23 Effect Of Indefeasible Title

• 23 (1) In this section, “court” includes a person or statutory body having, by law or consent of parties, authority to hear, receive and examine evidence.
• (2) An indefeasible title, as long as it remains in force and uncancelled, is conclusive evidence at law and in equity, as against the Crown and all other persons, that the person named in the title as registered owner is indefeasibly entitled to an estate in fee simple to the land described in the indefeasible title, subject to the following:

• (a) the subsisting conditions, provisos, restrictions, exceptions and reservations, including royalties, contained in the original grant or contained in any other grant or disposition from the Crown;
• (b) a federal or Provincial tax, rate or assessment at the date of the application for registration imposed or made a lien or that may after that date be imposed or made a lien on the land;
• (c) a municipal charge, rate or assessment at the date of the application for registration imposed or that may after that date be imposed on the land, or which had before that date been imposed for local improvements or otherwise and that was not then due and payable, including a charge, rate or assessment imposed by a public body having taxing powers over an area in which the land is located;
• (d) a lease or agreement for lease for a term not exceeding 3 years if there is actual occupation under the lease or agreement;
• (e) a highway or public right of way, watercourse, right of water or other public easement;
• (f) a right of expropriation or to an escheat under an Act;
• (g) a caution, caveat, charge, claim of builder’s lien, condition, entry, exception, judgment, notice, pending court proceeding, reservation, right of entry, transfer or other matter noted or endorsed on the title or that may be noted or endorsed after the date of the registration of the title;
• (h) the right of a person to show that all or a portion of the land is, by wrong description of boundaries or parcels, improperly included in the title;
• (i) the right of a person deprived of land to show fraud, including forgery, in which the registered owner has participated in any degree;
• (j) a restrictive condition, right of reverter, or obligation imposed on the land by the Forest Act, that is endorsed on the title.

• (3) After an indefeasible title is registered, a title adverse to or in derogation of the title of the registered owner is not acquired by length of possession.
• (4) Despite subsection (3), in the case only of the first indefeasible title registered, it is void against the title of a person adversely in actual possession of and rightly entitled to the land included in the indefeasible title at the time registration was applied for and who continues in possession.

1979-219-23; 1981-10-24, proclaimed effective November 30, 1981; 1982-60-3, 4, proclaimed effective August 1, 1983; 1992-55-17, effective October 1, 1994 (B.C. Reg. 300/94); 2005-35-12.

Notes on Commentary and Case Law: Note that the “Practice”, “Cross References”, and “Case Law” sections included below regarding s. 23 have been divided into various parts dealing with s. 23 generally and then with specific subsections of s. 23. Also note that there is considerable overlap between the cases dealing with s. 23, s. 25 (Protection of registered owner against actions for recovery of land), and s. 29 (Effect of notice of unregistered interest). Case annotations relevant to one or more of the sections have typically been included under only one of the sections with cross references provided as appropriate.