I learned something interesting.

Feb 2, 2010

Here is something I learned in my last Property Law class.

In British Columbia if someone were to, unbeknownst to you, sell your house, the court would settle the dispute between you and the innocent purchaser of the house (by “innocent” I mean they didn’t know the purchase had been fraudulent) by giving the house to the person who bought it and giving you the house’s current market value.

The best part is that if your house ever were successfully transferred through fraud, the land registration system in BC is such that the registrar’s office would never actually notify you of the transfer. You’d only ever find out when the other dude tried to move in. At which point you’re basically required by law to hand over those keys.

Moreover, judges don’t have the authority to exercise their discretion and set things right in any other fashion, because this is a rule that’s been codified in provincial statutes.

In other words, when it comes down to it, the law sides with the 25-year-old yuppie who already has two homes and who’s about to turf the 84-year-old widow who’s lived in her bungalow for 30-odd years and has two cats and a canary buried in the backyard.

So what I’m saying is, don’t lose your house in BC.

February 2, 2010 Categories: Shorts Trackback

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3 Responses to “I learned something interesting.”

1 baji Feb 2, 2010

now, maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t seem fair. is it as black and white as that? maybe is it limited to property that may have been constructively abandoned? who buys a house without looking inside?
2 adnan. Feb 2, 2010

So what I’m saying is, don’t lose your house in BC.

but you wouldn’t even know if you did.

what happens to the fraudulent party? and where does the market value money to cover the original owner come from?

i have a business idea plan depending on those answers.
3 fathima Feb 10, 2010

oh right, clarification — this applies in instances where the fraudser (to use the prof’s technical term) disappears. it may also apply when they’re able to apprehend fraudster; that seems unlikely but i don’t know for sure.
the whole law’s unlikely. relevant provision of BC’s Land Title Act:

297
(1) In this section, “transferee” means a transferee who, in good faith and for valuable consideration, acquires an estate or interest in land less than a fee simple estate.
(2) Despite anything to the contrary in this Act, no transferee is subject to a proceeding under this Part in respect of an estate or interest in land of which the transferee is the registered owner, for
(a) recovery of land,
(b) deprivation of land, or
(c) damages in respect of land
on the ground that the transferor
(d) may have been registered as owner through fraud, error or a wrongful act, or
(e) may have derived title from or through a person registered as owner through fraud, error or a wrongful act.

the LTA addresses how messed up that is by giving money out of its Assurance Fund (but only after much whining) to the people who owned the land in the first place.

I learned something interesting.

3 Responses to “I learned something interesting.”

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