Do I need title insurance when buying a property in BC?
Not by law: BC's register guarantees who owns the lot, and its fund pays for title fraud; title insurance is an optional policy for what the register leaves out, like permits and lot lines, which lenders often ask for.
Opens the report at this answer. A PID always finds the lot; an address needs an exact match.
What the answer means
Title insurance is a private policy, bought once at closing, usually through the lawyer or notary, for problems the register doesn't settle.
- What the register guarantees
- An indefeasible title is conclusive evidence that the registered owner owns the land, subject to the charges and notes on it and a short list of exceptions (Land Title Act s. 23 (2)). A buyer who relies on the register in good faith isn't bound by interests left off it, except a registration already pending, a lease of up to 3 years with someone living there under it, and a few others (s. 29 (2)).
- What it doesn't promise
- The title is subject to taxes and local government charges that are or become liens, highways, public rights of way, watercourses and water rights, and a person's right to show that land was wrongly included by a boundary error (s. 23 (2) (b), (c), (e), (h)). It says nothing on whether the buildings had permits, meet the zoning or stand inside the lot lines.
- The assurance fund
- A person who loses land or an interest in it through fraud or a wrongful registration, and can't get it back, may sue whoever did it and recover from the Land Title and Survey Authority's assurance fund what can't be collected; the fund also pays for a registrar's mistake. Claims start within 3 years of finding the loss, and pay at most the land's value at the time (ss. 294.2, 294.22, 294.61). Losses from registrations before the Authority's fund began fall to the Province's fund (ss. 296, 298).
- What the fund won't pay
- Nothing for land wrongly included by misdescribed boundaries, an error or shortage in a lot's area on a plan, land in two Crown grants, an owner's breach of trust, or the share of a loss the claimant caused (s. 294.6).
- What title insurance adds
- Policies are sold by private insurers, usually ordered by the lawyer or notary, for a one-time premium. They commonly offer cover for losses from title fraud, work done without a permit, a zoning or bylaw breach a council makes you fix, buildings that encroach on a neighbour or a road, and unpaid taxes or utility charges against the land, often in place of a survey certificate; each policy lists its own exclusions, and a problem you knew of is usually left out (our reading; read the policy).
- A survey as well
- A BC Land Surveyor's certificate shows where the buildings sit against the lot lines on the day it's drawn. A policy can pay for a loss later; only the survey shows the problem before you buy, which matters more on rural land with long lines, fences and outbuildings (our reading).
- Watching the title
- The Land Title and Survey Authority's BC Property Connect lets an owner follow what is registered against their title once they own it (the Authority's page).
- What it means for a buyer
- Title insurance doesn't replace the title search, the permit records or a survey: it pays for some losses after the fact. Ask what it excludes, and check permits and lot lines before you buy.
Our summary of the Land Title Act (RSBC 1996, c. 250), Parts 3, 19.1 and 20, read on BC Laws 2026-10-19, and of the Land Title and Survey Authority's page on title security. What a policy covers is set by its insurer's terms, not by law; your lawyer or notary and the insurer are the final word.
Sources, read 2026-10-19 and summarised in our words unless marked otherwise: Land Title Act, RSBC 1996, c. 250, Part 3 (ss. 23, 29); Land Title Act, Part 19.1 (ss. 294.2, 294.22, 294.6, 294.61); Land Title Act, Part 20 (ss. 296, 298); Learn about title security in BC, Land Title and Survey Authority.
Before you buy: who to ask
- The seller or their agent
- Is there a survey certificate or plan showing where the buildings sit? Were the house, additions and outbuildings built with permits?
- Your lawyer or notary
- Does the lender require title insurance or a survey, which policy will you order, and what does it leave out? Which charges on the title stay, and which are discharged at completion?
- A BC Land Surveyor
- Do the buildings, fences and driveway stand inside the lot lines, and does anything cross onto a neighbour, a right of way or the road?
Look up the lot above: its report shows the rights of way drawn on it, the lot lines on ParcelMap BC and the official records to search.
See also official records, unpermitted work, property lines, rights of way and what a seller must disclose.