If you have the money or you can get a lender to get you the money you can buy real estate in BC without a sweat. The Title Registration process in BC can be ranked as one of the most evolved in the world. It protects buyers from frauds.
Fee Simple Title
When a person buys property he or she is acquiring a ‘Fee Simple’ Title to the property. The proportion of rights held by the owner in a property can be inherited by anyone. The Fee Simple ownership devolves greatest bundle of rights to the property owner.
Conveyance of Property (Sale)
When a person sells real estate, you require a representative to act on your behalf to receive funds, discharge the existing mortgage, pay out your outstanding debts if any and pay you the sale proceeds. Mostly there is adequate time at hand to undertake these transactions however, sometimes the completion date is too soon to obtain appropriate discharge information from the Lender and other affected stakeholders. This may entail holdback of money or force you to incur additional expenses.
If the property being sold is on rent and the buyer intends to live in the property, we need to ensure that adequate notice is given to the tenant in accordance with Residential Tenancy Act and other guidelines under Residential Tenancy Act.
The contract must identify if any appliances or moveable property currently a part of the property being sold is to stay with the property as part of the sale. There should be enough clarity in the contract to avoid any differences at the time of handing over of property.
Conveyance of Property (Purchase)
As the term suggests it is conveying the property from the current owner (seller) to the buyer (prospective owner). This process commences when you get into a contract to buy or sell with the help of your real estate agent. When we act to assist you in purchase of real estate, we do our due diligence to ensure that you are protected from fraud, since it is invariably the most expensive purchase one makes in a life time.
We examine the Title and bring to your notice any red flags which may affect the proposed use of the property. We prepare Form ‘A’ transfer. This form is signed by the present owner in front of a Lawyer or Notary, it confirms that the current owners agrees to transfer the ownership at the price which has been agreed upon in the Contract for Purchase and Sale. We also prepare Property Transfer Tax (PTT) form for you. It is mandatory to pay PTT in BC whenever there is transfer of property. There are exemptions to first time homebuyers and some other transfers based on the guidelines of Ministry of Finance BC. We order Tax Certificate from the City to ascertain if there are any outstanding taxes or the property has been flagged as a grow up or has any other violation listed against it. For Strata Properties we obtain Form B and Form F from Strata Management Company to determine any dues or assessment which has not been paid by the current owner. We also notify you if there is an assessment coming up based on the disclosure in the Form B.
Based on above documents we prepare Buyer’s and Seller’s Statement of Adjustment. These adjustments are based on the date of purchase of property and depends on the dues paid by the seller and what is required to be paid in future during the year. We send the sellers documents to the Seller’s Lawyer/Notary for signatures of the Seller.
We also order a copy of Strata plan and make the purchaser of a Strata Property confirm that the we have prepared the documents for property contracted to be purchased. We require the purchase funds to be deposited in our trust account prior to registering of transfer. Some lenders do not remit the mortgage funds till the registration of the property and the mortgage on the property is done. In such cases we intimate the registration details to the Lender to facilitate remittance of funds in to our Trust Account.
Once we have registered the Transfer and Mortgage as applicable to the property, we send the sale proceeds to the Seller’s lawyer with an undertaking to discharge any existing mortgage on the property. On receipt of confirmation of discharge of mortgage, we order the State of Title Certificate from The Land Title Office and forward the same to the Lender and endorse a copy to you.
