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In This Volume

  • 386 (1) There must be paid to the registrar,
  • (a) in respect of the matters in the regulations, the respective fees prescribed or other fees the Lieutenant Governor in Council may establish by regulation, and
  • (b) in respect of services provided by the registrar, the Surveyor General or persons under the direction of the registrar or Surveyor General, the respective fees the Board of Directors may establish by bylaw.
  • (2) The registrar must pay all fees received by the registrar, except fees established by the Board of Directors, into the consolidated revenue fund.
  • (3) Payment of fees must be made at the time
  • (a) an application is tendered to the registrar,
  • (b) an instrument is filed with the registrar, or
  • (c) a request is made for the performance by the registrar of an act or duty,
  • otherwise the application or instrument must not be received or the request complied with.
  • (3.1) Payment of fees required by this section in respect of the registration of an electronic application, electronic instrument or electronic plan application, as those terms are defined in Part 10.1, may be made by electronic means in accordance with the regulations made under subsection (3.2).
  • (3.2) The Board of Directors may make regulations respecting the manner in which payment of fees by electronic means is to be made under subsection (3.1).
  • (4) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may prescribe fees for
  • (a) the conduct of a search of the records contained in the registry, whether or not the search is conducted by persons under the registrar’s direction, and
  • (b) the obtaining of a copy of any record contained in the registry, whether or not the copy is obtained with the assistance of persons under the registrar’s direction.
  • (4.1) Without limiting subsection (1)(b), the Board of Directors may establish, by bylaw, fees for matters referred to in subsection (4).
  • (5) Payment of fees prescribed under subsection (4) or established under subsection (4.1) must be made at the time the search is conducted or the copy obtained.
  • (6) If an application is refused or withdrawn, the registrar must refund the balance of fees over and above the amount properly payable.
  • (7) [repealed]
  • (7.1) The government is exempt from paying any fees payable under this section.
  • (8) If, in the minister’s opinion, it is in the public interest to do so, the minister may
  • (a) exempt any person from the payment of all or part of any fee authorized under this Act, except a fee established by the Board of Directors, or
  • (b) order that all or part of a fee received by a registrar, except a fee established by the Board of Directors, be reimbursed to a designated person who paid it.
  • (9) If an order is made under subsection (8)(b), the minister charged with the administration of the Financial Administration Act must pay to the designated person, the amount of the fee to be reimbursed.
  • (10) The minister may remit to the administrator under the Property Transfer Tax Act all or part of a fee paid under this Act if the fee or part is to be refunded under the Property Transfer Tax Act to the person who paid it.

1979-219-315; 1981-10-26, proclaimed effective July 30, 1981; 1983-10-21, effective October 26, 1983 (B.C. Reg. 393/83); 1986-16-24, effective July 18, 1986 (B.C. Reg. 170/86); 1987-64-9, effective December 12, 1987 (day after First Reading of 1987-64); 1992-21-9; 1999-35-5, effective December 12, 2003 (B.C. Reg. 471/2003); 2003-66-35, 45; 2004-66-137, effective January 20, 2005 (B.C. Reg. 16/2005); 2004-66-138, effective April 1, 2006; 2006-24-46, effective July 21, 2006 (B.C. Reg. 229/2006); 2007-14-144, effective December 1, 2007 (B.C. Reg. 354/2007); 2009-4-9, effective April 1, 2009; 2023-10-479.

REGULATIONS, FEES, AND FORMS

See s. 386.1 of the Act and the Land Title Act fees at chapter 31 (Land Title Act—Fees).

PRACTICE

Exemption or Reimbursement

The minister exercises the discretion set out in s. 386(8) of the Act in accordance with the criteria in s. 19 of the Financial Administration Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 138, which provides as follows:

Remissions

  • 19 (1) If the Lieutenant Governor in Council considers it in the public interest to do so in a case or class of cases where great public inconvenience, great injustice or great hardship to a person has occurred or is likely to occur, the Lieutenant Governor in Council may, by a regulation of general application or applicable to a class of persons or by order related to a specific case, authorize the remission of
  • (a) any tax, royalty, fee or other sum that is paid or payable to the government and that is imposed or authorized to be imposed by an enactment, or
  • (b) any forfeiture, fine or pecuniary penalty that is
    • (i) paid or payable to the government or paid or payable, in whole or in part, to another person, and
    • (ii) imposed or authorized to be imposed by an enactment.
  • (2) A remission authorized under subsection (1) may be total or partial, conditional or unconditional, and may be granted before, during or after the course of any proceeding for the recovery of the money and either before or after any payment of it has been made or has been enforced by process or execution.
  • (3) If a condition of a remission authorized under subsection (1) is not performed, the authorization of the remission has no effect and all proceedings may be had or taken as if the remission had not been authorized.
  • (4) Money required to be paid by the government under this section may be paid out of the consolidated revenue fund.

Cancellation of Charges on Foreclosure: Section 30(3)

For the purpose of calculating fees in a foreclosure, no cancellation fee is imposed on registration of the final order of foreclosure for cancelling charges registered after the registration of the foreclosure certificate of pending litigation. The registrar considers that these charges have been merged.

Easement Affecting Multiple Parcels

Where:

  • (1) a single instrument purports to charge two or more parcels with an easement, statutory right of way, restrictive covenant, or covenant under s. 219 of the Act;
  • (2) all of the proposed servient tenements are owned by the same person;
  • (3) there is a single appurtenancy or dominant tenement benefiting from the easement, statutory right of way, restrictive covenant, or s. 219 covenant; and
  • (4) the restrictions, limitations, and burdens created by the instrument apply equally to all of the servient tenements,

the instrument will be viewed as creating a single charge for the purpose of calculating fees and will receive a single serial number for registration purposes. The rationale is that uniform restrictions that benefit a single appurtenancy or dominant tenement constitute a single charge regardless of the number of servient parcels affected.

Priority Agreements

A registration fee is payable for the instrument conferring priority and for each subordinate charge described in it. The amount payable is not affected by the number of prior charges that are postponed by the instrument.

CROSS REFERENCES AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Refunds and Payments Out of Consolidated Revenue Fund

See ss. 16, 19, and 21 of the Financial Administration Act regarding refunds and payments out of the consolidated revenue fund.

Secondary Sources

See Di Castri, Registration of Title to Land, vol. 1, para. 96.

CASE LAW

Fees Payable by Federal Government

Where the Dominion applied for registration of land acquired through expropriation, the application fee required for registration of title was not a tax, and therefore had to be paid (Canada (Attorney General) v. Registrar of Titles of Vancouver Land Registration District, 1934 CanLII 237 (BC CA)).