Title Insurance
Also known as: BC title insurance · Owner title policy · Lender title policy · FCT title insurance · Stewart Title insurance
A one-time-premium indemnity policy purchased at closing that protects the owner (and/or lender) against financial loss from title defects, fraud, encroachments, survey errors, and unresolved work orders that pre-date the policy.
Title insurance is an indemnity policy paid as a one-time premium at closing that protects the buyer (owner's policy) and/or lender (lender's policy) from financial loss caused by title defects discovered AFTER closing — fraud, undisclosed liens, unregistered easements, encroachments, survey errors, work orders, and zoning violations that pre-date the policy date. Typical BC residential cost: $300-$400 for the owner's policy plus $200-$300 for a lender's policy, both bundled into closing-day legal-fee statements. Title insurance is NOT statutorily required.
The trap most BC buyers fall into: not asking what the lender title insurance is doing in their closing-cost statement. Most BC lenders now require lender title insurance INSTEAD of an updated Real Property Report on detached homes — which materially compresses closing timelines and saves $500-$1,500 on a survey, but transfers the risk of an undiscovered encroachment to the lender (covered) rather than to the owner (not covered, unless the owner buys the owner's policy). If you skip the owner's policy to save $300, you have no coverage for fraud, deed forgery, or post-closing-discovered encroachments. On any detached purchase, buy both.
Two leading providers in BC: First Canadian Title (FCT) and Stewart Title. Your lawyer or notary will quote both; rates are similar.
Related terms
- Real Property Report (RPR) — A surveyor's drawing showing a property's legal boundaries plus the position of buildings, fences, decks, and other improvements relative to those boundaries — historically a standard buyer/lender requirement on detached homes, increasingly displaced in BC by lender title insurance.
- BC Land Title Office (LTSA) — The BC land registration system operated by the Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) under the Land Title Act, RSBC 1996, c.
- Closing Day (Completion) — The contractually-stipulated date on which the buyer's lawyer registers the title transfer at the BC Land Title Office and the purchase funds are released to the seller — distinct from the possession date (typically completion + 1 day) and the adjustment date (the date utilities/property tax/strata fees are prorated).
See also
Use any of these formats. Codex content is licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution required.
@misc{bronsonjob-bc_title_insurance_overview,
author = {Job, Bronson},
title = {{BC title insurance overview}},
howpublished = {BC Real Estate Codex},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.title_insurance.overview},
urldate = {2026-05-09},
note = {Fact ID: bc.title_insurance.overview, version 1.}
}Job, B. (2026). BC title insurance overview. *BC Real Estate Codex*. Retrieved 2026-05-09, from https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.title_insurance.overview
BC title insurance overview — Bronson Job PREC, BC Real Estate Codex (2026-05-09). https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.title_insurance.overview
Fact id: bc.title_insurance.overview · v1 · machine-readable: /api/v1/facts/by-id/bc.title_insurance.overview.json
Verified sources (2)Click 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 2026-05-09BCFSA — Closing costs (including title insurance)https://www.bcfsa.ca/public-resources/real-estate/buying-property/closing-costs
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-05-09Closing costs — Province of British Columbiahttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/owning-a-home/buying-a-home/closing-costs
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