Video - Land Owner Transparency

Effective November 30, 2020, there will be a new British Columbia Land Registry in place called the Land Owner Transparency Registry (LOTR).

All corporations, partnerships and trusts who own land in British Columbia will have to file a Transparency Report with this new registry by November 30, 2021.

This LOTR will be a publicly searchable registry that will show information about the human beings behind corporations, partnerships and trusts who own an interest in land.

For any corporations, partnerships or trusts that are Existing Land Owners, they have until November 30, 2021 to file the 23 page Disclosure Report.

Our Nancy Ling discusses...

Transcript:

Nancy Ling: On November 30th (Monday), the BC government is bringing in a new land title registry; this will be called the Land Owner Transparency Registry or “LOTR” for short. The idea behind this new registry is that all owners of land in British Columbia will have to disclose the human beings that have an ownership interest in the land. For most individual purchasers you will merely have to disclose that you are purchasing the property for your own interest and what your residency is, for example you are Canadian resident. If you were buying land using a corporation, a partnership, or a trust you will have a little more work. If it's a corporation, you will have to disclose who the shareholders of that corporation are and if it's a holding company that owns the shares, you have to keep going until you get to human being. Then when you have that human you will disclose what the residency is or citizenship and what their interest in the entity that owns the property is.

So starting on November 30th (Monday) any purchase that is filed with the land title act will have to have a transparency declaration. If you are a corporation that already owns land on November 30th you will have a year until November 30, 2021 in order to file your transparency report and declaration.

If you have any additional questions about the new Land Owner Transparency Registry please call FH&P Lawyers.