Contract of purchase and sale

The contract of purchase and sale is the document that buys resale property in British Columbia — the provincial counterpart to Ontario’s agreement of purchase and sale, built on the standard form jointly published by BCREA and the Canadian Bar Association’s BC branch. A buyer signs it as an offer; acceptance makes it binding; and everything after — deposit, conditions, closing — runs on the machinery its clauses set up. The concepts rhyme with Ontario’s. The mechanics do not.

Subject clauses and subject removal

BC’s conditions are “subjects”: subject to financing, subject to inspection, subject to review of the Form B and strata documents, subject to sale of the buyer’s home. Each is a condition precedent with a date, and the buyer removes subjects in writing — the deal is only firm once the last subject comes off. A seller facing a subject-to-sale offer often adds a time clause so a better offer can force the first buyer to remove subjects or step aside. Where a seller has completed a property disclosure statement, it is commonly incorporated into the contract here, turning its answers into terms.

The deposit and the three dates

The deposit customarily lands after subject removal rather than with the offer, and sits in a brokerage trust account until completion. The back of the deal runs on three separate dates. Completion is when money and title actually move, through the lawyers and the land title office. Possession — usually a day or so later — is when the buyer gets keys. Adjustment is the date property taxes, utilities and strata fees are prorated between the parties. Ontario compresses all of this into one closing day; BC’s split is deliberate, and mixing the dates up is a classic out-of-province error.

The rescission period

Since 2023, most residential buyers in BC hold a statutory escape Ontario has no version of: the home buyer rescission period. For three business days after acceptance the buyer may rescind by written notice, paying the seller 0.25% of the purchase price. It cannot be waived by contract and applies even to subject-free offers — the province’s answer to the no-condition frenzies of the pandemic market. Offer strategy on both sides has to price it in: a “firm” BC deal is only three days firm. The nearest Ontario concept, the irrevocable period, governs how long an offer stays open — a different clock solving a different problem, which is a tidy summary of the two provinces’ paperwork generally.