Practice area

Buying or selling privately in British Columbia

In a listed sale, two agents quietly do a great deal of work: drafting the contract, holding the deposit, ordering strata documents, and chasing signatures. In a private sale none of that is assigned to anyone, and it defaults to whoever notices first. This page sets out what has to be picked up, who picks it up, and where private deals actually come apart.

Typically · you
Subject removal
The date your conditions come off and the deal becomes firm. Financing, inspection and strata document review all have to be done by now. Your contract sets this date, not us.
If it slips
The contract can collapse. If you are not ready, the extension has to be agreed in writing before the deadline passes rather than after.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Set by law
Rescission period ends
The home buyer rescission period set by the Property Law Act, which runs from acceptance and lets a buyer back out of a residential purchase on payment of a fee. It applies whether or not anyone mentions it.
If it slips
This one does not slip. It runs from acceptance on a fixed basis and cannot be extended by agreement.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · you
Your file opens with us
We receive your contract, verify your identity, and check the completion, possession and adjustment dates against each other. The earlier this happens the more room there is to fix anything.
If it slips
Everything downstream compresses. A file that opens late is the most common reason a completion runs tight.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · us
Title search and strata documents ordered
We search title for what is registered against the property, and on a strata we order the Form B and the associated records. This is where anything unexpected surfaces.
If it slips
A charge nobody knew about, found late, is a much bigger problem than the same charge found early.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · your lender
Lender instructions received
Your lender sends us their mortgage instructions and we prepare the documents. They arrive on the lender's schedule rather than ours, so we chase them instead of waiting.
If it slips
This is the single most common cause of a late completion. We will tell you as soon as a date looks at risk rather than on the morning it fails.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · you
Document signing
You sign the transfer, the mortgage and the statement of adjustments, at our office, at yours, or remotely anywhere in the province. Bring identification.
If it slips
Signing has to happen with enough room to get documents where they need to be. Tell us early if you will be away.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · you
Funds to our trust account
Your balance of funds arrives by bank draft or wire. Never by email instruction, and never in response to a message that changes our banking details.
If it slips
Without cleared funds we cannot complete. This is a hard stop rather than a soft one.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · us
Completion
We register the transfer and the mortgage at the Land Title Office, the money is released to the seller's lawyer, and the property becomes yours.
If it slips
Registration and the release of funds happen in a set order. A late advance can push completion to the next business day, and your contract governs what that means for you.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file
Typically · your realtor
Possession
The day you can physically move in and collect the keys. Frequently the day after completion rather than the same day.
If it slips
Possession is set by your contract. Confirm the key handover arrangement with your agent rather than assuming it.
Your contract sets these dates. Everything between them is our work: the searches, the lender's instructions, the signing, the registration.
Start your file

Set by lawStandard practice, typically

Select a milestone for what happens there, and what it costs if it slips.

General information based on standard practice in British Columbia. Your contract governs your actual dates. This is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor-client relationship.

A quiet suburban street of two storey homes with mature cedars, mountains faint on the horizon, in late afternoon light.

Who this is for

Private sale

You are buying from or selling to someone directly, with no agent involved on either side. Often that is a family member, a neighbour, a tenant buying the home they live in, or two people who found each other without a listing. The transfer itself is no harder than any other. Everything around it is.

The work

What we do

01Draft or review the contract of purchase and sale before either of you signs, including subject clauses that actually protect the person relying on them and a realistic date for each one.
02Set out, in writing, who is responsible for what and by when. In a listed sale this happens by habit. In a private sale it happens because someone wrote it down.
03Hold the deposit in our trust account on written terms that say when it is released and what happens if the deal does not complete. Deposits should not pass directly between the parties.
04Order the title search, and for a strata, the Form B and the records a listing agent would normally have gathered: minutes, financials, the depreciation report, bylaws, and the insurance summary.
05Prepare or review the property disclosure statement, and explain plainly what it does and does not protect you against.
06Establish whether GST applies to the sale, which turns on what the property is and who is selling it rather than on how the deal was found.
07Prepare the transfer, the property transfer tax return, the transparency declaration, and the mortgage documents where there is financing.
08Complete: sign, register at the Land Title Office, exchange funds, and confirm the keys and the possession arrangements.

Your part

What we need from you

Gathering these early is the single biggest thing you can do to keep a file on schedule.

Two pieces of government-issued identificationOne has to carry your photograph. In a private sale nobody has verified the other party either, so this matters more, not less.
Everyone's full legal name exactly as it appears on identification and on titlePrivate contracts are usually written with the names people go by. A transfer has to use the registered legal name, and a mismatch found late is a real delay.
The contract, or the terms you have agreed so farIf nothing is drafted yet, send us what you have agreed on price, dates and conditions. It is much easier to write a contract than to fix one written on a downloaded form.
The deposit, and agreement on who holds itThere is no brokerage trust account in a private deal. Money handed directly to a seller before completion is difficult to recover if the deal falls apart.
Strata contact details, if the property is a strata lotNobody is ordering the Form B and the records unless we do. These take time to produce and they are exactly the documents a buyer should read before subjects come off.
Your lender and mortgage broker, if you are financingA lender may ask for more on a private sale, including an appraisal, because there is no listing history to look at. Start the approval before you set a completion date.
Fire insurance naming your lender, if you are the buyerNo lender advances money without it, and there is no agent reminding you.

Risk

Watch for

The things that actually derail this kind of file, rather than the ones that sound alarming.

Nobody is chasing the documents

Strata records, the disclosure statement, the survey, a signature on an amendment: in a listed sale two agents push these along daily. In a private sale the task belongs to nobody until it is late. We set a document list with dates at the start of the file and work it, because otherwise the first time anyone notices is the week of completion.

Subject clauses that do not do what the parties think

A subject to financing with no date, a subject with no clear benefit stated, or a condition removed by conduct rather than in writing. Private contracts written on a downloaded form fail here more than anywhere else, and the argument only starts once one side wants out.

A missing property disclosure statement

There is no legal requirement for one in a private sale, and buyers frequently proceed without it. It is a statement of what the seller knows, not a warranty, but its absence removes the buyer's main written record of what was said about the property. Where there is no statement, the answer is a proper inspection and a subject clause with teeth.

The assumption that one lawyer can act for both of you

We act for one side. The circumstances in which a lawyer may act for both parties to a land transfer are narrow, require informed written consent from both, and end the moment the two of you disagree about anything. If you are told partway through that we can no longer act for both, that is the rule working, and it is a costly point at which to be finding a second lawyer.

Questions

Common questions

Can we both use the same lawyer?

Usually not. Our duty is to one client and a private sale has two parties with genuinely opposed interests on price, dates, condition and risk. The exceptions where a lawyer can act for both parties to a transfer are narrow and require informed written consent from both. The practical answer is that each of you gets your own lawyer and the deal runs faster for it.

Who holds the deposit if there is no realtor?

A lawyer's trust account, on written terms agreed by both of you before the money moves. The terms should say what triggers release and what happens if the deal collapses. A deposit paid directly to the seller is not protected, and getting it back means a claim rather than a phone call.

Can you write the contract for us?

We can draft it for the party we act for, and the other party should have their own lawyer review it. That is the normal way this works. What we will not do is write a contract that both of you rely on us for, because the moment there is a disagreement about a term, we cannot advise either of you on it.

Do we still need a property disclosure statement?

It is not required, but it is worth having. It records what the seller actually knows about the property at the time of sale. For a buyer it is a written record; for a seller, completing it honestly is protection against a later claim that something was concealed. Neither replaces an inspection.

Is a private sale riskier than a listed one?

The transfer itself is no different. What is different is that the coordination, the document gathering, and the drafting have to be deliberately assigned instead of happening by default. Deals that go wrong privately almost always go wrong on those three things rather than on anything legal about the property.

Talk to us about your file

We quote your file in writing before we start work, so the number on your statement of adjustments is the number you agreed to.

Start your file Send us your file: Purchase Send us your file: Sale