We can help!
Our BC Notaries and lawyers help people across British Columbia buy, sell or refinance their property.
Can I deal with my real estate myself?
Generally, no.
There are only a few situations in which you might be able to do your own legal work for conveyancing – for example, if you are selling a home (not a strata) and have no mortgages or other charges registered on title that need to be paid out, and no debts associated with the property.
In most cases, you will need to hire a BC Notary or a lawyer to do the conveyancing work for you.
You can take a look at the website for BC’s Land Title and Survey Authority or the Manufactured Homes Registry to determine if you can do the conveyancing work yourself.
What’s involved in conveyancing?
We call the process of buying, selling or transferring property conveyancing. It is the exchange of title, or interests in title, for money or other consideration.
Conveyancing could be:
- selling your home
- buying a new home
- paying out an old mortgage
- getting a new mortgage registered on title to your property
- taking a deceased person off title
- taking a separated spouse off title
- adding a new spouse on title
- adding children on title
Property transfers and refinancing involve a lot of paperwork. Real property is one of the biggest assets most people own in their lifetime, and as such comes with many steps involved in preventing money laundering, fraud, and other criminal activities.
Each transaction requires different kinds of work, depending what you are trying to do.
Some examples of additional work involved in the actual property transaction include:
- verifying the identity of our clients
- making sure there are no fraud issues at play
- verifing citizenship and residency issues
- ensuring the mental capacity of our clients
- verifying the authority of anyone acting on your behalf
Selling property
If you are selling property, the conveyancing process could include:
- helping you arrange “clear title” for the buyers
- preparing and taking your signatures on the legal documents necessary to transfer the title to the new owners
- working with the buyer’s notary or lawyer to negotiate the closing
- handling the monies for the transaction
- reporting to you
Buying property
Generally speaking, if you are buying property, the conveyancing process includes:
- doing certain kinds of searches for you (property taxes, utilities)
- preparing documents for the seller to sign
- preparing documents for you to sign
- working with the seller’s notary or lawyer to negotiate the closing
- dealing with your lender, if you have one
- handling the monies for the transaction
- registering the property
- reporting to you
Family Transfers
A “family transfer” is what we call transfers, or any other change in title to property that happens as a result of changes in a family structure.
Some typical family transfers could be:
- taking a deceased person off title
- transmitting property into the name of an Executor
- removing a spouse from title after a separation or divorce
- adding a new spouse on title after a marriage
- refinancing to help with debt consolidation
Dealing with unusual things that crop up
There are many other things that we might do for you, depending on your contract and what you have hired us to do, including:
- dealing with outstanding taxes or utilities
- dealing with debt reconsolidation
- arranging out-of-office signing appointments
- assisting with holdbacks you have negotiated or are required to make
- helping deal with issues on closing
- arrange refinancing
We can also draft a contract of purchase and sale for you.
What does conveyancing cost?
Call us – we would be pleased to provide you with an estimate.
Each conveyancing file is different, so it is not possible to give a blanket estimate without finding out more information about your transaction. The fees for selling a clear title manufactured home are much less than the fees would be for a business buying a working farm.
When we give you an estimate, we think about things like:
- the type of property being transferred
- whether you are acting on your own behalf, or for someone else or a company
- what kind of lender you may be using
- whether you have unusual terms in your contract
- the time frame you are working with