What are my rights when I buy a presale home in BC?

What the answer means

A presale is a home bought from a developer before it is built or finished: most often a strata unit, sometimes a lot in a new subdivision. BC's Real Estate Development Marketing Act sets what the developer must tell you, how long you have to back out and who holds your deposit.

What it covers

The Act covers a developer marketing 5 or more strata lots in a building, 5 or more lots in a subdivision (unless each is 64.7 ha or more) or in a bare land strata plan, 5 or more leasehold units, or 2 or more cooperative or shared interests (s. 1, "development property"). A strata unit may be marketed only once its strata plan is deposited or a building permit is issued (s. 5), or earlier with the Superintendent of Real Estate's permission (s. 10).

The disclosure statement

Before marketing, the developer files a disclosure statement with the superintendent that plainly discloses every material fact without misrepresentation and sets out your right to cancel (s. 14 (1), (2)). It may not sign a contract with you until you have a copy, a reasonable chance to read it, and have signed that you did (s. 15 (1)). When it learns the statement is wrong or out of step with the Act, the developer files an amendment or a new statement and gives it to buyers who don't yet have title (s. 16). Anyone can inspect or copy a filed statement through the superintendent for a fee (s. 14 (5)).

Seven days to cancel

You can cancel by serving written notice on the developer within 7 days after the later of the day you signed the contract and the day you signed that you had a chance to read the disclosure statement, even after title has passed (s. 21 (2)); the notice is served as the regulations say (s. 21 (4)). An amendment alone doesn't start a new 7 days (s. 21 (1) (b)). If you never got a disclosure statement you were owed, you can cancel at any time (s. 21 (3)), and an amendment you were owed and didn't get, about a material fact that mattered to your decision, lets you cancel up to a year after title passes (s. 21 (3.2)). Once you cancel, the developer tells whoever holds your deposit, who must return it promptly (s. 21 (5), (6)). The 3-business-day home buyer rescission period doesn't apply on top of it (see what a seller must disclose).

Your deposit

The developer must promptly place your deposit with a brokerage, lawyer, notary or other prescribed trustee, in a trust account at a savings institution in BC, held for both of you (s. 18 (1), (2)). It goes to the developer only once you can no longer cancel and the plan is deposited, occupancy approvals are in and your title is registered (s. 18 (3)), or if you fail to pay when the contract says and it lets the developer cancel and keep the deposit (s. 18 (4)). A developer may use deposits to build the project earlier only under a deposit protection contract from an insurer, with notice to you (s. 19).

If the statement was wrong

A misrepresentation in a filed disclosure statement gives every buyer in the project a right to sue for damages, as if they relied on it, against the developer, its directors and those who signed or authorized the statement (s. 22 (3)). A contract from a developer who broke the marketing and deposit rules can't be enforced against you, unless the breach is a statement's form with no misrepresentation that mattered to you, or an error the developer didn't know of and corrected in time (s. 23).

Assigning a strata presale

Where the developer allows assignments, a strata presale contract must forbid assigning it without the developer's consent, and before consenting the developer collects each party's identity, contact details and the assignment's terms (s. 20.3) and files them with the Province's property transfer tax administrator (ss. 20.1, 20.4). Selling within 730 days, an assignment included, can bring the home flipping tax (see the home flipping tax).

Completion

The contract, not the Act, sets the completion date, how far the developer may push it back, the walk-through for deficiencies and when you take possession (our reading; read those terms with your lawyer). A new home needs home warranty insurance (see new home warranty), and GST applies to a new home, with rebates for some buyers (see GST on a home or lot).

What it means for a buyer

Read the disclosure statement before you sign, not after: it names the developer, the budget for the strata, the deposit's trustee and what may still change. Use the 7 days to have it and the contract read, and keep every amendment you're given.

Our summary of the Real Estate Development Marketing Act (SBC 2004, c. 41, ss. 1, 5, 10, 14 to 16, 18 to 23) on BC Laws, read 2026-10-21. How a contract sets completion and delays is our reading; the disclosure statement and the contract for the project are the final word.

Source: Real Estate Development Marketing Act, SBC 2004, c. 41 (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-21).

Before you buy: who to ask

The developer or its agent

Can I have the filed disclosure statement and every amendment? Who holds the deposit in trust, and is any of it covered by a deposit protection contract? Does the contract allow an assignment, and on what terms?

Your lawyer or notary

When does my right to cancel end? What do the contract's completion, extension and deficiency terms allow the developer to change?

The local government

Has a building permit been issued for the project, and does the zoning allow what the disclosure statement describes?

Look up the lot above: its report names the zone and our summary of what it allows, and lists the development applications on and near the lot where the council's map is open.

See also a strata home's papers, new home warranty, GST and the new home rebates, the home flipping tax, subjects and the deposit and what a seller must disclose.