Real Estate Law Blog

Canada has recently introduced legislation to implement an Underused Housing Tax (UHT).^[1] (You can read our blog on this legislation here) The UHT will apply to non-resident, non-Canadian owners of residential property. As others have pointed out, the UHT contains some unusual policy choices.^[2] For example, if the goal of the UHT is to increase housing supply, it should ...

Over the last few months, the Underused Housing Tax Act (the “Act”) has moved through the House of Commons and is currently in the final steps of the report stage. If the Act is ultimately brought into force, it will implement an annual tax of 1% on the vacant or underused residential real estate, directly or indirectly owned by non-Canadians.

Whom does the Underused ...

What happens when an individual buyer or seller dies prior to the completion of a transaction involving real estate? This blog post discusses the complications that can arise in real estate transactions where there is a piece of land under contract and the individual seller or buyer dies prior to the completion of the transaction.

At common law, a contract may be discharged or ...

In a recent decision, the B.C. Supreme Court confirmed the validity of a relatively common form of allocation of parking stalls and storage lockers in condominium developments.

The case One West Holdings Ltd. v. The Owners, Strata Plan LMS 2995 (“One West”) involved a strata development in Vancouver. During the development process, but before the strata plan was ...

The B.C. government announced on November 2, 2021 that it will be extending the deadline for pre-existing owners to file with the Land Owner Transparency Registry, giving reporting bodies with an interest in land more time to file a transparency report without incurring penalties.

The Province has heard from lawyers (including Lawson Lundell lawyers) and others that ...

As of November 30, 2020, any landowner or tenant applying to register certain interests in land (a transfer or certain leases) also had to file a transparency declaration with the Land Owner Transparency Registry (“LOTR”). Each transferee that is a “reporting body” as defined by the Land Owner Transparency Act (“LOTA”) also had to file a transparency report ...

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 ...