What is BC's land owner transparency register, and do I need to file a report?
Every buyer files a transparency declaration with the transfer; a company, a trustee or a partnership taking title also files a report naming the people behind it, searchable free by name or PID.
Opens the report at this answer. A PID always finds the lot; an address needs an exact match.
What the answer means
BC's Land Owner Transparency Act asks who really stands behind land held by a company, a trust or a partnership. The Land Title and Survey Authority keeps the register, and every transfer registered at the land title office now comes with a short declaration.
- The declaration with every transfer
- On an application to register an interest in land, each transferee files a transparency declaration saying whether they're a reporting body, and if so whether a corporation, a trustee or a partner; it goes to the registrar with the application, who must refuse an application without it (Land Owner Transparency Act ss. 10 (1), (2), 11 (1)). An interest in land is a fee simple, a life estate, a lease of more than 10 years or a right under an agreement for sale (s. 1). The LTSA charges $10.61 for it (see closing costs).
- Who also files a report
- A corporation or limited liability company, a trustee of an express trust (a bare trust included) or a partner of a general, limited or limited liability partnership taking title files a transparency report with the application (ss. 1, 12 (1)). Crown agents and corporations made by an Act are left out (Schedule 1), as are charitable and testamentary trusts, alter ego and joint spousal trusts, and an estate in its administrator's hands (Schedule 2). Most buyers, buying in their own names, file the declaration only (the LTSA's register page).
- Who a report names
- A report names the individuals behind the owner: a trust's beneficial owners and settlors, a partnership's partners, and a corporation's corporate interest holders, anyone who owns or controls 10% or more of its shares or votes, directly or through others (ss. 1, 3). A reporting body files a new report within 2 months of learning its last one no longer names them (s. 16 (1)), and a company, trust or partnership that becomes one after its title was registered files within 2 months (s. 15 (4), (5)).
- What the public can see
- Anyone can search the register by a person's name, to find the parcels they're named on, or by a PID, to find who is named on a parcel (s. 35). A search shows each reporting body's and individual's primary identification: for a person, their full name, whether they're a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and the city of their principal residence, with the parcels (s. 30 (2); the LTSA's register page). Searches through an LTSA account have been free since April 1, 2024 (the LTSA's register page).
- What's held back
- An individual named in a report isn't searchable until 90 days after it's filed (s. 30 (4)). Anyone under 19 or found incapable of managing their financial affairs is left out of public searches (s. 39 (1)), and a person whose health or safety would be at risk can apply to have their information left out (s. 40). Only reports are public: a declaration on its own puts nothing on the public register (the LTSA's register page).
- Reserve and treaty land
- The Act doesn't apply to reserve land, a Treaty First Nation's treaty lands or the lands of the self-governing First Nations; a transfer there goes in with a Declaration of Exclusion instead (s. 6; the LTSA's register page).
- Penalties
- A missing or false report can bring an administrative penalty of up to the greater of $50,000, or $25,000 for an individual, and 5% of the property's assessed value (s. 61 (1)), and on conviction a fine of up to the greater of the same amounts and 15% of the assessed value (s. 92 (1) to (3)).
- What it means for a buyer
- Buying in your own name, the declaration is a form your lawyer or notary fills in. Buying through a holding company, a family trust, a nominee or with partners means a report, the people behind it named on a public register after 90 days, and a new report each time they change. A PID search also shows who stands behind a company that owns a lot you're buying or one next door (our reading of s. 35).
Our summary of the Land Owner Transparency Act (SBC 2019, c. 23, ss. 1, 3, 6, 10 to 12, 15, 16, 30, 35, 39, 40, 61, 92 and Schedules 1 and 2) on BC Laws and the Land Title and Survey Authority's register page, read 2026-10-21. Who counts as an interest holder turns on the Act's details and its regulation: this isn't legal advice.
Sources, read 2026-10-21 and summarised in our words unless marked otherwise: Land Owner Transparency Act, SBC 2019, c. 23; Land Owner Transparency Registry, Land Title and Survey Authority of BC.
Before you buy: who to ask
- Your lawyer or notary
- Will I be a reporting body if I buy through my company, a trust or with partners, who will the report name, and when will it be public?
- An accountant
- Does holding the land through a company or a trust make sense for me, now that it means a public report?
Look up the lot above: its report gives the PID to search the register with, and the official records a buyer can search.
See also closing costs, property transfer tax, joint tenancy or tenants in common, official records, title insurance and foreign buyers.