Will writing in Surrey follows a set order: your decisions, a draft, a proper signing and a safe original

How does making a will with a lawyer work in BC, step by step?

A lawyer-drafted will in BC moves through four stages: instructions, a draft, the signing and storage. Each stage carries its own decision. Instructions settle who gets what. The draft tests the wording against your actual property and family. The signing must meet WESA's formalities, and storage decides whether your executor can find the original.

Instructions: your family, including anyone from an earlier relationship, what you own and how each asset is held, and any earlier will or marriage or cohabitation agreement. A title search and a check of named beneficiaries show what the will can actually reach.

Draft: test the plan against what could change, such as a beneficiary dying first, a house being sold, or a child still young at your death. You should be able to say what every gift does.

Signing: WESA requires the will to be in writing and signed by you at the end, with two witnesses there together when you sign or acknowledge your signature, and both then sign in front of you. You must be at least 16. A gift to a witness or a witness's spouse is void unless a court saves it. Amendments since WESA came into force also allow electronic wills and witnessing by video, under the Act's conditions.

Storage: the signed original is what gets probated; a copy needs a court application. Filing a wills notice is optional and records only where the will is kept, not what it says.

What do you need to decide before your will is drafted?

Before a will is drafted, decide who will be executor and who is the alternate, who should be guardian of any minor children, who receives your home, how the rest of the estate is divided, and whether any share is held in trust. You can work through them with the lawyer, but each answer changes the draft.

• Executor and alternate: someone who can deal with banks, the registry and family, and a back-up if your first choice dies, refuses or can't act.
• Guardian: the Family Law Act lets a will appoint one for minor children; if the other parent survives as a guardian, the appointment generally works alongside them.
• The home: to one person, to several in shares, or sold and divided, and whether its value counts against that child's share of the rest.
• The residue: everything else, split by fractions, with a fallback for anyone who dies before you.
• Trusts: whether a young person's share stays with a trustee past the age of majority; the trusts page covers the options.

How do you leave a house or other real estate in a will in BC?

To leave real estate in a BC will, the will gives your interest in the property to a named person, either by describing it or through a wider clause such as 'the home I own when I die'. The gift only works if the property belongs to your estate, so the title is checked first.

A share held as tenants in common passes under the will; a joint tenancy share goes to the co-owner by survivorship. If the will leaves the house to your children but your spouse is a joint tenant with you, your spouse takes it.

A gift of a house named by its address fails if you sell it before you die, which lawyers call ademption; a gift of whatever residence you own at death carries over to a replacement. Rentals add decisions: sell or keep, who manages them meanwhile, and whether tenants stay.

After death, the executor registers a transmission at the Land Title Office into the executor's name before selling or transferring the property. Whether property transfer tax applies to the transfer to a beneficiary depends on who they are and the property; the probate and title transfers pages cover each step.

What happens to the mortgage on a house you leave in your will?

Unless the will says otherwise, a person who inherits a house in BC takes it subject to any registered mortgage. The debt stays with the house rather than being paid from the rest of the estate. For the house to pass clear, the will has to direct the executor to pay the mortgage from other assets.

Paying it from the residue shrinks everyone else's share, so life insurance is often used to fund it. A beneficiary keeping the house must deal with the lender: a title transfer doesn't release the estate from the loan, only the lender can, and many mortgages let the lender demand repayment on the owner's death or a change of ownership.

Can one BC will cover property in another country?

A BC will can deal with property abroad, but the law where land is located usually controls how it passes and who can deal with it. Some countries won't act on a BC grant, and some reserve fixed shares for family. A separate will made under that country's law is often the cleaner route.

The two wills are drafted as a pair: each says which property it covers, and neither revokes the other. The foreign will has to meet that country's signing rules, and its executor must be able to act there. Elsewhere in Canada, a BC grant can usually be recognized, but land still follows the local law.

Should you update your will with a codicil or write a new one?

Use a codicil for one contained change, such as replacing an executor or adding a modest gift. Write a new will when the change alters how the estate is divided, when several changes have piled up, or after a marriage, separation, birth or death in the family. A codicil needs the same signing and witnessing as a will.

A will and its codicils are probated together, so several codicils invite mistakes and leave your earlier wording on the public record.

Handwritten notes and crossings-out on a signed will generally have no effect unless you and two witnesses sign the change. WESA's curative power lets a court accept a document that shows your real intention despite missed formalities, but only through an application after your death: a safety net, not a way to update a will.

How do you revoke a will in BC?

Under WESA, you revoke a BC will by making a later will or codicil that revokes it, by signing a written declaration of revocation with the same formalities as a will, or by burning, tearing or otherwise destroying it, yourself or through someone acting in your presence and at your direction, intending to revoke it.

Intention is the test: a will torn by accident, or destroyed by someone else without your direction, is not revoked. If an original last in your possession can't be found after your death, the law presumes you destroyed it to revoke it, and anyone relying on it must rebut that.

A revoked will isn't revived by destroying a later one; that takes a new signing or a codicil. Separation doesn't revoke a whole will but can cancel gifts and appointments to a former spouse, as our guide to your will after separation explains.