Land Title Practice Manual

22 Operation Of Instrument As From Time Of Registration

In This Volume

  • 22 An instrument purporting to transfer, charge, deal with or affect land or an estate or interest in land passes the estate or interest, either at law or in equity, created or covered by the instrument at the time of its registration, irrespective of the date of its execution.

1979-219-22.

PRACTICE

Registration of Instrument Conveys Legal Interest

This section abrogates the common law rule that the date of delivery is prima facie the effective date of the instrument.

CROSS REFERENCES AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Registration Effective from Time of Application

See s. 37 of the Act, which provides that every registered instrument or application “is deemed to have been registered and to have become operative … as of the date and time when the application was received by the registrar”. See also s. 153 of the Act, which provides that the day and hour written or stamped by the registrar on an application “is deemed to be the time at which the application was made”.

Priorities

See also s. 28 of the Act regarding the priority of charges based on priority of registration, and see the Law Reform Commission of British Columbia, Report on The Crown as Creditor: Priorities and Privileges (1982), regarding the priority of Crown liens.

CASE LAW

Attachment of Unregistered Crown Liens

Depending on the wording of the particular statute creating the lien, a Crown lien for unpaid taxes generally arises and attaches when the liability for the taxes arises and not when the taxes become due. In this case, a Crown lien arose and attached under the Corporation Capital Tax Act at the end of the debtor corporation’s fiscal year and, under the terms of that Act, the lien ranked subsequent in priority to claims already secured by liens, charges, and encumbrances registered at that time and ahead of all other claims, liens, charges, and encumbrances as if registration of the Crown lien had occurred on the date that the lien arose and attached. When the lien arose and attached, it secured not only the liability for the tax itself but also the then contingent liability for penalties and interest in relation to the tax if the tax liability was not discharged as promptly as the Act required (Roadburg v. R., 1980 CanLII 407 (BC CA), supplemental reasons, 1981 CanLII 509 (BC CA); followed in Roynat Inc. v. Glen Lake Village Inn Ltd., 1986 CanLII 865 (BC SC). Note that the Corporation Capital Tax Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 73 was repealed effective April 1, 2010, by 2010-2-66.