137 Cancellation Of Interior Lines

REGULATIONS AND FORMS

Application for Cancellation of Interior Lot Lines

The director has approved the use of Form 14, Application for Cancellation of Interior Lot Lines. The use of Form 14 is compulsory.

Submissions

On the Form 17 Fee Simple, select Nature of Interest, Application for Cancellation of Interior Lot Lines, and attach an image of the originally signed Form 14.

PRACTICE

Application

For s. 137 to apply, the lots must be within one plan, and must be intact; meaning there may be no exceptions from the legal description. Section 100 of the Act is the appropriate section for a consolidation of lots that are not within the same plan or that contain exceptions in the legal description.

Equivalent Estates Required to Consolidate

In order to consolidate parcels of land, the estates held in each parcel must be equivalent. Where the estates held are themselves different (as distinct from being encumbered by different charges), appropriate steps must be taken to achieve equivalence in advance of the consolidation. This issue has arisen in the context of applications to cancel interior lines dividing two or more contiguous parcels where one of these is held in determinable fee (i.e., subject to a right of reverter) and the other is held in a greater estate, typically fee simple.

Equivalence of titles cannot be achieved by execution of an “extension agreement” purporting to extend the right of reverter elements in one parcel over a second parcel. A right of reverter is created by reservations in the grant of land from a previous owner and a recipient (or later) determinable fee owner cannot purport to release those reservations. Similarly, the holder of a fee simple interest in land cannot purport to add reservations into the grant of land that the holder owns. Additions or limitations in the grant must be made or released by the grantor on transfer.

Registrar Distributes Copies of Application

On granting an application, the registrar sends a copy of the application to all taxing authorities shown on the title and, if the land is located outside a municipality, to the board of the regional district.

Updating the Register

The registrar cancels the indefeasible titles to the lots that are the subject of a successful interior lot line cancellation application and issues a new indefeasible title for the new parcel. The legal description for the new parcel contains a reference to the former lots, for example:

PARCEL A (BEING A CONSOLIDATION OF LOTS 1 AND 2, SEE KX12345)

BLOCK 8 DISTRICT LOT 123 LILLOOET DISTRICT PLAN 456

The registrar also notes the cancellation of the interior lot lines in the marginal notes segment of the short legal screen, for example:

S/456///8//1

NOW PCL A OF THIS BLOCK AND PLAN

The registrar does not make an amendment to the plan to indicate the cancellation of the interior lot line.

Effect of Cancellation of Interior Lot Line

After an interior lot line has been cancelled, it cannot be restored except in compliance with the subdivision requirements under this Act. Accordingly, the approval of the approving officer is required.