Steps to Sell a House in British Columbia From Listing to Completion

Selling a house in British Columbia is a sequence of stages, and each one has its own paperwork and deadlines. If you have never sold before, it helps to see the whole path before you sign anything.

This article walks through the stages from hiring a brokerage to handing over the keys, and points out the rules that most affect you as a seller. It explains how things generally work; your contract and your facts decide the details, so confirm them with a lawyer.

This article covers the law of British Columbia.

Step 1: Choose who will help you and sign a listing agreement

In British Columbia, a person must not provide real estate services to or on behalf of another for remuneration unless they are licensed or exempt. The rule is aimed at people acting for others, not at an owner dealing with their own property. Exemptions include executors or administrators for estate-held real estate, trustees under a will, and practising lawyers in the course of practice.

If a brokerage will represent you in offering the property for sale, it must have a written service agreement (a listing agreement) with you unless you waive it, and it must be entered into before the brokerage represents you. The agreement must be signed by you and an authorized signatory of the brokerage. It must state the property address, effective date, expiry date, the services, and the remuneration and when it is payable.

Any later change to the agreement must be in writing and signed by both sides, and you must receive a copy of any written agreement immediately when it is signed.

Step 2: Market the home and receive offers

When an offer is presented, your licensee must give you a disclosure in the approved form showing what you pay the listing brokerage, any payment to the buyer's brokerage, the amount the listing brokerage keeps, and other remuneration, with money amounts stated in dollars.

• A brokerage must not act for both you and the buyer in the same trade. The only exception is a remote, under-served location where separate licensees are impracticable, and then it needs prior disclosure, a signed written dual agency agreement and a copy of the disclosure sent to the superintendent.
• Before providing services, the licensee must tell you, in the approved form, whether they will represent you as a client.

Step 3: Disclose known defects

A material latent defect is a material defect that cannot be found through a reasonable inspection. It includes a defect that makes the home dangerous or unfit for habitation, one that would be very expensive to fix, a circumstance a local government has said must be remedied, and a lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits.

Your licensee must promptly disclose known material latent defects to all other parties, before any agreement is entered into. If you instruct them not to disclose, they must refuse to provide further trading services to you for that trade. They need not disclose a defect to a party who has already received written disclosure of it from you. Whether you must complete a property disclosure statement is a separate question, so ask your lawyer before you list.

Step 4: Accept an offer, remove subjects and prepare to complete

A contract respecting land is generally enforceable if it is in a writing signed by the party to be charged. It can also be enforceable if that party acted in a way showing a contract was made, and paying or accepting a deposit counts as such an act. Treat an accepted offer as binding and read every condition and date before you sign.

How and when conditions (subjects) are removed depends on the wording of your contract, so have it reviewed. The Law and Equity Act lets the court relieve against penalties and forfeitures on terms it thinks fit, and it has no section expressly fixing deposit forfeiture, so a deposit dispute is not always simple.

• Tenanted home: a sale does not itself end a tenancy. Before possession, the seller gives the tenant a three month notice on form RTB-32P after a written request from the buyer; after possession, the buyer serves RTB-32L.
• The notice must be generated through the Residential Tenancy Branch web portal, one month's rent compensation is payable, and serving it cannot be a condition of the sale.

Step 5: Conveyancing, completion and possession

Your core completion obligation is to deliver to the buyer a transfer that can be registered under the Land Title Act. A lawyer can prepare it, and so can a notary public who is enrolled and in good standing. A notary not in good standing must not act, and a commissioned notary's powers may be limited to a geographic area.

The buyer, not you, pays property transfer tax and files the return when the transfer is registered. If you have a mortgage, your lender will be paid out from the sale proceeds. For a mortgage that runs more than five years, you may pay it off after five years with three months' interest in place of notice, though mortgages given by corporations are excluded. The completion and possession dates come from your contract, so follow them closely.

After the sale and what to do next

Report the sale of your principal residence on Schedule 3 of your T1 return, because the CRA will only allow the exemption if the sale and designation are reported. Form T2091 or T1255 must also be completed for 2017 and later sales.

• Ask a lawyer to review the listing agreement before you sign it.
• Gather permits, strata documents and any known defect information early.
• Confirm the dollar amounts in the remuneration disclosure when an offer arrives.
• Have a lawyer or notary review the contract, conditions and dates.
• Ask your lender for a payout statement.
• Speak to an accountant about reporting the sale.

Frequently asked questions