How to Read a BC Title Search, and What Every Charge on It Means

A title search in British Columbia is one or two pages. Most buyers look at it once, see the seller's mortgage, and put it down.

The mortgage is the single line on that page that is guaranteed to go away. Everything else deserves the reading.

What the search shows you

The Land Title and Survey Authority, usually shortened to LTSA, keeps the register of land ownership for the province. A title search is a printout of what the register holds for one parcel on the day you ask.

It gives you four things.

The legal description. The formal identity of the parcel, written as a lot, block, plan and district lot. This is the description that appears in your contract of purchase and sale. A civic address has no legal meaning by itself.

The Parcel Identifier, or PID. A nine-digit number unique to that parcel. It is the key you use to order anything else about the property, and it is the safest way to confirm you are looking at the right lot.

The registered owner in fee simple. The name or names of the current owners, and how they hold it. Joint tenancy and tenancy in common are written differently here, and the difference matters when one owner dies.

Charges, Liens and Interests. The section this article is about. Every registered interest another party holds in the land, each with its own registration number.

There are also legal notations, which flag things the registrar wants a reader to see, such as a filed subdivision plan or a designation affecting the parcel.

What a charge is

A charge is an interest in the land that falls short of ownership. Somebody other than the owner holds a right connected to that parcel, and they have registered it so every future buyer, lender and lawyer can see it.

The registration number beside each entry is not decoration. It points to the full document sitting in the land title office. The one-line summary on the title search tells you a covenant exists. The document tells you what it says. Those are different amounts of information, and buyers regularly stop at the first one.

The charges you will actually see

Mortgage. The lender's security for a loan. The amount is usually not shown on the title search, only the lender and the registration. A seller's mortgage is paid out of the sale proceeds on completion and the lender registers a discharge.

Statutory right of way. Created under section 218 of the Land Title Act. A utility, a municipality or a similar body holds the right to use a defined strip of your land for something it needs to operate and maintain: a hydro line, a sewer main, a water main, a storm drain. You own the strip. You cannot build a permanent structure on it. This one runs with the land.

Easement. A right held by a neighbouring parcel over yours, or by yours over a neighbour's. A shared driveway is the classic case. One title carries the burden, another holds the benefit, and both descriptions sit in the registered document. Also permanent.

Covenant under Section 219. The Land Title Act allows the Crown, Crown corporations, municipalities, regional districts and certain designated bodies to register a promise about how land may be used or built on. It binds every owner who comes after. Municipalities use them to cap the number of dwellings, to protect trees or a watercourse, to prevent building over ground with drainage or slope concerns, and to lock in conditions attached to a rezoning.

Building scheme. A set of rules registered across every lot in a subdivision when it was created. Minimum floor area, exterior materials, fencing, sometimes where a boat or camper may be parked. Enforceable by the other owners in the scheme.

No-build covenant. A Section 219 covenant that keeps a defined area of the lot clear of structures. Often over a drainage path, a steep bank, a tree retention area, or a strip a municipality wants kept open.

Restrictive covenant. An older private restriction on how the land is used, carried forward from a previous owner's agreement. Some historical ones are unenforceable, and the answer depends on the exact wording, so ask your lawyer instead of deciding it yourself.

Rent charge. A registered obligation to pay money out of the land on a recurring basis, often used to secure the performance of an agreement rather than to collect rent in the ordinary sense.

Judgment. A court decision registered against the owner's interest by a creditor who is owed money. It attaches to that owner and is cleared on completion, with funds held back until the discharge is registered.

Builders lien. A claim registered by a contractor, supplier or worker who was not paid for work on the property. The Builders Lien Act sets the filing deadlines. If you are buying a house that was recently renovated or built, this is one to check on the day of completion as well as at the offer stage.

Option to purchase. A registered right allowing someone to buy the property on set terms within a set period. If one is on title, the seller's ability to sell to you may be limited.

Right of first refusal. A registered right allowing someone to match an offer before the property can be sold to a third party. Same effect: it needs resolving before a sale can complete cleanly.

Land Use Contract. An agreement between a municipality and an owner from the 1970s, when the Municipal Act permitted them. They set out what could be built and were registered against title. The province required them to be terminated, and where one still appears, ask the municipality what zoning now applies before you plan anything.

Two piles: what goes and what stays

Sort every charge into one of two groups. This is the part that changes what you own.

Discharged on completion. Charges secured against the seller as a person. The seller's mortgage, a judgment against the seller, a builders lien for work the seller ordered. Money from the sale clears them, and your lawyer or notary confirms each discharge is registered before the last of the funds is released.

Running with the land. Charges attached to the parcel itself. Rights of way, easements, Section 219 covenants, building schemes, Land Use Contracts. You take the property subject to them. When you sell, the next buyer does too. Getting one removed means persuading whoever holds it to discharge it, and a municipality holding a covenant it put there for drainage has little reason to agree.

When a charge changes what you can build

A right of way across the back of a lot. A Marpole or South Vancouver lot with a utility right of way along the rear cannot carry a foundation on that strip. On a standard 33-foot lot, giving up a few metres at the back can remove a garden suite or a laneway house from the plan. If the reason you are paying for that lot is the extra dwelling, the right of way is the deal. Our Marpole and South Vancouver multiplex guide covers what the rules allow there before charges are taken into account.

A Section 219 covenant limiting dwellings. Provincial small-scale housing rules opened up multiple units on many single-family lots, and a covenant registered against that specific parcel can still cap what goes on it. Read the covenant before you count units. The same goes for a lot you are buying with a carriage house in mind, which we walk through in carriage houses and garden cottages.

A building scheme in an older subdivision. A minimum house size or a materials rule from the 1960s can still bind the lot, even where current zoning would allow something different.

Ordering one, and who does it

Your lawyer or notary orders the title search as part of the conveyancing, and pulls the registered documents behind the charges. This is standard work included in the file, not an extra you have to request. A realtor can also pull a title search during the offer stage, which is when it is most useful to you.

To order one yourself, the LTSA sells title searches through an online account and over the counter at land title offices, for a fee. You need the legal description or the PID. A civic address alone will not run the search, and ParcelMap BC converts an address into the identifiers you need.

One instruction is worth giving out loud: ask for the charge documents, not only the title search. A line reading "Covenant" with a number beside it tells you nothing about what the covenant restricts.

Duplicate indefeasible title

An owner whose land carries no registered mortgage or agreement for sale can apply in writing for a paper certificate of the title, called a duplicate indefeasible title. It sets out everything the register holds for that parcel, certified by the registrar.

It matters for one practical reason. Once a duplicate has been issued, the registrar rejects later applications that require it to be on file, so the certificate has to be surrendered and cancelled before a transfer or a new charge can be registered. An older owner who requested one decades ago and no longer knows where it is can delay a completion while the replacement process runs. Conveyancers check for this early, because the title search carries a note saying a duplicate was issued.

Timing it against your subjects

Read the title search and the charge documents inside your subject period, next to the inspection and the strata documents. Our home inspection checklist covers the physical side of the same window.

Writing without subjects means giving up that reading. Every charge on title becomes yours with no chance to walk away, which is one more cost in the calculation we set out in what subject-free offers really mean.

What this comes down to

• A title search gives you the legal description, PID, registered owner, and the Charges, Liens and Interests section.
• Each charge carries a registration number pointing to the full document. Read the document.
• The seller's mortgage, judgments and builders liens are cleared on completion.
• Rights of way, easements, Section 219 covenants, building schemes and Land Use Contracts stay with the land and become yours.
• A right of way or a no-build covenant can remove a garden suite or laneway house from a lot before you start.
• A duplicate indefeasible title blocks registration until it is surrendered and cancelled.
• Your lawyer or notary orders all of this as standard. Ask for the charge documents by name.
• Contact our team to pull title on an address you are considering, or browse listings.

Plan your next step

Run neighbourhood checks alongside the title work, because a right of way or a covenant often explains something you noticed about the block. If you are comparing two lots with different charges on them, comparing homes sets out how to weigh differences that do not show up in the asking price.