Who owns the road allowance next to my property in BC?

What the answer means

A road allowance is land dedicated as a public road, often shown on a survey plan or an old Crown grant and never built. A neighbouring owner can apply to have one closed and buy it at market value, and the Ministry or the council decides. A report says where a stretch of the lot line has no parcel beside it, most often a road allowance, water or Crown land the parcel map doesn't draw.

How a road allowance is made

Most come from a survey plan: depositing a subdivision, reference or explanatory plan that shows a road dedicates that strip to the public and vests it in the Province, and no title is ever registered for it (Land Title Act s. 107 (1), (3)). Others are roads shown on an old Crown grant or its map, which never passed to the grantee and are 20 m wide unless the grant says otherwise, 20.1168 m (one chain) for grants before 1977 (Land Act ss. 13, 57). A travelled road the public has spent money on becomes a highway too (Transportation Act s. 42).

Who owns it

The soil and freehold of every provincial public highway is vested in the Province (Transportation Act s. 57). In a municipality the soil and freehold of every highway is the municipality's, except provincial arterial highways and a few others such as highways in parks and on reserves (Community Charter s. 35).

Unbuilt is still a road

An allowance with no road on it stays a highway until it is closed. No one may use or occupy a provincial public highway, or build or put anything on it, without the Minister's written authorization (Transportation Act s. 62), and in a town the council regulates the use of its highways by bylaw (Community Charter s. 36). Fencing, clearing or gardening a road allowance doesn't make it part of the lot beside it (our reading).

A lot reached by an unbuilt road

Where a lot's only way in is a road allowance with no road on it, building a driveway or road there needs the Ministry's permission outside towns, or the council's inside them, which may set how it is built. Nothing obliges the Province to build, maintain or open a highway (Transportation Act s. 84), so a buyer shouldn't count on the road being built for them (our reading).

Closing and buying one outside towns

The Minister may close a highway that isn't considered necessary in the public interest by notice; where no other road exists or will be provided, notice of the intention runs for 4 consecutive weeks first (Transportation Act s. 60). Once closed, the land may be sold to an owner of land next to it without a public competitive process (s. 13 (2), (3)). The Ministry's road closure application (form H0819) asks the neighbouring owners for the titles and a sketch of every parcel along the road, and states a non-refundable fee of at least $1,500, a price at market value having regard to what the land adds to the neighbouring lot, the survey, property transfer tax, title and legal costs paid by the applicant, statutory rights of way for any utilities in the road, and that the closed land first be joined to the neighbouring lot. It says the Ministry may ask for an Aboriginal Site Characteristic Report and a contamination report, and that the process is slow and can involve the public, neighbours, First Nations, utilities, the local government and other agencies.

Closing one in a town

A council may close a highway by bylaw and remove its dedication, after public notice and a chance for those affected to be heard. It can't remove the dedication of a road from a subdivision plan that was never built while the owner who deposited the plan still owns every lot it created, unless that owner consents (Community Charter s. 40). A road that gives access to the sea, a lake or a stream can be sold only in exchange for, or to pay for, public access to the same water of at least equal benefit, and a closure that would leave an owner with no way in needs their consent or another access (s. 41).

What it means for a buyer

Read the lot's survey plan for roads shown beside it or through it, and don't count a road allowance as part of the lot, its yard or its way in until the Ministry, or the council in a town, says so in writing (our reading).

Our summary of the Transportation Act, the Community Charter, the Land Title Act and the Land Act, read on BC Laws 2026-10-15, and of the Ministry of Transportation's road closure application (form H0819, which still carries the Ministry's former name), read the same day, its fee as it states it. ParcelMap BC doesn't draw highways as parcels, so a report can't say which gap beside a lot is a road allowance: the survey plan shows it.

Sources, read 2026-10-15 and summarised in our words unless marked otherwise: Transportation Act, SBC 2004, c. 44 (ss. 1, 13, 42, 57, 60, 62, 84); Community Charter, Part 3 (ss. 35, 36, 40, 41); Land Title Act, Part 7 (s. 107); Land Act (ss. 13, 57); Application to discontinue, close and acquire a public road (form H0819), Ministry of Transportation (and fees as stated).

Before you buy: who to ask

The Ministry of Transportation and Transit's district office, outside towns

Is there a road allowance beside or through this lot, and does anything on the lot (a house, fence, well or driveway) sit on it? Would you allow a driveway or road to be built on it, and would you consider closing it and selling it to me?

The local government, in a town

Is the strip beside the lot a highway, and does the council have a policy on closing and selling unbuilt roads?

Your lawyer or notary

What does the survey plan show along the lot, and is any building or the driveway on a road allowance rather than the lot?

Look up the lot above: its report opens at road access, which names the provincial roads along the lot, and says where a stretch of the lot line has no parcel beside it.

See also road access, driveway permits, where the property lines run and Crown land next door.