Can I buy a BC home with tenants in it and move in?
The tenancy comes with the home; to move in, ask the seller in writing, once the sale is firm, to give the tenant 3 months' notice, then you or close family must live there for at least 12 months.
Opens the report at this answer. A PID always finds the lot; an address needs an exact match.
What the answer means
Only a buyer who will live there, or whose close family will, can have it ended, and only through a notice the seller gives once the sale is firm.
- The tenancy carries over
- The Residential Tenancy Act's landlord includes the owner's successors in title (s. 1), so on completion the buyer becomes the tenants' landlord on the same agreement, rent and deposits (our reading). Ask your lawyer or notary how the deposits and the month's rent are adjusted on completion.
- Ending it to move in
- The seller can end the tenancy for the buyer only once the sale agreement is in good faith, every condition of the sale is satisfied, and the buyer asks the seller in writing to give notice because the buyer, or a close family member, will live in the unit; a close family member is a parent, spouse or child, or a spouse's parent or child (s. 49 (1), (5)). A family corporation buying can ask for a shareholder or their close family member (s. 49 (5) (c) (ii)).
- The notice
- The notice must give at least 3 months, end the day before rent is due, and not end a fixed term early (s. 49 (2); Residential Tenancy Regulation s. 42.2). It must be generated on the Residential Tenancy Branch's web portal and name the buyer who asked for it (ss. 49 (7), 53.1; Regulation s. 42.1). The tenant has 21 days to dispute it (s. 49 (8); Regulation s. 42.3) and may leave sooner on 10 days' written notice (s. 50).
- Not in a larger rental building
- A notice for a buyer's own use can't be given in a building of 5 or more rental units that isn't strata-titled, or is strata-titled with every rental unit owned by one owner, unless the regulations provide otherwise (s. 49 (6.1)).
- What it costs
- The tenant gets the equivalent of one month's rent, which they can withhold from the last month (s. 51 (1), (1.1)). If the unit isn't used for the stated purpose for at least 12 months, beginning within a reasonable period after the notice ends the tenancy, the buyer who asked for the notice owes the tenant 12 times the monthly rent, unless the Residential Tenancy Branch excuses it for extenuating circumstances (s. 51 (2), (3)).
- Tenancies the Act leaves out
- The Act doesn't cover a room where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, vacation or travel accommodation, or a pad in a manufactured home park, which the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act governs (s. 4). A suite the zone doesn't allow is still a tenancy under the Act (our reading): see suites and unpermitted work.
- What it means for a buyer
- Keeping the tenants is the default; moving in takes the seller's notice, timed to your completion, and a year of living there. Ask for the rent, the deposits and any notice already given before you remove subjects.
Our summary of the Residential Tenancy Act (ss. 1, 4, 49 to 51, 53.1) and the Residential Tenancy Regulation (B.C. Reg. 477/2003, ss. 42.1 to 42.5) as consolidated on BC Laws, and the Residential Tenancy Branch's page on types of evictions, read 2026-10-19. Notices given before the 2024 and 2025 changes keep the periods that applied then (Regulation ss. 42.4, 42.5).
Sources, read 2026-10-19 and summarised in our words unless marked otherwise: Residential Tenancy Act (ss. 1, 4, 49 to 51, 53.1); Residential Tenancy Regulation, B.C. Reg. 477/2003 (ss. 42.1 to 42.5); Types of evictions, Residential Tenancy Branch.
Before you buy: who to ask
- The seller or their agent
- Were all buildings, suites and additions built with permits, and is any use on the property non-conforming? Who rents here, on what agreement, at what rent and deposits, and has anyone been given notice?
- Your lawyer or notary
- What does the title search show: easements, covenants, rights of way, liens and the surveyed area? If I ask for a notice for my own use, when must I ask, and how does it line up with completion?
- The Residential Tenancy Branch
- Does this tenancy fall under the Residential Tenancy Act, and what does the notice I'm asking for need to say?
See also suites and second homes, unpermitted work, manufactured homes and what a seller must disclose.