Restrictive Covenants on an Alberta Property Title Explained

You have seen a restrictive covenant on a title and want to know what it stops you from doing. Covenants often deal with how land can be used or built on.

This article explains how they are registered, who is bound, and how one can be changed. Whether a covenant limits your plans depends on its exact wording.

This article covers the law of Alberta.

What a restrictive covenant is

A restrictive covenant is a promise limiting how land can be used. Under the Land Titles Act, a restrictive covenant may be registered as annexed to registered land for the benefit of other registered land. A memorandum is entered on the certificates of title of the burdened (servient) and benefited (dominant) parcels.

The title is the starting point for finding a covenant. A certificate of title is the record of the title to land kept by the Registrar, and the Registrar must record on it the particulars of instruments, caveats and other dealings affecting the land. A land title shows the current owner, mortgages, caveats, easements, contractor claims against the property and other registered interests.

• Alberta's land registration system is based on the Torrens system and is administered under the Land Titles Act.
• Once a certificate of title is granted, no instrument is effectual to pass an estate or interest in the land unless it is executed and registered under the Act, although a leasehold of three years or less can pass without registration.
• A registered instrument becomes operative according to its tenor and intent.

Who is bound and who can enforce

Later owners are deemed to have notice of a registered covenant that runs with the land, and to be bound by it. This is why buying without reading the title and the covenant is risky.

Calling a covenant 'running with the land' does not make it run if its nature or wording would not otherwise allow it. Whether a particular covenant is enforceable is a question for a lawyer who has read it.

An owner holds the land subject to the encumbrances, liens, estates and interests endorsed on the certificate of title. The title does not show everything, though. Land is also subject, without being mentioned on the title, to matters such as unpaid taxes, public highways and rights of way granted under Alberta law.

A person claiming an interest in land can file a caveat, and the Registrar then makes a memorandum of it on the certificate of title and sends notice to the person against whose title it is registered. An instrument registered after a caveat and affecting the land is subject to the claim of the caveator.

Can it be discharged or ignored?

You should not simply ignore a registered covenant. A registered restrictive covenant may be modified or discharged by court order, including where it conflicts with a land use bylaw or statutory plan, if the change is in the public interest.

• A caveat protecting a restrictive covenant running with the land is not subject to the s.138 lapse process.
• That caveat may be modified or discharged only by court order under s.48.
• Certain caveats protecting covenants with an identified dominant tenement may be withdrawn only by the registered owner of the dominant tenement.
• An easement, restrictive covenant, party wall or encroachment registration is cancelled on a prescribed discharge signed by the registered owner of the dominant tenement.

An affected owner may also apply for the Registrar to cancel such an instrument. Which route fits depends on the wording of the covenant and who owns the benefited land, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer.

Covenants compared with other title entries

No easement may be acquired by prescription, so an easement must be created by registered instrument or statute rather than long use. A registered encroachment agreement binds later owners as if it were an easement.

What to do next

A current title search needs one of a legal description, a land identification number code (LINC) or a title number. Titles can be searched through the Spatial Information System (SPIN2) or a registry agent, and since May 29, 2025 you can also search and pay for titles in the Alberta Registry for Land Online (ARLO).

• Get a current title search.
• Obtain a copy of the covenant document, since the title entry may only summarize it.
• Check it against your plans and any land use bylaw.
• Identify the benefited land and its owner.
• Ask a lawyer about options before you build or sign a purchase contract.

If you want a covenant changed, a lawyer can explain whether agreement with the benefited owner or a court application is the realistic path. If a document is later filed at Land Titles, it is placed in a queue and processed according to the date received, and current processing times are available through SPIN II. Incomplete or improper requests may be returned for correction or rejected in certain cases.

Frequently asked questions