A lawyer for buying a house in Surrey needs your decisions before subjects come off

When should I hire a lawyer when buying a house in BC?

Hire a lawyer before you remove subjects, ideally as soon as the offer is accepted. While the contract is still conditional, a lawyer can read it, search the title for charges you did not expect, and raise problems while you can still negotiate or rely on a condition. After subject removal, most of those options are gone.

At that stage a lawyer can still deal with a restrictive covenant that forbids the suite you were counting on, a builders lien left by the seller's renovation, a contract naming one buyer when two are buying, or an exemption you assumed you would get and will not. Each can be met with an amendment, a new condition, or a decision not to go ahead.

What is the home buyer rescission period in BC?

The Property Law Act gives a buyer of most residential resale property in BC a short period after an offer is accepted to cancel the contract, on payment of a fee calculated on the price. The buyer cannot waive it. Presales under the Real Estate Development Marketing Act and some other sales are excluded.

The right covers most homes, including houses, strata units and townhouses. Presales have their own cancellation right under a different Act, and certain other sales, such as those at auction or under court supervision, fall outside it, so check before relying on it.

It runs alongside any subjects, not in place of them, so a buyer who wrote an unconditional offer still has it. Cancelling takes written notice served on the seller within the period, and the fee is then owed to the seller. The province publishes the period and the fee.

Do I qualify for the first-time home buyers' exemption?

You may, if you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, meet BC residency or tax filing requirements, have never owned an interest in a principal residence anywhere, and buy a home within the value limits to live in. You must move in within a set time and keep living there through the first year.

The exemption is full below one value threshold and shrinks above it until it phases out; the province publishes the current figures. When only one of two buyers qualifies, it generally applies only to that buyer's share. It is claimed by your declaration on the property transfer tax return, and if a condition stops being met, the exempted tax generally has to be repaid.

The newly built home exemption is a separate program with its own value limit and occupancy rules, open to buyers who have owned before. The presales page covers how it applies at completion.

• Status: a Canadian citizen or permanent resident when the transfer is registered.
• Connection to BC: a continuous period living in BC before registration, or BC tax returns filed for a required number of recent years.
• Ownership history: never an owner of an interest in a principal residence anywhere in the world, and never given this exemption before.
• The property: used only as your principal residence, on land within the size limit, at a fair market value within the program's thresholds.
• Occupancy: moving in within a set time after registration and living there for the rest of the first year.

Should we buy as joint tenants or tenants in common?

Joint tenants each own the whole, and when one dies the other becomes sole owner without the will or probate being involved. Tenants in common each own a share, equal or not, which passes under each owner's will. Couples who want the survivor to keep the home usually choose joint tenancy; people who contributed unequally often choose shares.

Unequal shares are recorded on title as a stated fraction for each owner. The choice can be changed later by registering a new transfer, which the title transfers page explains along with its tax and lender consequences.

Survivorship assumes the relationship lasts. A joint tenancy between spouses keeps working after a separation until someone severs it. Unmarried couples face both questions at once, and our guide to buying a home together unmarried sets out the agreement they usually need.

How should we document money from our parents?

Decide first whether the money is a gift, a loan, or a payment for a share of the home, because each is documented differently and has different consequences. A gift is usually confirmed in the lender's gift letter. A loan should be in writing, and may be secured by a mortgage. A share means the parent goes on title.

Lenders ask parents to sign a gift letter confirming the money need not be repaid. If the parents actually expect repayment, that needs its own documents and the lender has to know, because a loan described to a lender as a gift can put the borrower in breach of the mortgage.

Under section 85 of the Family Law Act, a gift to one spouse is generally excluded property on a separation, though growth in its value is shared, and money mixed into a jointly owned home can be hard to trace. A gift to the couple is treated differently. Parents who mean it for their child alone should say so in writing at the time, and the couple can address it in a cohabitation or marriage agreement.

Parents with other children may want this help counted against the child's inheritance later. A will can do that, but only if it says so; the wills pages explain how.

What will I sign at the lawyer's office, and what does each document do?

A buyer usually signs the property transfer tax return, the transparency declaration, the mortgage and the lender's own forms, the statement of adjustments, and any statutory declarations about residency or an exemption. The seller signs the Form A freehold transfer that moves title to you. A title insurance policy, if used, comes from the insurer.

• Form A freehold transfer: moves ownership to you and records whether co-owners hold as joint tenants or tenants in common, so check that line before it is filed.
• The mortgage: a charge on your title for the lender; the short registered form refers to the lender's standard mortgage terms, filed with LTSA once and binding you by reference, so ask for a copy.
• Property transfer tax return: reports the price and fair market value, calculates the tax, and is where an exemption is claimed by your declaration.
• Transparency declaration: filed under the Land Owner Transparency Act with every transfer; it says whether the buyer is a corporation, trustee or partner.
• Statement of adjustments: the account between buyer and seller of the price, the deposit, and taxes and fees prepaid or owed; it shows the balance to bring.
• Statutory declarations: statements under oath or affirmation, for example about citizenship or the exemption conditions, which the tax return relies on.
• Title insurance policy: a private policy covering defined title and property risks, often used in place of a survey certificate; read the exclusions.

What costs should a first-time buyer plan for besides the down payment?

Plan for property transfer tax unless an exemption applies in full, legal fees and disbursements, LTSA registration fees, title insurance if used, strata document charges, adjustments for property tax and strata fees the seller has prepaid, home insurance, an inspection and an appraisal, and GST if the home is new.

None of these has a figure here, because each depends on the property and the price. Two are easy to miss. GST on a new home may be included in the price or added to it, depending on the contract. And a low appraisal leaves a gap the buyer pays in cash. Strata buyers also pay for the strata corporation's documents, including the Form B information certificate under the Strata Property Act.

Buyers who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents should check two things before writing an offer: additional property transfer tax for foreign entities and taxable trustees buying in specified areas, which include Metro Vancouver, and the federal Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, which currently bars most non-Canadians from buying homes.

Down payment sources such as a First Home Savings Account or the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan have their own withdrawal steps to arrange with your institution. After you move in, the yearly speculation and vacancy tax declaration and the Home Owner Grant application begin.