First homebuyer transparency law comes to B.C.

November 25, 2022



Sales of British Columbia residential real estate will become more complicated and monitored starting November 30, 2022, when the province’s new Land Owner Transparency Registry (LOTR) comes into effect.
The first such legislation in Canada, the searchable registry includes “information about interest holders under the Land Owner Transparency Act. These are individuals who do not have direct ownership of land but are considered to have some meaningful relationship with the land or an indirect ownership interest in it,” according to the Ministry of Finance.
LOTR was included in the 2018 provincial budget as part of 30-point plan to address housing affordability. At the time, the government said it was taking action to end hidden ownership of housing which was suspected to be linked to money laundering or fraud.
“The interest holders listed on a transparency report must be a human being—and not controlled by anyone else,” according to the province.
The legislation was passed in May 2019 and was to have come into effect in 2021 but was delayed until this year.
Under LOTR, when an application is made to register an interest in land in the name of a relevant corporation, a trustee of a relevant trust, or a partner of a relevant partnership, a transparency report must also be submitted to the Registrar of Land Titles.
The fee for filing an LOTR application is $7.50 but filing the mandatory 23-page report costs $50, while making corrections or changing any information once it has been filed costs $150.
Penalties for not filing the report or providing false information, can result in a $50,000 fine for a corporation or $25,000 for an individual or 15 per cent of the assessed value of the property.
Other offences under LOTR, not named, may be subject to a fine up to $100,000 for corporations or other entities, or $50,000 for individuals.
While it may appear difficult to prove if someone has “some meaningful relationship” with the residential property, real estate companies contacted appear ready for LOTR since it was originally to be introduced in November 2021.

“We search the database as part of our policies now and will continue to do so, as part of our obligations of knowing our client,” said Kevin Skipworth, managing broker and partner with Vancouver-based Dexter Realty.