In the recent case Laidar Holdings Ltd. v. Lindt & Sprungli (Canada) Inc., 2018 BCSC 66, the real estate brokerage advising the tenant was found 70 per cent liable for failing to verify the zoning. The tenant had walked away from a lease for commercial premises after the City of Vancouver refused to issue permits …
By Jennifer CleeB.A. LL.B. Waterfront properties with private docks are looking attractive at this time of the year, particularly with the weather we’ve been enjoying this summer. Licensees involved in the sale of such properties need to be aware of, and inform their clients of, the possibility that any dock or other structures built upon …
By Gerry Neely B.A. LL.B Section 164 of the Strata Property Act gives a strata unit owner or tenant the right to challenge an action completed or threatened, or a decision of a strata council that is “significantly unfair” to the owner or tenant. This phrase has been interpreted to mean that the action complained …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. Column 337 ended with formula descriptions for establishing streamside protection areas (also referred to as “leave strips”). The formulas apply to both sides of the stream, so that it is possible to have setbacks as wide as 60 metres. The Streamside Protection Regulation does, however, introduce some flexibility. Local governments have the authority to …
By Gerry Neely B.A. LL.B Streamside Protection Regulation The Regulation establishes streamside setbacks that are designed to prevent the deterioration or destruction of the water flow and habitat upon which a healthy fish population depends, or where possible, to restore them. Local governments affected by this Regulation must enact standards before January 2006, in their …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. Your dream is to buy a vacation home at a resort such as Whistler. You can enjoy it with your family, return the favours of friends by giving them the use of it, and reward staff with a free week in the season of their choice. You calculate that you can …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. Anyone involved for the first time in the sale of an interest in reserve land will find little that resembles the more usual sale of fee simple land with which we are familiar. The outright sale of reserve land is a rarity, occurring usually as part of a trade of land, because …
By Gerry Neely B.A. LL.B We in British Columbia take pride in our Land Title registration system because we can satisfy ourselves as to the state of title with a 60 second online search, instead of waiting a week or so for a title search, as in the State of Washington. However, our system does …
By Gerry Neely B.A. LL.B Column #279 discussed the cancellation of a listing, which cancelled the holdover clause and the practice of cancelling an MLSO listing of property, which has been on the market for a number of days to give the listing a fresh appearance. However, there is more to this issue, as the …
By Gerry NeelyB.A., LL.B. Whether a condition precedent falls within the “whim or fancy” or “option or offer” category of conditions, or within the category that requires purchasers to use their best efforts to satisfy the conditions, is a question judges continue to be asked. Since the cases depend upon different facts, they may appear to …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. A whole new growth industry is developing of scientists, engineers, law professors, lawyers, columnists, experts and others, around the pollution of the environment and the liability for doing so. An increased awareness by the public of environmental hazards which pose a risk to health, brings an increased risk to licensees who …
By Gerry Neely B.A. LL.B Where the lands surrounding a principal residence exceed one acre, the excess area only falls within the principal residence exemption if the owner can prove that the excess is necessary to the use and enjoyment of the housing unit as a residence. The standard of proof required of an owner …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. Following the death of a woman in 1982 who lived on a parcel of land of 6.09 acres, the Department of National Revenue assessed a taxable capital gain of $202,800.00 on the deemed disposition of the property. This assessment was based upon the Department’s contention that only one acre was necessary …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. You have listed for sale a house, to be described in the ad as a handyman’s special, which is located on a heavily-trafficked road in the middle of two blocks of mixed residential tenancy and low profit non-conforming commercial uses. Over the past ten years, repeated attempts to rezone the area …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. In the first case, the question was whether or not the sale of 9.3 acres made by the taxpayers under threat of expropriation by a municipality, leaving 7/10ths of an acre upon which the taxpayers’ house was situated, was exempt from taxation as falling within the principal residence exemption. Fourteen years …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. The Land Title Act requires a tenant with a long-term lease who wishes to register it, to follow the same procedure as does an owner who wants to divide his land into a number of parcels. Specifically, Section 73 provides that unless there is compliance with the subdivision requirements of the Act, “no …
By Gerry NeelyB.A. LL.B. The intention of the taxpayer as the determinative factor in whether one hundred per cent of the profit realized on the sale of property is taxed as income, or only fifty per cent as capital gain, is described in the following two cases. In the first one, the taxpayer stated that …
The British Columbia Real Estate Association acknowledges that our head office is located on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Nations of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam). We also acknowledge the other 195 First Nations in British Columbia, as these are the lands we each call home.
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