What official records can I look up on a BC property?

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Anyone can search most of them, some free and others for a fee, but each in its own register, and a title search needs the PID, not the street address. None of these records is open data a report can read by address, so each is searched on its own. A report gives the lot's PID and plan number, which most of them ask for, and covers part of several: the rights of way drawn on the lot, the zone, and federal contaminated sites nearby. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. The title: The Land Title and Survey Authority's title lists the registered owners, the legal description and PID, and the charges registered against the land: mortgages, statutory rights of way, easements, covenants, judgments, leases and builders liens. It doesn't show past owners. Anyone can order a copy, but only by PID or legal description, never by street address: online with an LTSA Explorer account, by mail as a State of Title Certificate, or through a lawyer, notary or registry agent. The LTSA lists a title search at $11.06, plus a $3.55 service charge and GST on it online, and $17.78 for each document or plan behind a charge, such as a covenant's text or a right of way's plan. A report draws the rights of way and easements on a plan, but never the charge itself; see rights of way. A council's note on the title: Where a building inspector finds work done without a permit or inspection, or a condition that makes a building unsafe, the council can file a notice in the land title office after hearing the owner, and the title then carries a note that the records can be seen at the municipal hall (Community Charter s. 57). It's cancelled once the inspector reports the condition fixed (s. 58). A manufactured home: A manufactured home's sale or transfer is effective only once it's registered in the Province's Manufactured Home Registry, which records the home's registered owner, location and description. Anyone can search it: online through a BC Registry account for $7 plus a service fee, or $12 plus a service fee combined with a search of the Personal Property Registry for notices of legal claims against the home, such as a loan secured on it; by mail or at a Service BC office, $10, or $15 combined. A home on private land can be exempted as permanently attached to it, with the consent of anyone holding a security interest in it on the Personal Property Registry (Manufactured Home Act s. 21). See manufactured homes. Home warranty and owner-built homes: BC Housing's New Homes Registry is searched by street address and city or by legal description. It shows whether a new home has home warranty insurance and was built by a licensed residential builder, or was built without it under an exemption such as an Owner Builder Authorization, with the warranty provider and whether an owner builder disclosure notice is on file. It holds homes registered since November 19, 2007; for one registered from July 1999 to then, call BC Housing. The warranty stays with the home on resale, at least 2 years on labour and materials, 5 on the building envelope and 10 on the structure. An owner builder must live in the home a year before selling, and for 10 years after occupancy the seller, a later owner too, must give a buyer BC Housing's disclosure notice before a purchase agreement is signed; the owner builder stays liable for defects over those years. The council's property file: The municipality or regional district holds the building permits, inspections, plans and any orders on a lot, and each has its own route and fee. Two examples: Richmond sells permit records and survey certificates to anyone and drawings only to the owner or their agent, at $30 a request plus $5.50 a file; Colwood answers a property information request free for owners and for $15 for others, with the owner's authorization, and sends building plans through a freedom of information request. Where a record isn't released on request, ask for it in writing under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which covers municipalities and regional districts: the request names the record in enough detail to find it (s. 5), the answer is due within 30 days (s. 7), and the council can charge a set application fee and fees for finding and copying, not for the first 3 hours of searching, with a written estimate first (s. 75). See building permits. Contaminated sites: The Province's Site Registry holds its records of the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites, sites found clean included, at every stage (Environmental Management Act s. 43). Since July 1, 2026 searching it is free, through a BC Registries and Online Services account (a BCeID or BC Services Card; the account can take 3 to 5 business days); a Site Details Report costs $150 plus a service charge and GST, documents are ordered by type through a Site Information Request, and paper records cost $100 an hour to scan. The site's ID can be found free on the Environmental Remediation Sites layer of iMapBC. The Province says no record in the registry is no assurance a site is clean. A report lists only the federal government's sites; see contaminated sites. Enforcement records: The Province's Natural Resource Compliance and Enforcement Database is searched online, with no account, over each record's summary, location, outcome and who it was issued to. It holds orders under the Agricultural Land Commission Act, the Dike Maintenance Act, the Environmental Management Act, the Water Sustainability Act and others, administrative penalties, violation tickets, court convictions led by the Conservation Officer Service, and Environmental Management Act inspection records, from the Ministry of Environment, the Environmental Assessment Office and parts of the Ministry of Forests. A person is named only under some of those statutes, otherwise recorded as an individual; companies are named. Tribunal and court decisions: The Civil Resolution Tribunal hears most strata disputes in BC, of any amount, and posts most of its decisions on its own decisions site; the public can usually get its dispute notices and responses too. A strata corporation is named "The Owners, Strata Plan" and its plan number (Strata Property Act s. 2), so search the plan number a report gives. The Provincial Court publishes its written judgments on CanLII, which anyone can search online.

What official records can I look up on a BC property?

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