Selling a home in Greater Victoria

Most guides to selling a house are written about staging. Staging is real but it is a small part of the job, and it is not where sales go wrong.

What actually determines how a sale goes is the sequence: what has to be agreed before anything is marketed, what has to be disclosed and by whom, how an offer becomes binding, what a buyer can still walk away from and when, and what has to be in place for the land title office to accept the transfer. This page covers that sequence and what is legally required at each point in British Columbia.

Before anything is listed: the service agreement

A brokerage cannot represent you in offering the property for sale without a written service agreement, signed by you and by an authorised signatory for the brokerage (Real Estate Services Rules, s. 43). A copy must be delivered to you immediately on execution (s. 44).

Four things in it are worth reading rather than skimming:

The remuneration, and the circumstances in which it is payable. The Rules require the agreement to set out “the remuneration to be paid under the agreement and the circumstances in which it will be payable” (s. 43(4)(f)), and separately to break down the split — what you pay the listing brokerage, what the listing brokerage pays a cooperating brokerage, and what it retains (s. 43(4)(g)).

There is no standard rate. Nothing in the Real Estate Services Act or the Rules sets, caps or schedules a commission. BCFSA’s own consumer material answers the question “is there a standard commission that I have to pay when I list my home?” with “No”, and states that any commission amount can be negotiated between the consumer, the professional and the brokerage. What exists is a requirement that whatever you agree be in writing — not a tariff. Any later change to remuneration must also be in writing and signed by both of you (s. 43(7)).

The term. When the agreement ends, and what happens if a buyer introduced during the term completes afterwards.

Net listings are prohibited. A brokerage may not be remunerated on the basis of the difference between the list price and the sale price (Rule 60).

Before any trading services are provided, the licensee must also give you the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services form, in the form approved by the superintendent, disclosing whether or not they will represent you as a client (Rule 54). It sets out the licensee’s duties, how to complain, and the buyer’s rescission right under Property Law Act s. 42. It does not require your signature; BCFSA describes initialling it as optional. Its purpose is that you know what relationship you are in before you start talking about your motivation and your finances.

Disclosure: what is required, and what only feels required

This is the part with the most folklore around it, so it is worth separating cleanly.

A Property Disclosure Statement is not legally required in British Columbia. There are no prescribed disclosure forms for a seller. BCFSA states directly that “there are no prescribed forms in B.C. to disclose property information” and that the PDS is “a voluntary form completed by the seller”. It is a standard form published by the real estate association, and its legal force is contractual — it binds because the Contract of Purchase and Sale incorporates it, which is what grounds a later claim in contract or misrepresentation.

That is not an argument for refusing to complete one. It is an argument for completing it accurately, because “voluntary” and “harmless” are different things: once it is incorporated into the contract, it is a set of representations you have made.

What is mandatory is the material latent defect duty — and it falls on the licensee. Under Rule 59, a licensee providing trading services to a disposing client must disclose to all other parties to the trade, promptly and before any agreement is entered into, any material latent defect known to the licensee. A material latent defect is defined in Rule 59(1) as a material defect that cannot be discerned through a reasonable inspection of the property, and the definition expressly includes:

• a defect rendering the property dangerous or potentially dangerous to occupants, unfit for habitation, or unfit for the purpose the party is acquiring it for where the licensee knows of that purpose;
• a defect that would involve great expense to remedy;
• a circumstance about which a local government or other local authority has given notice that it must or should be remedied; and
• a lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits respecting the property.

If a client instructs a licensee to withhold a material latent defect, the licensee must refuse to provide further trading services to that client in respect of the trade (Rule 59(3)). That is not discretionary.

There is one practical link between the two. No disclosure by the licensee is required where the other party has already received written disclosure from the disposing client (Rule 59(4)) — which is exactly what makes a properly completed Property Disclosure Statement useful even though nothing compels you to complete one.

Separately from the Rules, a seller has a common law duty to disclose latent defects. BCFSA puts the relationship this way: sellers have that duty at common law; licensees have a broader duty under the Rules.

A patent defect — a broken window, a damaged floor, anything discoverable on reasonable inspection — is not a material latent defect, and neither is a stigma.

The unpermitted-work limb is the one that most often surprises sellers here. An unpermitted suite, an enclosed carport, a deck or an addition built without a permit is not a paperwork problem you can leave for the buyer to find; it is inside the definition.

Pricing

Pricing is a judgment, and this page will not pretend it is a formula. Three things about it are structural rather than a matter of opinion:

A buyer’s lender will order its own appraisal. A price a buyer agrees to is not a price a lender will lend against. On a financing-subject offer, an appraisal that comes in low does not renegotiate itself; it becomes a subject removal problem, usually late.

An overpriced listing spends its best weeks buying attention for the eventual correct price. The days after a listing goes live are when the accumulated pool of buyers who have been watching that segment sees it. That pool does not regenerate when the price drops.

Comparable sales are evidence, not arithmetic. The adjustment between two properties for a view, a legal suite, a flat lot, a newer roof or a strata’s reserve position is a judgment, and reasonable people differ on it. What makes a pricing conversation useful is seeing the comparables and the reasoning, not receiving a number. That is also why this site does not publish an automated valuation — see how a Greater Victoria home is actually valued.

Current local market context — days on market, sale-to-list ratios, inventory by segment — belongs in a pricing conversation and is deliberately not stated here as a fixed figure, because anything written on this page would be out of date by the time you read it. The market page carries the current board statistics with their release date.

Advertising: what your licensee is bound by

Worth knowing because it shapes what you can and cannot ask for.

All real estate advertising must display the brokerage’s licensee name prominently and in an easily readable way (Rule 40(2)). Advertising that identifies an individual must use that individual’s licensee name (Rule 40(3)). Any office address shown must be the related brokerage office’s address (Rule 40(4)). A licensee must not publish advertising that they know, or reasonably ought to know, contains a false or misleading statement or misrepresentation concerning real estate or a trade in real estate (Rule 41). And advertising a specific property as offered for sale requires the owner’s consent (Rule 42).

“Real estate advertising” is defined broadly enough to capture websites, social media, signage and anything else identifying or promoting the property.

The practical consequence: descriptions of a suite as “legal”, of square footage, of lot size, of a room count or of a renovation as “permitted” are not marketing language. They are statements a licensee is accountable for, and they need to be supportable.

Offers, and the moment a sale becomes binding

When an offer is presented, the licensee must disclose to you the expected remuneration in a form approved by the superintendent, and the money must be expressed as a dollar amount, not a percentage (Rule 57).

An accepted offer forms a contract. Two things then stand between it and a completed sale.

The Home Buyer Rescission Period. Since 1 January 2023, Property Law Act s. 42 gives a buyer of certain residential property a statutory right to rescind within a prescribed period after acceptance, on payment of a prescribed amount. It applies whether or not the contract has subjects, and it is not something either party can contract out of. As a seller, this means acceptance is not the end of the uncertainty, and you should understand from your licensee exactly how it applies to your property type before you plan around a firm date.

Subjects. Financing, inspection, review of documents, sale of the buyer’s own property, insurance. Until they are removed in writing, the buyer can generally walk. The negotiation about subjects is a negotiation about risk, not about paperwork: a shorter subject period is worth real money to you and real risk to the buyer, which is why buyers who have arranged financing in advance make stronger offers than buyers who have not.

What you can control is being ready. On a house that means having the survey, permits, warranty documents, service records and any engineering reports assembled before the offer arrives, rather than after a buyer asks for them with five days left on a subject clause. On a strata it means the strata document package, which is the single most common cause of a subject period being extended.

Conveyancing and completion

No BC statute requires a seller to retain a lawyer or notary. What the Land Title Act requires is that the execution of the transfer by the transferor be witnessed by an “officer” — a person before whom an affidavit may be sworn, which in practice means a lawyer, a notary public or a commissioner for taking affidavits (ss. 41, 42).

The near-universal use of a lawyer or notary comes from three things rather than a statutory monopoly: electronic filing is required for anyone who is not the registered owner filing in person; electronic filing depends on certification by a “designate”, and the Director of Land Titles’ e-filing directions require a designate to be a lawyer or notary or a member of the Authorized Subscriber Register; and someone has to hold and disburse the money on closing.

A notary’s scope is set by Notaries Act s. 18, which includes drawing instruments relating to property that are intended to be registered. Anything outside that scope — legal advice on a contested matter, for instance — falls back inside the Legal Profession Act definition of the practice of law.

What actually happens between subject removal and completion:

• Your conveyancer orders a title search and identifies every charge that has to be cleared.
• A mortgage payout statement is obtained from your lender, and the discharge is arranged. Most lenders file the Form C Release electronically themselves once the mortgage is paid off; LTSA states that property owners do not typically need to take any action.
• Property taxes are adjusted. This adjustment is contractual: neither the Community Charter nor the Taxation (Rural Area) Act apportions tax between seller and buyer. What the statute does say is that taxes are a special charge on the land with priority over most other claims and without requiring registration (Community Charter s. 250), and that the assessed owner is liable for taxes imposed during the year and all unpaid taxes from previous years (s. 251). A title search will not reveal outstanding property tax.
• If the property is a strata lot, a Form F Certificate of Payment is obtained. The registrar must not accept a conveyance of title to a strata lot for registration without a current one (Strata Property Act s. 256), and it is current for only 60 days from issue, while the strata has a week to produce it.
• On completion, the transfer is registered, the funds flow, the mortgage is paid out and discharged, and possession passes on the date the contract sets — which is frequently a day after completion, and is a distinct date from it.

What to have ready before you list

The documents that get asked for, in the order they usually get asked for:

• Title search, so you know what is registered against the property before a buyer’s lawyer tells you.
• Mortgage details — balance, term end, and whether the mortgage is portable or assumable.
• Property tax notice and confirmation of what is paid.
• Survey certificate, if one exists.
• Building permits and final inspections for any work done, and an honest assessment of any work done without them.
• Warranty documents for roof, windows, furnace, heat pump, hot water tank.
• Service records for heating and, if applicable, septic and well.
• Insurance history, particularly any claim.
• For a strata, the full document package — and start that early.
• For a rural property, the well and septic records described in the due diligence guide.

None of that is required by law. All of it either shortens a subject period or prevents a renegotiation, and those are the two places a sale is most often lost or discounted after the price has been agreed.

And the costs

Commission is the largest number but not the only one, and several of the others are fixed by regulation rather than negotiable. They are set out separately, with the current amounts and their dates, in what it costs to sell a home in BC.

Related

• What it costs to sell a home in BC
• Selling a condo in Victoria BC
• How a Greater Victoria home is valued
• The Victoria real estate market