Subject to Sale of Buyer's Property
Also known as: Subject to sale · STS clause · Buyer-sale subject · Time clause subject
A condition in a BC offer that makes the purchase depend on the buyer selling their existing home first. It is usually paired with a time clause, which lets the seller keep marketing and then serve 48 or 72 hours notice to remove the condition or let the deal go.
A "subject to sale" (STS) condition makes the buyer's offer conditional on the firm sale of their existing home, usually by a stated date. STS subjects are commonly paired with a "time clause" giving the seller the right, on receiving a competing offer, to serve the STS buyer with a notice (typically 48 or 72 hours) to remove the STS subject or collapse the contract. STS is a buyer-protection mechanism for buyers who can't carry two mortgages but a seller-friction mechanism that depresses offer competitiveness — most multi-offer scenarios reject STS offers entirely.
Negotiate the time-clause window before writing a subject-to-sale, and get firm pre-approval on the new mortgage at the bridge or contingent-purchase level. If the seller serves a 48-hour time clause and you can't produce a firm offer on your existing home in 48 hours, you must either remove STS (committing to closing whether your house sells or not) or walk away — and you've burned the deposit if you can't close. Always have your existing home actively listed (priced sharply) BEFORE writing STS, and negotiate at minimum a 72-hour clause. The Home Buyer Rescission Period (HBRP, 3 business days) operates separately from STS — HBRP gives a buyer 3 business days post-acceptance to walk for any reason (with 0.25% fee), but does NOT extend STS.
Related terms
- Home Buyer Rescission Period — A BC home buyer has three business days after an offer is accepted to back out for any reason, for a fee of 0.
- Bridge Financing — A short-term loan covering the gap between the day your down payment is due and the day the money from your old home actually arrives.
- Closing Day (Completion) — Closing day, or completion, is when the buyer's lawyer registers the title transfer at the BC Land Title Office and the money reaches the seller.
- Designated Agency — BC's real estate agency model since June 15, 2018: the agency relationship is between the client and the individual licensee, not the brokerage; dual agency is prohibited except in narrow remote-market exceptions.
See also
Use any of these formats. Codex content is licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution required.
@misc{bronsonjob-bc_hbrp,
author = {Job, Bronson},
title = {{BC Home Buyer Rescission Period}},
howpublished = {BC Real Estate Codex},
year = {2023},
url = {https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.hbrp},
urldate = {2026-08-20},
note = {Fact ID: bc.hbrp, version 2.}
}Job, B. (2023). BC Home Buyer Rescission Period. *BC Real Estate Codex*. Retrieved 2026-08-20, from https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.hbrp
BC Home Buyer Rescission Period — Bronson Job PREC, BC Real Estate Codex (2026-08-20). https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.hbrp
Fact id: bc.hbrp · v2 · machine-readable: /api/v1/facts/by-id/bc.hbrp.json
Verified sources (2)· re-verified 2026-08-20Click to expand
Every claim on this page is sourced to a primary government, regulator, or industry-association URL. We re-verify quarterly; the verification dates below show when each source was last confirmed against the live government page.
- BCFSAretrieved 2026-08-20Home Buyer Rescission Periodhttps://www.bcfsa.ca/public-resources/real-estate/home-buyer-rescission-period
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-05-08Property Law Act, RSBC 1996, c. 377 — Section 42https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96377_01
bc.hbrp · v2View in Codex →License: This definition is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: "Subject to Sale of Buyer's Property", BC Real Estate Glossary by Bronson Job, https://www.bronsonjob.com/glossary/subject-to-sale.
