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In This Volume

  • 96 (1) In this section and section 97:
  • “charter” has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of the Business Corporations Act;
  • “household furnishings” means chattels usually associated with the enjoyment by the spouses of the spousal home;
  • “spousal home” means
  • (a) a parcel of land that is
    • (i) shown as a separate taxable parcel on a taxation roll for the current year prepared under the Taxation (Rural Area) Act or on an assessment roll used for the levying of taxes in a municipality, and
    • (ii) has as improvements situated on it a building assessed and taxed in the current year as an improvement, in which the deceased and his or her spouse were ordinarily resident, owned or jointly owned by the deceased, and not leased to another person, or
  • (b) a share owned or jointly owned by the deceased in a corporation the charter of which provides that a building owned or operated by the corporation must be owned and operated exclusively for the benefit of shareholders in the corporation who are occupants of the building, if the value of the share is equivalent to the capital value of a suite owned by the corporation, in which suite the deceased and his or her spouse were ordinarily resident, and which was not leased to any other person.
  • (2) Despite section 95, and in addition to any other provision in this Part, but subject to section 98, in an intestacy,
  • (a) except where it would otherwise go under this Part to a surviving spouse, the spousal home devolves to and becomes vested in those persons by law beneficially entitled to it and, subject to the liability of the land comprising the spousal home for foreclosure or the payments of debts, those persons must hold the spousal home in trust for an estate for the life of the surviving spouse, or so long as the surviving spouse wishes to retain the estate for life, and
  • (b) the household furnishings go to the surviving spouse.
  • (3) This section applies to the estate of a person who dies on or after April 1, 1972.

1972-3-3; 1977-20-2; 1999-37-220, effective September 28, 1999 (B.C. Reg. 301/99); 2000-240-17, effective November 1, 2000 (B.C. Reg. 280/2000); 2003-52-57. effective January 1, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 465/2003); 2003-70-139, effective March 29, 2004 (B.C. Reg. 64/2004). [Repealed 2009-13-191(1), effective March 31, 2014 (B.C. Reg. 148/2013)].

CROSS REFERENCES AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Cancellation of Entry under Land (Spouse Protection) Act

See the discussion of the requirements for cancelling an entry under s. 11 of the Land (Spouse Protection) Act at chapter 42 (Family Matters).

Secondary Sources

See Di Castri, Registration of Title to Land, vol. 1, §6:10.

CASE LAW

Sale of Spousal Home

In an intestacy, s. 96(2)(a) creates in the surviving spouse no more than a right to reside in the spousal home for life. Where the spousal home must be sold to pay the debts of the estate, the trust in favour of the surviving spouse is terminated. Further, the surviving spouse is not entitled to any payment in lieu thereof (Aho Estate v. Kelly, 1988 CanLII 3065 (BC SC)).