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In This Volume

  • 1 In this Act:
  • “disposition” means any disposition by an act between living persons that is required to be executed by the owner of the land disposed of, and includes
  • (a) a transfer, agreement of sale, assignment of an agreement for sale, lease or other instrument intended to convey or transfer any interest in land,
  • (b) a mortgage or encumbrance intended to charge land with the payment of money, and required to be so executed,
  • (c) a devise or other disposition made by will, and
  • (d) a mortgage by deposit of duplicate indefeasible title or indefeasible title, or other mortgage not requiring the execution of any document;
  • “entry” means an entry made in the register of land titles under section 2;
  • “homestead” means land or any interest in it entitling the owner to possession of it that is registered in the records of the land title office in the name of the spouse and on which there is a dwelling occupied by the spouses as their residence, or that has been so occupied within the period of one year immediately preceding the date of the making of the application under section 2.
  • “spouse” means a person who
  • (a) is married to another person, or
  • (b) has lived with another person in a marriage-like relationship for a continuous period of at least 2 years.

2011-25-388; 2011-25-389, effective March 18, 2013 (B.C. Reg. 131/2012).

CROSS REFERENCES AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Strata Lot as Homestead

See s. 291(4) of the Strata Property Act, S.B.C. 1998, c. 43, which provides:

291 (4) For the purposes of the Land (Spouse Protection) Act, a strata lot is deemed to be land on which a building is located.

CASE LAW

Homesteads

Where an apartment building is registered in the name of one spouse, and two spouses occupy an apartment in that building, that apartment is a homestead (Read v. Read, 1950 CanLII 499 (BC CA)).

The interest held by a spouse as joint tenant or as tenant in common is a homestead (Pietrzykowski v. Pietrzykowski (1966), Nanaimo P334/1966).

Dispositions

A disposition of a homestead made before an entry under the Act is a good disposition, whether or not the instrument showing the disposition has been registered in the land title office. The purpose of the Act is to protect a spouse so that once that spouse has made a valid entry the other spouse cannot dispose of the homestead without the first spouse’s consent. If, however, the second spouse disposes of the homestead before the first spouse makes an entry, then, while the registrar may accept the entry and mark it up against title, it is not a valid entry. It becomes an entry which ought not to have been made under s. 12 of the Act. The effect of an entry upon pending applications is not that of a caveat or a certificate of lis pendens (Wife’s Protection Act (Linton’s Case), [1951] 3 W.W.R. (N.S.) 509 (B.C.S.C.)).