How to Transfer a House After Death: Executors in British Columbia

If you are the executor or administrator of someone who owned a house in British Columbia, the title does not move on its own. Someone has to apply to the Land Title Office, and what you file depends on how the deceased owned the property.

This article walks through the usual steps, from working out the type of ownership to registering the house in the heirs' names or preparing it for sale. It is general information, and each estate has its own wrinkles.

This article covers the law of British Columbia.

Step one: find out how title was held

Get a current title search. It shows whether the deceased held alone, as joint tenants or as tenants in common. That single fact drives everything else.

If there is a surviving joint tenant

To transmit title to a surviving joint tenant, the registrar needs either a certified copy of the grant of probate or administration, or a certificate of death issued by the appropriate public officer. A grant is not always required, and the application is made on Form 17 with Transmission to Surviving Joint Tenant as the nature of interest.

• If there are more than two joint tenants, the survivors continue to hold as joint tenants.
• If the survivor also dies before transmitting, title must be registered to that survivor's personal representative.
• For simultaneous deaths, or deaths within 5 days of each other after March 30, 2014, s. 5 or s. 10 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act applies instead of simple survivorship.

The online application is for owners who are individuals holding as joint tenants. It does not apply if title shows tenants in common or no tenancy type, and if an owner is a corporation, trustee or limited-partnership partner, you should contact a legal professional. The filing needs an original government-issued death document, and photocopies, notarized copies and funeral director's certificates are not accepted. Registration typically takes 10 to 15 business days.

Government fees at the time of writing include a $82.52 registration fee per parcel, a $10.30 transparency declaration fee and a $3.40 online service charge plus 5% GST, with no fee to file the Property Transfer Tax Return. These amounts change, so confirm them when you file. Property transfer tax exemption code 08 covers a transfer to the survivor of a joint tenancy on a death.

If you must act as personal representative

Where there is no survivorship, the estate vests in a person appointed as personal representative without further declaration or order, and land must be registered in the personal representative's name before further dealings are registered. That usually means you first need a grant of probate or administration from the court.

To register the deceased's interest in your name as personal representative, the Land Title Office requires:

• A court-certified copy of the Grant of Probate or Grant of Administration.
• A court-certified disclosure statement listing the deceased's land or charges.
• A Form 17 for each parcel.
• A Property Transfer Tax Return.

Exemption code 09 covers a transfer to a personal representative of the deceased. Whether any shortcut exists for a small estate with a sole owner is something to confirm with a lawyer, since a grant is generally what the Land Title Office requires in these cases.

Moving the house to heirs or a buyer

Once title is in your name as personal representative, you can deal with the property. A personal representative must not distribute the estate within 210 days after the grant issues except by court order. For estates with a will, distribution within that period is allowed with the consent of specified parties, and for intestacy it requires consent of all intestate successors entitled to a share. A sale to a buyer is a different step, and you should speak to a lawyer about timing and the contract.

Exemption code 40 covers a transfer to an estate beneficiary who was a related individual of the deceased at the time of death.

Without a will, the law decides who inherits. A spouse with no surviving descendants takes the whole intestate estate. With a spouse and descendants, the spouse takes the household furnishings and a preferential share of $300,000 if all descendants are shared with the spouse, or $150,000 if not; if the net estate is smaller than that share, the spouse takes everything, and the residue is split one half to the spouse and one half to the descendants. With no spouse, the estate goes to descendants, then parents, siblings and more remote relatives. Two people are spouses if married, or if they lived in a marriage-like relationship for at least 2 years.

What to do next

• Order a current title search and confirm how the deceased held title.
• Gather the original death certificate and the will, if there is one.
• Apply for a grant if the deceased was a sole owner or tenant in common.
• Prepare the Form 17, disclosure statement and Property Transfer Tax Return.
• Hold off on distributing until the 210-day rule is satisfied.
• Speak to a lawyer before transferring to beneficiaries or selling.

Frequently asked questions