved or created that, despite this section, could be registered as a charge under section 197,
the existing indefeasible title must be cancelled and the estate or interest remaining in, and the rights reserved to the transferor or imposed or created must, on application, be registered as a charge against the new indefeasible title.
(2) The applicant for the registration of the fee simple is authorized to make, on behalf of a transferor, any application necessary to give effect to subsection (1).
182 (1) If a restrictive covenant, easement or other incorporeal right is entered into or created for the purpose of being annexed to other land, hereinafter referred to as the dominant tenement, for which an indefeasible title has been registered, the registrar must make an endorsement of the covenant, easement or right, and of the instrument creating it, against the indefeasible title of the dominant tenement.
(2) A transfer of the land covered by an indefeasible title on which an endorsement under subsection (1) has been made transfers, without express mention, the benefit of the covenant, easement or right.
183 If a condition, exception, reservation, charge, lien or interest is carried forward from a former folio in the register to a new certificate of title, the new entry in the register has the same effect as the original entry, and for all purposes dates from the time when it was originally made in the register.
184 If the person purporting to transfer an estate in fee simple in land is alive and entitled to be registered as the owner in fee simple, the person to whom the transfer purports to be made must not be registered under it unless the person so purporting to transfer the estate is first registered as the owner in fee simple.
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Copyright (c) 2001: Queen's Printer, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada