Due to the complexities of the land title system, and the need to ensure the integrity and preservation of historic records in a working office environment, direct access to original land title records is limited to LTSA staff and those with direct access privilege.
Please note that the staff of the LTSA is unable to undertake historical research in land title records due to the constant high volume of current land title transactions that require processing.
If you have an historical inquiry, please contact one of the registry agents also known as title search agents, who have experience in conducting historical research in land title records. You would be wise to assess the feasibility of your request with a registry agent and to obtain a quote. To contain the cost of your request, it is important to focus your research inquiry.
Please note that there is no province-wide index to historic land title transactions and that the quality and condition of surviving nominal indexes differs from office to office.
Be sure to direct your inquiry to a registry search agent located in Victoria, New Westminster or Kamloops who works in geographic proximity to the records that need to be consulted.
Land Title Registry Agents
Experienced registry agents are available to conduct historical research in land title records. They have direct access to records in the Victoria, New Westminster and Kamloops Land Title Offices.
Due to the complexities of the land title system, including changes over time in the statutory requirements regarding record-keeping and multiple numbering systems that differ between land title offices, it is recommended that individuals seeking historical research in land title records request the professional assistance of a registry agent.
Registry agents undertaking historical research have, through knowledge of land title legislation and years of experience using land title records, acquired the skill set most likely to result in a successful search result.
Most registry agents charge between $70.00 and $90.00 per hour for historical research, plus applicable taxes. Additionally, there may be disbursement costs that registry agents must pay to the LTSA for copying records. Those fees are set out in the LTSA fee schedules and are based upon the number of titles, the number of document pages, and/or the size of the plan copied.
The majority of historical land title searches cost between $100 and $200, depending upon how many times the property has changed owners and whether it has been subdivided. It is important to gather as much information as possible before requesting a registry agent's assistance, in order to focus your research inquiry. Also, you may wish to request that the registry agent give you a status report upon reaching $100 in costs. At that point, you can decide whether or not you wish the registry agent to continue.
To hire a land title registry agent consult the membership list of the BC Association of Professional Registry Agents.
Focusing Your Research Inquiry
Before requesting a land title search, it is important that you gather as much information as possible from family papers or other sources.
- To help contain the cost and to ensure the success of an historical research inquiry, you must provide the full legal description, a specific civic address, or the parcel identifier (PID) number of the property in which you are interested.
- With a point of entry (legal description, civic address or PID) into the land title system, it is possible to search backwards and forwards, in order to compile a detailed history of the ownership of a parcel of land.
- For property that has changed owners many times or been subdivided, the search can be costly, both in terms of the hours spent researching and the number of documents that are available to be copied.
- Most often a historical search is undertaken to discover something specific about the ownership of a parcel of property.
- If you are interested only in the property's history while a member of your family owned it, be sure to indicate the family name and to limit your request in that way.
Alternately, if you know that you only want the property's history during the 1920s and 1930s, state so in your request.
- Or, you may just be interested in who first owned the land, including a copy of the original Crown grant?
