What a Covenant on Title Means Before You Buy in BC

The short version

A covenant is a restriction registered against the land itself, not against the person who agreed to it. It binds you once you own the place.
In British Columbia the common kind is a section 219 covenant, named after section 219 of the Land Title Act. It can be positive as well as negative — it can require you to do something, not just stop you doing something.
Only public bodies can normally hold one: the Crown, a municipality, a regional district and a short list of others. Your neighbour cannot register one against you.
On the North Shore the usual reason is land: a steep slope, a creek, a hazard. The District of North Vancouver requires the covenant to be on title before the building permit is issued.
A covenant is not the only thing hiding on a title. A municipality can also file a note that building rules were contravened — and there is a defined way to get that one cancelled.
A title search costs $11.06 and the covenant document itself $17.78, plus a transaction fee. The municipal “comfort letters” buyers often order do not report covenants at all.
Registration does not mean a covenant is enforceable. The Land Title Act says so in as many words.

You put in an offer, your subject to review of title goes in, and a few days later a document arrives that reads like it was written for somebody else. Somewhere in it is the word covenant, and a registration number, and a paragraph telling you what you may not do with a house you are about to buy.

Almost everything written about covenants in British Columbia is written for lawyers, surveyors or the municipalities that register them. This is written for the person holding the title search, trying to work out whether to remove a subject.

First, where this shows up

A British Columbia title search is one document with named blocks. Two of them matter here, and buyers mix them up constantly.

BC Financial Services Authority, the provincial regulator, puts the difference plainly: “Legal notations are different than charges. They are not encumbrances, but document other types of interests or legislative matters or restrictions that affect title”. The regulator’s own example is an easement that benefits your land over somebody else’s — “The most common example is an appurtenant easement.”

And a warning worth carrying with you, from the same page: “the presence of an appurtenant easement as a legal notation on title does not guarantee that the easement exists or is enforceable.”

Block on the title	What sits there	What it means for you
Legal Notations	Flags and annotations rather than encumbrances. Easements that benefit your land, development permit notations, statutory flags.	Often a benefit, sometimes just a warning sign. Not proof the interest exists.
Charges, Liens and Interests	Statutory covenants, statutory rights of way, easements that burden your land, restrictive covenants, building schemes, leases, mortgages, liens, judgments.	These encumber the land. A section 219 covenant lives here.

Each charge is listed with a nature, a registration number and a date. The registration number is the thing you need. The title tells you a covenant exists; it does not tell you what the covenant says. For that you order the document.

What a section 219 covenant actually is

Section 219 of the Land Title Act is the provision that lets a restriction be registered against land in favour of a public body, and then enforced against everybody who owns the land afterwards.

The Act says the covenant is “enforceable against the covenantor and the successors in title of the covenantor even if the covenant is not annexed to land owned by the covenantee.” In plain words: the municipality does not need to own a neighbouring lot to hold this over your land, and the fact that you never signed it changes nothing. Section 219(7) is explicit — the covenant “is binding on the covenantor and the covenantor’s successors in title, even though the instrument or other disposition has not been signed by the covenantee.”

The part that surprises buyers: it can make you do things

A plain restrictive covenant at common law can only stop you. A section 219 covenant is different, and the Act says so twice — once at section 219(2) and again at section 219(4): a covenant under this section “may be of a negative or positive nature”.

That single phrase is why a covenant can oblige an owner to maintain drainage works, to keep a pump in working order, to retain a professional engineer before doing further work, or to use the land only in the way an engineer’s report specified. Those are ongoing duties that come with the house, and they cost money.

Section 219 covenants can also require land or a feature on it to be “protected, preserved, conserved, maintained, enhanced, restored or kept in its natural or existing state”. The Act defines the relevant feature broadly — an “amenity” includes any “natural, historical, heritage, cultural, scientific, architectural, environmental, wildlife or plant life value” relating to the land.

Who is allowed to hold one

This is the question that settles most neighbour disputes before they start. Section 219 covenants may be registered in favour of the Crown, a Crown corporation or agency, a municipality, a regional district, the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, or a local trust committee under the Islands Trust Act.

There is one more category, and it is the reason the simple answer “only governments” is not quite right. For the conservation type of covenant, section 219(3)(c) also allows “any person designated by the minister on terms and conditions the minister thinks proper”. That is how a land trust comes to hold a conservation covenant. A designated holder’s covenant is also uniquely fragile: section 219(11) says that on the death or dissolution of that holder the covenant stops being enforceable by anyone, unless another covenantee was named or an assignment was approved in writing by the minister.

Covenant, right of way, easement, building scheme

Four different things, four different consequences, and they appear on titles side by side.

Interest	Section	The distinguishing feature
Section 219 covenant	Land Title Act, section 219	Held by a public body (or a minister-designated person). No neighbouring land needed. Can be positive or negative.
Statutory right of way	Land Title Act, section 218	The Act calls it “an easement, without a dominant tenement”. A utility or authority gets a right to use part of your land.
Easement	Not defined in the Land Title Act	A right of one parcel over another. Needs a benefiting parcel and a burdened one. Shows as a charge when yours is the burdened land.
Building scheme	Land Title Act, section 220	A developer’s general scheme of restrictions over two or more parcels. Binds every later owner “without further registration”.

The North Shore version: slope, creek and hazard covenants

On the North Shore, the most common reason an ordinary house carries a covenant is the ground it stands on.

The mechanism is in section 56 of the Community Charter. Where a building inspector considers that construction would be on land “subject to or is likely to be subject to flooding, mud flows, debris flows, debris torrents, erosion, land slip, rockfalls, subsidence or avalanche”, the inspector may require a report from a qualified professional — a professional engineer, or a professional geoscientist with geotechnical and geohazard experience or training.

What happens next is the part nobody explains. If the professional says the land cannot be used safely, section 56(3) says the inspector “must not issue a building permit”. But there is a middle road, and it is the hinge of the whole thing. Section 56(4) reads:

“A building inspector may issue a building permit in accordance with subsection (5) if a qualified professional certifies that the land may be used safely for the use intended if the land is used in accordance with the conditions specified in the professional’s report.”

Section 56(5) then sets the price of that permit: the owner must covenant with the municipality to use the land only in the manner the professional certified as safe, the covenant must contain conditions about reimbursing the municipality for expenses caused by a breach, and “the covenant is registered under section 219 of the Land Title Act.”

So the covenant on the title of a hillside house is usually not a punishment. It is the record of the conditions under which that house was allowed to be built at all. Two consequences follow for a buyer: the engineer’s report is the real document you want to read, and the conditions in it did not stop at occupancy.

One detail worth knowing before you plan work: section 56 defines “construction” as new construction or structural alteration or addition, “but does not include the repair of an existing building or other structure”.

The District of North Vancouver’s own numbers

The District publishes its requirements, and the trigger distances are not the same for a building permit as they are for a development permit. That trips people up.

District document	When it bites	Covenant required?
Sloping Sites geotechnical report (Master Requirement SPE 105)	Development “on or within 10 metres of a slope greater than 20 degrees (36%)”, or within 10 metres of the base of a slope greater than 30 degrees (54%)	Yes — “the covenant must be registered under section 219 of the Land Title Act”
Creek Hazard Report (Master Requirement SPE 107)	Development affected by creek hazard	Yes — and the timing is explicit, below
Slope Hazard Development Permit Area	Properties “within 20 metres of the top or bottom of a steep slope”; a steep slope is “greater than 20 degrees (36%) and greater than 10 metres in height”	A development permit and a sealed assurance statement, which is a different requirement

The Creek Hazard Report document is the blunt one. It states: “The Section 219 Covenant must be registered on title prior to permit issuance.” If you are buying a creek-side or hillside property and planning work, that sequence is your timeline, not a formality at the end.

Trees are caught too. The District’s tree guidance lists, among protected trees, “Any tree that is covenanted – Title searches may be obtained (for a fee) from the Land Title Office;”. A covenanted tree is protected because of the covenant, and the only way to know is to search the title.

These documents and their numbers change. Confirm the current requirement for a specific address with the District before you rely on it: 604-990-2311, Building Department 604-990-2480 or building@dnv.org, District Hall, 355 West Queens Road.

The other thing on a North Shore title: a note that building rules were broken

This is not a covenant, and almost nothing written for buyers mentions it. Under section 57 of the Community Charter a municipality can file a note against the title recording that building regulations were contravened.

It arises two ways. Either a building inspector observes a condition resulting from a contravention of a municipal bylaw, a Provincial building regulation or another enactment relating to construction or safety, and considers that as a result “a building or other structure is unsafe or is unlikely to be usable for its expected purpose during its normal lifetime”; or the inspector discovers that something was done that “required a permit or an inspection” and “the permit was not obtained or the inspection not satisfactorily completed.”

The inspector cannot file it alone. The recommendation goes in writing to the corporate officer, who must notify the registered owner and put the matter before council; council may then pass the resolution “after providing the building inspector and the owner an opportunity to be heard”.

How a new owner gets that note cancelled

Section 58 gives a route, and it is better than most buyers assume. On receiving a report from a building inspector that the condition “has been rectified”, the corporate officer must file a cancellation notice, and on receiving it the registrar of land titles must cancel the note. Those are duties, not discretions.

An owner can also apply directly to council for a resolution that the note be cancelled. If council hears the application and declines, section 58 allows the owner to go to the Supreme Court.

For a buyer the practical reading is this: a section 57 note is a repair job with a defined finish line, not a permanent stain. The question to price is what the rectification costs, and whether the work that triggered it — an unpermitted suite, a deck, a retaining wall — can be brought up to standard at all.

Old covenants that are void but still printed

On older British Columbia titles, buyers sometimes find covenant wording that restricts who may own or occupy the land. It is void, and it has been for a long time. Section 222 of the Land Title Act:

“A covenant that, directly or indirectly, restricts the sale, ownership, occupation or use of land on account of the sex, race, creed, colour, nationality, ancestry or place of origin of a person, however created, whether before or after the coming into force of this section, is void and of no effect.”

Two things follow that are worth being precise about, because they are often stated too simply.

First, void is automatic; removal is not. The registrar “may” cancel such a covenant on application where it was registered before October 31, 1979, and “may” cancel one on the registrar’s own initiative. Being void and being gone from the record are different things.

Second, what removal looks like depends on the document. The Land Title and Survey Authority’s practice note on section 222 cancellations draws the distinction: where the instrument also contains provisions that are not affected, the registrar endorses the title and the original document to show the discriminating covenant has been cancelled, and the amended document is rescanned under its original registration number. Where the whole instrument is affected, it is cancelled from the titles it is registered against. So in the first case the wording remains visible on the record, struck through, rather than erased.

An owner can ask, and it is free. The practice note states “there is no customer fee for cancellation of a discriminating covenant”. Requests go to customerservice@ltsa.ca, with the legal description or parcel identifier and the registration number of the covenant.

One honest note on the wording of the section: the listed grounds are sex, race, creed, colour, nationality, ancestry and place of origin. Religion and sexual orientation do not appear. Bills to modernise the section and make cancellation mandatory have been introduced in the Legislature more than once and have not been enacted.

Registration is not a guarantee the thing is enforceable

This is the single most useful sentence in the whole Act for a nervous buyer, and it is rarely quoted. Section 219(10):

“The registration of a covenant under this section is not a determination by the registrar of its enforceability.”

Section 221(2) says the same of restrictive covenants: registration “is not a determination by the registrar of its essential nature or enforceability.” The registrar checks the form, not the merits. An old, oddly drafted covenant on your title may or may not survive a challenge — but that is a question for a lawyer looking at the actual document, not something you can read off the title search.

What it costs to actually look

Land Title and Survey Authority fees, as published in its customer fee listing as at April 1, 2026.

What you order	Fee	What you get
Title search	$11.06	The owner, the legal description, the parcel identifier, the legal notations and the list of charges with their registration numbers
Electronic image of a registered document	$17.78	The covenant itself — the actual wording you need to read
Certified copy	$16.76	A certified version, where one is needed
Standard electronic transaction fee	$3.55	Added per transaction on a pay as you go account
Discounted electronic transaction fee	$2.20	Per transaction on a prepaid deposit account

The transaction fee is charged in addition to the search, so an online title search on a pay as you go account is the search fee plus the transaction fee. The numbers are small, which is the point: the cost of reading the covenant before you remove a subject is trivial compared with the cost of not reading it.

A civic address is not enough to order a search. You need the parcel identifier or the legal description.

The municipal letter will not tell you about covenants

All three North Shore municipalities sell a property letter, and buyers order them believing they cover everything. They are genuinely useful documents — for permits, occupancy, work orders and zoning. None of the three lists covenants or title charges among what it reports.

Municipality	What it is called	Fee	How long	Reports covenants?
West Vancouver	Comfort Letter	$240.00 single family or duplex; $340.00 condominiums and apartments; $560.00 commercial, industrial and institutional, plus tax	Five working days	No. It covers permits issued, date of occupancy, outstanding work orders, zoning information and Board of Variance applications
City of North Vancouver	Compliance Letter, on the Property and Fire Compliance Request form	$112.60 plus GST for a single family or duplex building	Three to four weeks, per the City’s form	No. The form offers tick boxes for licensing and property use, permits and inspections, planning and land use, engineering and utilities, and the fire department
District of North Vancouver	Property summary, also called a comfort letter or zoning compliance letter	$214.10 single-family residential, in the consolidated fees bylaw	Not published	No

One genuinely good reason to order the City of North Vancouver letter anyway: its request form carries a tick box for an underground oil tank search by the fire department, at no fee. On the North Shore that is worth having.

Two cautions on those figures. The City’s form prints its own warning that the fees listed on it may not be current. The District’s fee bylaw is a consolidation marked “CONSOLIDATED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLY” and “This consolidation is not a legal document”, though its amendment table runs to a bylaw adopted on February 2, 2026. Confirm the fee when you order.

The honest conclusion is the useful one: these letters and a title search answer different questions. If you want to know about covenants, you have to search the title.

Can a covenant be removed?

Sometimes. There are three routes, and they are not equally realistic.

Route	Authority	Realistic when
The holder agrees	Land Title Act, section 219(9): a covenant may be modified by the holder and the owner, or discharged by the holder	The reason for the covenant has genuinely gone. This is the normal route, and it is a conversation with the municipality, not a court case.
The approving officer	Section 219(9.1): for covenants required as a condition of subdivision under the repealed section 82, the approving officer may modify or discharge	Older subdivision covenants only. Narrow, but real, and frequently overlooked.
The court	Property Law Act, section 35: a person interested in land may apply to the Supreme Court to modify or cancel an easement, statutory right of way, building scheme, restrictive or other covenant and more	Last resort, with real cost and real uncertainty.

The court route is worth understanding properly, because it is usually described too optimistically. Section 35(2) is a two-part test. The court must be satisfied “that the application is not premature in the circumstances”, and that one of five grounds applies: that the charge is obsolete because of changes in the character of the land, the neighbourhood or other material circumstances; that reasonable use of the land will be impeded without practical benefit to others; that those entitled to the benefit have agreed; that modification or cancellation will not injure the person entitled to the benefit; or that the instrument is invalid, unenforceable or expired.

The grounds are alternatives, so one is enough. The prematurity gate is not an alternative — it applies on top. The court can also order the applicant to pay compensation, and must direct inquiries to the municipality or other public authority and notice to those entitled to the benefit before making an order.

Nothing in the Property Law Act excludes a covenant held by a municipality from section 35. But a statute permitting an application is not the same as a court granting it, and a covenant that exists because an engineer said the land is only safe under conditions is not a promising candidate. Do not buy a property on the assumption that a hazard covenant can be lifted.

One more point in your favour as a seller later: section 219(8) says no person who enters into a covenant is liable for a breach occurring after they have ceased to own the land. Note what that protects — the person who signed. It is not a general release for every past owner, and it does nothing to release you while you own the place.

What to do before your subject removal date

A short, ordinary sequence that fits inside a normal subject period.

Read the title, not the summary. Look at both blocks — legal notations and charges — and write down the registration number of anything you do not recognise.
Order the documents. The covenant’s own wording is the whole answer and costs less than twenty dollars.
Find the report behind the covenant. On a hazard covenant, the engineer’s report named in it is the document that says what you may and may not do. Ask the seller for it, and ask the municipality if it is on file.
Ask the municipality what it means for your plans. Not “is there a covenant” — the title answers that — but “with this covenant, would you permit what I want to build”.
Send it to your lawyer or notary. Positive obligations, indemnities and reimbursement clauses are the ones that cost money later.
If something is unclear, do not remove the subject. An extension is cheap. A covenant is not.

Who to call

Anything municipal can change, and it changes without notice. Call before you rely on it, and call again before you commit money.

District of North Vancouver — 604-990-2311; Building Department 604-990-2480 or building@dnv.org; Planning planning@dnv.org; District Hall, 355 West Queens Road, V7N 4N5.
City of North Vancouver — 604-985-7761; planning@cnv.org; 141 West 14th Street, V7M 1H9.
West Vancouver — 604-925-7000; Permits and Inspections 604-925-7040 or plans@westvancouver.ca; Municipal Hall, 750 17th Street, V7V 3T3.
Land Title and Survey Authority — customerservice@ltsa.ca for a discriminating covenant cancellation request.

Sources

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