A minute-by-minute walkthrough of completion day on a BC residential purchase — who does what, what can go wrong, and when you actually get the keys.
Most BC buyers spend a lot of energy on the offer and the subjects and almost none on completion day itself. The day is over before they understand what happened, the keys are in their hand, and the file is closed before the question “what did the lawyer actually do?” gets asked.
This post answers it — minute by minute, from the day before completion through the moment the keys land in your hand. The mechanics of a BC closing are deeply standardised; once you have seen one, you have seen most. Understanding the sequence helps in two ways: it removes the anxiety of an opaque process, and it tells you what to do if something goes sideways.
Most BC purchases involve a signing appointment one to three days before completion. The buyer comes in (or signs electronically, where the file allows) and signs the registration documents, the mortgage documents if there is a new lender, statutory declarations (FTHB exemption, occupancy declarations, foreign buyer status), and the trust conditions for releasing funds.
The buyer also brings the balance of the cash needed to close. That balance is the purchase price plus closing costs minus the down payment already in trust minus the mortgage advance. On a typical residential purchase with a 20% down payment, the cash on the signing day is usually 1% to 4% of the purchase price — the closing costs plus any portion of the down payment not already in trust.
The buyer’s lawyer at this stage has the file in a state where everything is ready to move on completion morning. Title has been searched. The mortgage instructions are received. The statement of adjustments is signed. The PTT calculation is locked in. The seller-side conditions of closing are confirmed.
Completion day usually starts at the buyer’s lawyer’s office at 9:00 am. The buyer’s lender funds the mortgage by electronic transfer into the lawyer’s trust account between 9:00 am and 11:00 am. Most BC institutional lenders run on a tight schedule and the funds arrive on time; private lenders are more variable.
Once mortgage funds are in trust, the buyer’s lawyer has three pots of money: the deposit (paid by the buyer at subject removal, held in trust at the listing brokerage or the seller’s lawyer), the additional cash brought by the buyer on the signing day, and the new mortgage advance. Combined, these should equal the purchase price plus PTT plus closing costs.
The lawyer reviews the math one more time. Mistakes at this stage are catchable; mistakes after registration are much harder to fix.
When the funds are confirmed, the buyer’s lawyer registers the transfer of title at the BC Land Title Office. This is an online filing through myLTSA, the BC Land Title Office’s electronic registration system. The lawyer uploads the Form A transfer (signed by the seller at the seller’s signing appointment), pays the registration fee, pays the Property Transfer Tax, and pays any additional foreign-buyer PTT if applicable.
The Land Title Office is open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Pacific on business days. A registration submitted in the morning typically confirms within 30 to 60 minutes — sometimes faster, sometimes slower depending on volume. The new mortgage gets registered in the same filing, as a second instrument behind the transfer.
The buyer is now the registered owner. The mortgage is now registered against the title. Both happened in a single electronic transaction, with a defined time of registration that becomes the legal start of the buyer’s ownership.
Immediately after registration confirms, the buyer’s lawyer wires the net purchase price (the contract price minus the deposit already in trust at the seller’s lawyer or brokerage) from the buyer’s lawyer’s trust account to the seller’s lawyer’s trust account. The wire transfer between BC trust accounts typically settles in 30 to 60 minutes for same-day wires, although same-bank transfers can be faster.
On receipt, the seller’s lawyer:
The seller is, at this point, paid in full. The seller’s mortgage is paid out. The deal is, from the trust-accounting perspective, complete.
A small but real fraction of BC closings hit problems on completion day. The most common ones:
Late mortgage funds. The lender does not release the mortgage advance on time. Sometimes the lender wants one more document; sometimes the funds are held up in the lender’s internal processing; sometimes a wire that was supposed to be same-day ends up being next-day. The buyer’s lawyer cannot register until funds are in trust. If the funds are late by an hour or two, the closing usually still happens that day. If they are late by more, the closing may have to push to the next business day, with extension agreements and per-diem interest.
Last-minute title issue. A new charge appears on title between the time the title was searched and the time of registration. Sometimes this is a clerical error at the LTO; sometimes it is a legitimate registration the seller did not disclose. The buyer’s lawyer cannot register the transfer until the title is clean. Resolution depends on what the charge is — sometimes the seller’s lawyer can clear it within an hour; sometimes the closing has to push.
Payout shortfall. The existing mortgage costs more to discharge than the payout statement said it would. This usually happens when the per-diem interest on a variable-rate mortgage was calculated on an old rate, or when an early-payout penalty was understated. The seller’s lawyer either gets additional funds from the seller or arranges a partial holdback to cover the shortfall.
Wire transfer system delays. Less common in recent years as banks have moved to real-time payment systems, but inter-bank wires can still take a few hours and occasionally fail. Same-bank transfers (both lawyers banking with the same Canadian bank) are usually instant.
Most of these are recoverable within the same day. A small number — typically 1% to 2% of files — push to the next business day, with the contract extended by an extension agreement and the parties agreeing on responsibility for any costs of delay.
The contract specifies a possession date, which is usually one business day after the completion date. On possession day, the listing realtor confirms with the seller that the home is vacant, then releases the keys to the buyer’s realtor (usually at the realtor’s office, sometimes at the property). The buyer’s realtor passes the keys to the buyer.
If completion is on a Friday, possession is usually the following Monday — the weekend gives the seller a final two days to move. If completion is on a Wednesday, possession is typically Thursday. The gap is set in the contract and is rarely longer than two business days.
The buyer is now in physical possession of the home. The file, from the lawyer’s perspective, is essentially closed — pending one final step.
In the days and weeks after possession, the buyer’s lawyer sends a reporting letter to the buyer. The reporting letter contains:
The reporting letter is the buyer’s record of the transaction. Keep it. Your future accountant, your future buyer’s lawyer when you sell, and your future estate’s executor will all want to see it eventually.
Most of our BC residential purchases run on a flat fee — $1,400 for a cash purchase, $1,600 for a purchase with one mortgage, both for files under $2,000,000. See our real estate fees page for the full schedule. Above $2 million, on First Nations Lands, or on complex multi-title files, we quote on the file.
The flat fee includes everything described in this post — the signing meeting, the trust accounting on completion day, the registration at the LTO, the funds movement to the seller’s lawyer, the post-closing reporting letter. Third-party charges (LTO registration fees, title insurance, strata documents, tax certificates) are billed at cost. PTT and GST are separate again; see our PTT calculator and GST calculator for estimates on a specific purchase.
If you are weeks away from completion and have not yet engaged a lawyer, contact us with the basic facts. We need at least five business days to run a clean file from intake to completion; longer is better. The conveyancing is what we do every week.
Written by Lime Law Corporation. This article is general information about BC law as of May 25, 2026. It is not legal advice. If you have a specific matter, contact us — and please do not rely on a blog post in place of advice on your file.
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