The tenant, the twenty-one days, and the twelve months’ rent nobody budgets for

IThe house is right. Someone lives in it.

You have found it. Willoughby, four years old, the right side of the arterial. It is tenanted, and you intend to live there yourself.

Nothing about that is unusual, and nothing about it is a problem — provided the sequence runs in the right order. It often does not, because the notice a purchaser causes to be served is not the notice a landlord serves, and most of what is written about BC evictions describes the landlord’s version.

IITwo notices that look the same

BC changed this twice in one summer. On July 18, 2024 the personal-use notice period went from two months to 3 months. Then on August 21, 2024 a second amendment cut it back to 3 months for one specific case: where the person moving in is the purchaser of the property, or the purchaser’s close family member, rather than the landlord or the landlord’s family.

The two cases run on different clocks, and they use different forms.

The shorter notice is the concession to buyers. The shorter dispute window comes with it.

IIIThe clock does not start when you think it does

Three things have to be true before a purchaser’s-use notice can be served, and the third is the one that catches people:

1. There is an accepted contract of purchase and sale.
2. All conditions of that sale have been satisfied — subjects removed.
3. The purchaser has asked the seller in writing to end the tenancy.

Note who serves it. You do not. You are not the landlord yet; the seller is, and the seller serves the notice at your written request. Your job is to make that request, in writing, early enough to matter.

So the earliest the 3 months can begin is the day subjects come off. On a thirty-day completion the arithmetic ends one way: you complete with a tenant in the house, and you own a tenancy you cannot end for another two months.

That is survivable. It is not what most buyers pictured, and it is entirely predictable at the offer stage — which is the only place it can still be fixed.

IVThis one does not go out on paper

The 2024 reforms brought in a mandatory web portal for personal-use notices. A notice served outside it does not start the clock.

The portal exists because of a documented pattern: personal-use notices used to empty a unit so the rent could be reset. BC’s annual increase for an existing tenancy in 2026 is capped at 2.3%, and the cap does not apply to a new tenancy — so a vacancy is worth real money to a landlord, and the Province built a paper trail accordingly.

None of that is aimed at a buyer who intends to move in. It does mean the buyer’s intention is now recorded, dated, and checkable.

VTwelve months, and twelve months’ rent

The person named in the notice must occupy the home for at least 12 months. If they do not, the displaced tenant is entitled to 12 months’ rent in compensation. On a $2,600-a-month townhouse — an assumption here, not a quoted market figure — that is $31,200, payable by the person who caused the notice.

There is also compensation payable simply for serving it: one month’s rent, at the point of notice. That one is a cost of the plan. The 12 months’ is a penalty for the plan changing.

And plans change. A job moves. A relationship ends. The property turns out to suit a tenant better than an owner. Anyone who might sell or re-rent inside a year should price that risk before serving, not after.

VIWhere it actually goes wrong

Four patterns, in roughly the order they show up:

1. The request is verbal. The seller obliges, the notice goes out, and nothing in writing ties it to a purchaser’s intention. The tenant disputes and the notice fails.
2. The completion date was set before anyone counted 3 months. The most common one, and the cheapest to avoid.
3. The 21 days are read as 21. A buyer waits out a dispute window that closed 0 days ago, and delays possession they were entitled to take.
4. The buyer moves in for eight months and sells. 12 months’ rent.

VIIWhat to do about it

If you are buying a tenanted home to live in, the whole thing turns on the completion date you negotiate — and that is decided at the offer, months before anyone opens a tenancy form.

That is the part I can help with directly: work backwards from the day you want to move in, count 3 months plus a margin, and write the completion date to match. Where a longer completion is not achievable there are other routes — a negotiated end of tenancy with the tenant, or buying it tenanted on purpose and taking possession later.

The rule itself, with its primary sources, is in the Bill 14 glossary entry; the forms and service rules are in Notice to End Tenancy. This piece is the sequence they sit inside.