What Is a Builders Lien in BC? Rights, Eligibility, and How the Act Works

The Act creates a priority system that protects contractors, subcontractors, workers and suppliers even when a general contractor is insolvent or defaults, a project goes over budget, or an owner refuses to pay. The lien attaches to the owner’s interest in the improvement and the land. It survives most sales if filed in the Land Title Office before the transfer of the property. A property owner cannot simply sell the land to extinguish a valid lien claim.

The lien right arises automatically from the moment work begins or materials are delivered and remains unpaid. Registration at the Land Title Office is required to perfect the claim and make it visible to lenders, buyers, and other parties dealing with the property. Until registered, the lien right exists legally but provides no practical protection. Once registered, the lien appears on the title of the property and prevents the owner from dealing freely with the land until the claim is resolved. To perfect the lien and prevent it from expiring, the claimant must later commence a court action and register a Certificate of Pending Litigation (CPL) within the statutory timeline.

The Act protects every tier of the construction chain simultaneously. An owner’s obligation to retain holdback, combined with the lien registration system, creates a layered financial safety net for the entire project. Owners who comply with the holdback rules limit their exposure; those who do not may be required to pay twice: once to the general contractor and again to unpaid subcontractors who file the liens. The statutory holdback obligation is explained in full in our article on builders lien holdback requirements in BC.

Who Can File a Builders Lien on a Property in BC?

Any person who supplies work or materials to a construction project in BC and has not been paid has the right to file a Claim of Lien: this includes general contractors, subcontractors, sub-subcontractors (and further down the chain), workers, equipment or material suppliers, engineers, and architects; even those with no direct contract with the property owner.

The right to lien extends through every tier of the construction chain. A concrete supplier who delivered materials under a contract with a subcontractor, with no relationship to the property owner, can still register a lien against that owner’s title. A laborer hired by a sub-subcontractor can file a lien against the property owner who hired the general contractor. The Act treats all these claimants as having contributed to the improvement of the land, and the improvement itself serves as the security for the unpaid work or materials.

The Act defines an improvement broadly. Construction, alteration, repair, demolition, and the supply of material or equipment all qualify. Architects, engineers, and design professionals can claim liens for the work of providing designs, plans, or drawings. The designs, plans, or drawings they produced contributed to the improvement of the land, and the lien right does not require a structure to have actually been started on the site.

There are limits. A supplier who delivers goods to another supplier, rather than to a contractor or directly to the project, generally falls outside chain of claimants. This “supplier-to-supplier” rule is a frequent barrier for wholesalers. Additionally, while the lien right remains consistent, certain lands (such as Crown land or highways) are exempt from the lien system. We provide services backed by our expertise in construction law.

How Long Do You Have to File a Builders Lien in BC?

Under section 20 of the Act, a Claim of Lien must be registered at the Land Title Office within 45 days of the earliest of the following triggering events:

• the date a Certificate of Completion is issued for the head contract or a relevant subcontract;
• the date the head contract is completed, abandoned or terminated; or
• the date the improvement is completed or abandoned (if there is no head contract).

This date matters, and disputes about when the clock started are common. A brief return visit to a site to fix a minor deficiency does not restart the limitation period if the original scope of work has already been substantively complete. Courts look at whether the visit was part of the original contract or a separate, new obligation.

The 45-day deadline is strictly enforced as a statutory precondition to lien validity. BC courts have consistently refused to extend it. A lien filed after the 45-day period is invalid and unenforceable, and no equitable relief can revive it. In rare cases involving fraud, misrepresentation, or invalid triggering events, courts may find that the filing period has not yet commenced or that a party is prevented from relying on the expiry of the deadline.

If a Certificate of Completion is issued, the 45-day period typically begins on the date of issuance. Under the Act, this certificate must be delivered and posted in a prominent place on the site within 7 days of the issuance. If you are working on a project, watch for posted certificates. Their presence sets your clock in motion even if you were not personally told about them. For the complete procedure on calculating your deadline, confirming eligibility, and avoiding common timing errors, see the builders lien filing guide.

What Documents and Forms Do You Need to File a Builders Lien?

To file a builders lien in BC, you need to do a title search to obtain the legal description of the property and file in the Land Title Office a prescribed Form 5 (Claim of Lien).

Form 5 requires the following information:

• your full legal name and address as the claimant;
• the name and address of the person who engaged you or to whom you supplied materials;
• a general description of the work performed or materials supplied;
• the amount claimed as owing or that will become due;
• the date the amount became or will become due;
• the legal description of the land, including the parcel identifier (PID); and
• an “Address for Service” where legal documents can be delivered to you.

The legal description is critical. A civic address is not accepted for land title registration. You need the correct legal description, which can be obtained from a title search at the Land Title Office

Form 5 must be signed by the claimant or the agent of the claimant. For corporate claimants, the form must be signed by an agent (typically an officer, director, or lawyer). The executed form is then submitted to the Land Title Office.

How Builders Lien Priority Works in BC

When multiple lien claims are registered against the same property, the Act establishes a priority framework that gives lien claimants priority over mortgage advance made after a lien was filed, as well as over all judgments, executions, attachments and receiving orders recovered, issued or made after a lien was filed. Sections 36, 37, and 38 of the Act ensures funds are allocated based on a lien claimant’s relationship to the property owner and their specific role on the project.

Under Section 36, the proceeds from a court-ordered sale are divided into two distinct “pots”:

• The Sub-trade/Worker Pot: This is the “owner’s discharge sum” (the amount required to clear the title of liens from people the owner didn’t hire directly). This pot is distributed according to Section 37.
• The Contractor Pot: Any funds remaining after the first pot is filled are used to pay the people the owner did hire directly. This pot is distributed according to Section 38.

Within the two pots, Sections 37 and 38 establish a priority of payment as follows:

• the legal costs of the lien claimants related to filing and enforcing their liens;
• up to 6 weeks of unpaid wages for workers;
• the remaining balance of the claims for contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, and any worker wages exceeding 6 weeks.

All lien claimants within the same priority category share the available funds proportionally. For example, if the “Worker Pot” in Section 37(2)(b) is only $10,000 but the total wage claim is $20,000, each worker receives 50 cents on the dollar. Under Section 37(4), the distribution to subcontractors and suppliers is further governed by a “priority computation base”, ensuring that classes of claimants share the available holdback fund fairly relative to the total amount owed.

The interaction with mortgages is governed by the timing of advances under Section 32 of the Act. While the lien right may exist earlier, a registered mortgage has priority over a lien for all funds advanced before the Claim of Lien is filed. A lender who advances funds on a construction project in progress must account for the possibility that lien claimants will take priority over subsequent mortgage advances. This is why construction lenders typically monitor lien filings before advancing draws on a construction loan.

Priority disputes between lien claimants and mortgagees are resolved by the BC Supreme Court in enforcement proceedings. The court apportions available funds according to the priority rules in the Act, addressing costs and wages first, then the remaining lien claims. When a mortgagee and a lien claimant both claim priority, the outcome depends on whether the specific mortgage funds were advanced before or after the filing of the Claim of Lien, a fact-specific analysis that frequently requires legal argument.

The priority framework is directly relevant to the holdback obligation. Because the holdback fund is the primary pool available to pay lien claimants, owners who fail to retain it lose the statutory protection that limits their exposure.

How Builders Liens Compare to Other Construction Payment Remedies in BC

A builders lien is a secured remedy that attaches directly to a property without a prior court ruling, distinguishing it from breach of contract lawsuits, which produce unsecured judgments, and from construction trust claims, which reach into the contractor’s finances rather than the land.

A breach of contract claim is the most common alternative to a lien. It produces a court judgment that can be enforced against the debtor’s assets, including the property, but only after a trial or summary judgment proceeding, which takes months to years. The judgment is unsecured until additional enforcement steps are taken. A builders lien skips the initial judgment stage: registration at the Land Title Office immediately encumbers the title and creates practical leverage the moment it is filed.

A trust claim under Section 10 of the Act is a distinct but complementary remedy. When a general contractor receives payment from an owner for a specific project, the Act deems those funds to be held in trust for the subcontractors and suppliers who contributed to that project. A trust claim can be pursued against the contractor personally, or against the individuals who directed the company under Section 11 of the Act, regardless of whether the property was sold or title changed. Trust claims are particularly powerful when the general contractor received payment and then diverted the funds, leaving subcontractors unpaid. Unlike a lien, a trust claim does not depend on the property remaining in the debtor’s hands.

A payment bond, common on public infrastructure projects in BC, provides a surety guarantee that subcontractors and suppliers will be paid even if the head contractor fails, subject to the terms of the bond. Because provincial Crown land and public highways cannot be liened under Act, payment bonds are commonly used in place of lien protection. Payment bonds are contractual instruments created at the start of a project and their scope depends on their terms and the creditworthiness of the bonding company. Not every private project carries payment bonds. For private residential and commercial projects without a bond, the builders lien is typically the primary statutory mechanism available to secure and enforce payment.

In practice, experienced construction lawyers often pursue multiple remedies simultaneously: filing a lien to secure the property, asserting a trust claim against the contractor, and commencing a breach of contract action — each protecting the claimant’s position through a different legal mechanism. The construction lien lawyers at ATAC Law advise on the best combination of remedies for each situation.

Builders Liens on Residential vs Commercial Projects in BC

The Act applies to all construction projects in BC — residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional. The statutory rules are identical regardless of the project type, but they apply differently in practice based on how the project is managed.

On commercial projects, owners typically appoint a payment certifier (such as an architect or engineer). The certifier issues a Certificate of Completion, and the 45-day period generally runs from the date that certificate is issued. On residential projects, where there is rarely a formal certifier, the 45-day period usually runs from the date the head contract or the improvement itself is completed or abandoned. However, if a residential owner does use a Certificate of Completion, it must be posted on site. Subcontractors on any project must monitor for these postings or risk unknowingly missing their deadline.

Homeowners sometimes believe that a lien filed by a subcontractor they never hired is invalid because there is no direct contract between them. This is incorrect. The Act grants lien rights to every tier of the supply chain against the owner’s property, regardless of direct contractual relationships. The owner’s protection is the holdback fund, not the absence of a direct contract. Homeowners who retain the 10% holdback and release it only after the lien period expires are protected from paying twice; those who do not face the very real risk of having to pay the shortfall out of pocket to clear their title.

Strata properties present specific filing challenges under both the Act and the Strata Property Act. A lien for work on a specific strata lot attaches only to that specific lot and its PID. Work performed on common property attaches to the individual strata lots in proportion to their unit entitlement. Filing a lien on a strata property for common property work requires identifying each affected PID separately and paying the LTSA registration fee for each one. Errors in identifying the correct PID for a strata lot are a common source of defective filings.

What a Builders Lien Cannot Do

A builders lien creates secured leverage against a property and pressure on the owner, but it does not guarantee payment, does not cover speculative or future amounts, does not protect against a fully compliant owner who retained holdback, and may not survive a bankruptcy where federal insolvency law overrides provincial lien rights.

A builders lien does not guarantee payment. It creates a charge on title and prevents the owner from selling or refinancing, but the lien claimant may still need to commence a court proceeding in BC Supreme Court, register a CPL on title within one year of registration of the lien, and either win at trial or reach a negotiated settlement to recover money. Registration creates leverage; it does not automatically produce a payment. Most lien claims resolve through negotiation or mediation once the title encumbrance creates a practical barrier for the owner. For the steps required after registration to protect and enforce a filed lien, see our builders lien filing guide.

A builders lien does not cover future or speculative amounts. Only work already performed and materials already delivered can be included in the claim. Unperformed work on an ongoing contract, anticipated profits on incomplete work, and purely contratual damages (such as general breach or delay damages not tied to the value of work or materials supplied) are not lienable amounts under the Act. The Form 5 claim must reflect actual unpaid amounts supported by a reasonable factual basis, such as contract terms, progress draws, or records of work performed or materials delivered.

A builders lien does not expose an owner who properly retained holdback to unlimited liability. If the owner withheld 10% of every payment and released it only after confirming a clear title at the 45-day mark, their exposure to subcontractor claims is limited to the holdback fund. An owner who followed the statutory rules is not required to pay more than that fund, even if the general contractor left multiple unpaid subcontractors.

A builders lien may not survive a property owner’s insolvency. The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (federal legislation) interacts with provincial lien rights in ways that are not always favourable to the lien claimant. Depending on when the lien was registered relative to the insolvency filing, the trustee in bankruptcy may challenge the lien’s priority or characterize the claim as an unsecured debt. In insolvency situations, legal advice is essential before relying on a builders lien as the primary, or only, recovery mechanism.

Finally, a builders lien does not remove the need for proper documentation. Claimants who file liens without supporting records— invoices, contracts, delivery receipts, timesheets— face difficulty proving the amount claimed in enforcement proceedings. A lien claim that cannot be supported by documentation is vulnerable to reduction or cancellation at the owner’s application.