Why Money Is Held Back When a BC Home Sale Completes

Your sale completes. The keys change hands. And then your lawyer or notary tells you that part of the money is not coming to you yet.

That is a holdback, and it catches people off guard because nobody mentions it until the day it happens. It is not a fee and nobody has taken your money. It is your money, parked, until something specific gets proved.

What almost nothing written on this explains is the part that decides how long you wait: a holdback is created by one rule and released by a completely different one. A statute makes a debt stick to the land. A professional promise between two conveyancers is what lets the money go. Understanding that split is how you find out, on the day, when you will actually see it.

The short version

A holdback is your own money, held by a lawyer or notary, until a specific condition is met.
Most holdbacks exist because some debts attach to the land, not to the person who ran them up. Unpaid municipal taxes are the clearest case.
Municipal taxes are a charge that, in the Act’s own words, “does not require registration to preserve it” — so a title search will never show them.
You can get a certificate of unpaid taxes free from the collector. But an error in it does not make the municipality liable, and the charge covers taxes still to come. That is the real reason for the holdback.
On a strata, the registrar must not accept the transfer without a current Certificate of Payment. A strata can refuse one over an unpaid fine it could never have registered a lien for.
An approved special levy is split by the date each portion is payable, not by the completion date. A lump-sum levy lands entirely on one side.
If the seller lives outside Canada, the buyer has a hard deadline to remit tax — and there is no published timetable for the certificate that ends the holdback.
Nothing in the statutes puts an outside limit on how long a holdback can run. The limit is whatever the written undertaking says, which is why the date must be in it.

What a holdback is, and who is actually holding it

On completion, the buyer’s money goes to the seller’s lawyer or notary, who pays out the mortgage, the taxes, the commission and everything else, and sends the balance to the seller.

A holdback is a slice of that balance that does not get sent. It stays in a trust account because one side has promised the other side that it will stay there until something is settled.

Three things follow from that, and they answer most of the questions people have:

It is almost always the seller’s money. The buyer’s funds have already gone. What is held back is being kept from the seller’s proceeds.
A lawyer or notary holds it, not a realtor. Deposits sit with a brokerage. Completion holdbacks sit with the conveyancer. Different money, different rules, different people.
It is not discretionary once it is agreed. As you will see below, the person holding it cannot simply let it go because their own client asks them to.

The debts that follow the land instead of the person

Here is the idea underneath nearly every holdback. Some debts are owed by whoever owns the property, not by whoever incurred them. Buy the house, inherit the debt.

Municipal property taxes are the plainest example. Section 250 of the Community Charter says that taxes “accrued and to accrue” on land are a charge that:

“(a) is a special charge on the land and improvements, (b) has priority over any claim, lien, privilege or encumbrance of any person except the Crown, and (c) does not require registration to preserve it.”
Community Charter, section 250 (1)

Read paragraph (c) again. The charge is good without being registered. It does not appear on a title search, because it does not have to. And under paragraph (b) it outranks everything except the Crown — including the buyer’s new mortgage.

But you can just ask the city — so why hold money back?

This is the question most articles skip, and the answer is the most useful thing on this page.

You can ask. Section 249 (2) of the Community Charter says the collector “must provide, to any person who requests this, a certificate showing” the amount of unpaid taxes charged against a specified property. Anyone can get it, and under section 249 (1) the owner gets a statement on demand and without charge.

So the number is obtainable. The holdback exists anyway, for two reasons sitting right next to each other in the Act:

The certificate carries no promise behind it. Section 249 (3): “An error in a statement or certificate given under this section does not subject the municipality to damages.” If the figure is wrong, the municipality owes nobody anything — and the unregistered charge stays on the land for the real amount.
The charge reaches forward. Section 250 (1) covers taxes “accrued and to accrue“. No certificate issued today can state a tax that has not been levied yet.

A conveyancer holding back for taxes is not doubting the city. They are declining to put their client behind a charge that is invisible, senior to the mortgage, forward-looking, and backed by nobody’s liability if the stated number turns out to be wrong.

Debt	Does it follow the land?	Does it show on a title search?
Municipal property taxes	Yes — a special charge under section 250	No — registration is not required to preserve it
Municipal charges for services provided to the land	Yes — sections 258 and 259 collect them like taxes	No — same rule, registration not required
Strata fees and special levies	Only once the strata registers a Certificate of Lien	Yes, once registered
A builder’s or trade’s claim for unpaid work	Only once a claim of lien is filed	Yes, once filed
The seller’s mortgage	No — it is discharged on completion	Yes
The seller’s personal debts	No, unless registered against the title	Only if registered

Community Charter, RSBC 2003, c. 26, Part 7, current to 3 November 2026. General guidance; your conveyancer decides what a given file needs.

Strata: the one certificate that can stop a sale at the counter

If you are buying or selling a strata lot, there is a document that can halt the whole thing, and most people have never heard of it.

Section 256 of the Strata Property Act says the registrar “must not accept” a conveyance of title to a strata lot for registration “unless it is accompanied by a current Certificate of Payment in the prescribed form referred to in section 115”. That is the Certificate of Payment, known to everyone in the business as the Form F.

Note how wide that is. It is not only a sale: section 256 catches a lease of a strata lot, an assignment of a lease, and an agreement for sale as well.

Two numbers are worth carrying. Under section 115 (2), the certificate is current “for a period of 60 days from the date it is issued” — so one obtained too early expires and the registrar must refuse it. And the Strata Property Regulation caps what the strata may charge: the maximum fee for a Certificate of Payment is $15.

The fine a strata can never lien for, but can still block you with

This is the asymmetry that produces more last-minute holdbacks than anything else in strata conveyancing, and it is worth understanding precisely.

A strata corporation cannot register a lien for a fine. Section 116 (3) says the lien power does not apply where “the amount owing is in respect of a fine or the costs of remedying a contravention”. Full stop — the power is simply not there.

But the duty to issue the certificate works differently. Section 115 (1) obliges the strata to give a Certificate of Payment only if the owner “does not owe money to the strata corporation”, or owes money but has paid it into court or into the strata’s trust under section 114, or has made “arrangements satisfactory to the strata corporation” to pay. And section 115 (4) lets the strata count fines and the costs of remedying a contravention as money owing.

Put those together and you get the trap: a seller who is completely current on strata fees can still be refused the certificate over a disputed fine — a fine the strata could never have registered against the title. No certificate, no registration.

There are two limits on this that a worried seller should know, because being blocked is not the same as being stuck:

There is a statutory way out. Section 114 lets an owner pay the disputed amount into court, or to the strata to hold in trust, where the matter has gone to the Civil Resolution Tribunal, to arbitration or to court. Do that and section 115 (1) (b) (i) obliges the strata to issue the certificate. This is exactly the situation a holdback is designed for — the money is set aside so the strata signs.
Undetermined damages cannot go in at all. Section 115 (5): “A certificate must not include claims of damages against an owner that have not been determined by a court, by arbitration or by the civil resolution tribunal.”

Amount the strata says is owed	Can it register a lien?	Can it refuse the Certificate of Payment?
Unpaid strata fees	Yes	Yes
An unpaid special levy	Yes	Yes
A fine	No — section 116 (3) (c)	Yes — section 115 (4) (b)
Costs of remedying a contravention	No — section 116 (3) (c)	Yes — section 115 (4) (b)
Damages not yet determined by a court, arbitration or the tribunal	No	No — section 115 (5) forbids it
Any of the above, once paid into court or to the strata in trust under section 114	No — section 116 (3) (a)	No — the certificate must issue

Strata Property Act, SBC 1998, c. 43, current to 3 November 2026.

The special levy, and the single date that decides who pays it

A special levy approved before completion is one of the few places where the law tells you outright who owes the money — and the answer surprises almost everyone, because it has nothing to do with the completion-day adjustments.

Section 109 of the Strata Property Act, in full:

“If a special levy is approved before a strata lot is conveyed to a purchaser, (a) the person who is the owner of the strata lot immediately before the date the strata lot is conveyed owes the strata corporation the portion of the levy that is payable before the date the strata lot is conveyed, and (b) the person who is the owner of the strata lot immediately after the date the strata lot is conveyed owes the strata corporation the portion of the levy that is payable on or after the date the strata lot is conveyed.”
Strata Property Act, section 109

Three things to take from it:

Approval is the trigger, not payment. The words are “if a special levy is approved before” the conveyance. A levy approved the week before completion is caught, even though nobody has paid a cent of it.
The split is by when each portion is payable, measured against the conveyance date. Not by who benefits from the new roof. Not by who lived there.
It allocates the debt to the strata corporation. Buyer and seller can agree something different between themselves, and often do — but that private deal does not bind the strata, which is why the conveyancer wants the money held rather than merely promised.

Where it bites hardest: the levy with one due date

Section 108 (3) (e) requires the approving resolution to set out “the date by which the levy is to be paid or, if the levy is payable in instalments, the dates by which the instalments are to be paid.”

That “or” is the whole game. A levy payable in instalments gets shared out across the conveyance date. A levy with a single due date does not get shared at all. It falls entirely on whichever side of that one date the conveyance lands.

How the resolution is written	Completion date	Who owes the strata
Payable in four portions, due April, July, October and January	1 August	Seller owes April and July; buyer owes October and January
Payable in one amount, due 1 September	31 August	The buyer owes the entire levy
Payable in one amount, due 1 September	2 September	The seller owes the entire levy
Approved after the conveyance	Any	Section 109 does not apply at all

Worked from the wording of Strata Property Act sections 108 and 109. Illustration only — read the actual resolution.

Two days apart, and the whole levy changes hands. If a levy has been approved on a strata you are buying or selling, the document to read is the resolution itself, for one thing: the date or dates the money is payable.

When the seller lives outside Canada

This produces the largest holdbacks and the longest waits, and the reason is a mismatch between two clocks.

Under section 116 (5) of the Income Tax Act, a buyer who acquires property from a non-resident becomes personally liable for the seller’s tax unless one of three things applies — relevantly, that “after reasonable inquiry the purchaser had no reason to believe that the non-resident person was not resident in Canada”, or that a certificate has been issued to the buyer by the Minister.

The buyer must remit “within 30 days after the end of the month in which the purchaser acquired the property”, and the rate is 25% of the excess of the cost of the property over the limit fixed by any certificate. The same subsection gives the buyer the right to “deduct or withhold” that amount from what they pay the seller. That right is the legal basis for the holdback.

Now the mismatch. The buyer’s deadline is fixed in the statute. The certificate that ends the holdback has no published deadline at all.

I looked for one. The Canada Revenue Agency’s processing times page covers returns, adjustments, benefits, charities, rulings, disputes and more — and lists nothing for a section 116 certificate of compliance. The information circular that governs the procedure says only that the certificate will be issued “at the earliest possible date”, with no timeframe attached.

One warning, because it will trip you up if you go looking. That processing-times page does list a “clearance certificate” with a stated number of days. That is a different document — the clearance certificate for a deceased person’s estate or a wound-up company. It is not the section 116 certificate of compliance for a non-resident seller, and the published figure for one tells you nothing about the other.

So the honest summary is: a hard statutory clock on the buyer, and no published timetable for the thing everyone is waiting on. That is why these holdbacks sit for months, and why the figures you read online come from accounting firms rather than from the Agency.

There is much more to this one, including how the seller shortens it. It is covered in the article on buying from a non-resident seller in BC.

The construction holdback, and the two numbers people mix up

If there has been building work, a different holdback applies, and it is the only one in this article with its own statutory timetable.

Section 4 (1) of the Builders Lien Act requires a holdback of “10% of the greater of” the value of the work actually provided and the amount of any payment made on account. Note that carefully — it is ten per cent of the greater of two figures, not ten per cent of the contract price.

Then two deadlines run from the same events, and confusing them is the single most common error in this area:

The number	What it actually governs	Where it comes from
45 days	The deadline for a contractor or trade to file a claim of lien	Section 20
55 days	When the holdback period expires and the money may be paid out	Section 8 (1) and (2)
10%	The amount that must be retained	Section 4 (1)

Builders Lien Act, SBC 1997, c. 45, current to 3 November 2026.

Both periods start from the same triggers, which is exactly why they get swapped. The ten-day gap between them is what gives the person holding the money time to search the title and confirm nothing was filed before releasing it. The Act does not say that is the purpose — it simply sets the two periods — but that is what the gap does in practice.

A source that tells you to hold back for 45 days is describing the filing deadline and would have you pay out ten days early. Section 8 (4) also says payment after the period discharges the liens “unless in the meantime a claim of lien is filed” or proceedings are commenced — so the discharge is conditional, not automatic.

If you are buying a newly built or substantially renovated home, this is your main holdback and it has its own article: the builders lien holdback when you buy a new home in BC.

What actually makes the money come back

Here is the part that answers “when do I get it”, and it is not where people look.

With one exception — the construction holdback above — a completion holdback has no statutory timetable. I looked for a cap on how long one may be held and found none in the Legal Profession Act, the Notaries Act, the Real Estate Services Act or the Real Estate Services Rules. That is “I could find none in those”, not “none exists” — but it is the right place to look and it is not there.

What holds the money is a professional promise. When one conveyancer sends money or documents to another on conditions, that is an undertaking or a trust condition, and the Code of Professional Conduct for BC rule 7.2-11 is short:

“A lawyer must: (a) not give an undertaking that cannot be fulfilled; (b) fulfill every undertaking given; and (c) honour every trust condition once accepted.”
Code of Professional Conduct for BC, rule 7.2-11

And then the sentence that surprises sellers most, from the commentary to that rule:

“Clients or others are not entitled to require a variation of trust conditions without the consent of the lawyer who has imposed the conditions and the lawyer who has accepted them.”
Code of Professional Conduct for BC, rule 7.2-11, commentary

Your own lawyer cannot release your holdback because you ask them to. It takes the consent of both — the one who imposed the condition and the one who accepted it. Instructing your lawyer does not move it, and being annoyed with them is aimed at the wrong person.

Notaries have an equivalent, and on holdbacks specifically it is more direct. The Rules of the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia, in the version dated July 2025, include a rule headed “Terms of Contract Apply to Holdback” requiring a member to withhold the funds according to the terms of the agreement, or until advised by both parties that the condition has been fulfilled, altered or waived.

Both professions land in the same place, and it is the practical lesson of this whole page: the release date is whatever the written agreement says it is. The commentary to rule 7.2-11 says trust conditions “should state the time within which the conditions must be met”. A holdback with no end date written into it is the one that sits for a year.

The holdbacks you are most likely to meet

Holdback	Why it exists	What releases it
Property taxes and municipal service charges	An unregistered charge on the land, senior to the mortgage, covering taxes still to accrue	Proof the account is clear, usually after the conveyancer confirms the final figure with the collector
Strata Certificate of Payment	The registrar must not accept the transfer without a current one	The strata issues it — or the disputed amount goes into court or into the strata’s trust under section 114
Approved special levy	The strata can lien the lot for it, and a private adjustment does not bind the strata	The levy portion is paid to the strata
Non-resident seller	The buyer is personally liable for the seller’s tax and has a fixed remittance deadline	The certificate of compliance arrives, on no published timetable
Construction work	A trade may still file a claim of lien against the title	The holdback period expires with no lien filed
Possession, rent or deficiencies	Purely contractual — the parties agreed it	Whatever the written agreement says, and nothing else

General guidance only. Which of these applies to a transaction is a question for the lawyer or notary acting on it.

What to ask, and when

Almost every unhappy holdback story is the same story: nobody wrote down when it ends. These are the questions that prevent it.

Before you remove subjects, on a strata: has a special levy been approved, and what does the resolution say about the date or dates it is payable? Ask for the resolution, not a summary of it.
Before you remove subjects, on a strata: is there anything outstanding that could stop the Certificate of Payment — including a fine or a bylaw dispute that has nothing to do with the fees?
Before completion, selling: are you a resident of Canada for tax purposes? Answer it early. If the answer is no, the holdback is large and the wait is open-ended.
Before completion, either side: has there been building work on the property in the last few months?
When a holdback is proposed: how much, who will hold it, what exact event releases it, and what is the date by which that must happen? Get the answer in the written undertaking, not in an email about it.
After completion, if it is still held: ask your conveyancer what specifically remains outstanding, and who has to consent to the release. Remember it takes both sides.

Questions people ask

Is a holdback the same as my deposit?

No, and they are governed by different rules and held by different people. A deposit is the buyer’s money, paid early, and normally held by a brokerage in a trust account. A holdback is usually the seller’s money, kept from the sale proceeds after completion, and held by a lawyer or notary. The rules on deposits are in the article on what happens to your deposit if a BC home deal falls apart.

Can I refuse to agree to a holdback?

Sometimes. A contractual holdback — for possession, or a deficiency — is something you agreed to, so it can be negotiated before you agree. A holdback for a debt that follows the land is different: the other side’s conveyancer is protecting their client against a charge that will land on the property, and refusing usually means the deal does not complete.

Do I earn interest on money held back?

Usually not, unless the agreement says so. This is one more reason to settle the terms in writing before completion rather than after.

How long can it be held?

For as long as the undertaking says. Apart from the construction holdback, which has its own statutory period, I could find no provision in the Legal Profession Act, the Notaries Act, the Real Estate Services Act or the Real Estate Services Rules that caps it. That is precisely why the release date belongs in the written terms.

What if the other side just will not agree to release it?

Then it stops being a conveyancing question and becomes a legal one, and you need advice on the specific undertaking. The conveyancer holding the money is not free to ignore the condition — the Code requires them to honour it once accepted, even if it has come to look unreasonable.

Is GST ever held back on an ordinary resale?

Not normally, because an ordinary sale of a used home is exempt and there is nothing to hold. Where GST could apply — a substantially renovated home, or a property run as a business — it is handled by a certificate or declaration in the contract, and any holdback there is a matter of private agreement rather than a legal requirement. I could find no statute or government page requiring a GST holdback on a BC residential resale.

Thinking about buying or selling on the North Shore?

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Why Money Is Held Back When Your BC Home Sale Completes