Practice area 3.2 · Real Estate & Conveyancing
Real estate & conveyancing
A conveyance is three weeks of paperwork standing between you and a set of keys. We do the paperwork, you keep the excitement, and the fee was on our website before you ever called.
1. This page is for you if
- 1.1
You have an accepted offer and a completion date that suddenly feels very close.
- 1.2
You are selling, and the buyer's lawyer keeps sending things you are expected to understand.
- 1.3
You are refinancing and the lender wants a lawyer to handle the new mortgage.
- 1.4
You are buying rural: well, septic, easements, and a driveway that crosses someone else's land.
2. What the work includes
Title search and review
We pull the title, read every charge on it, and tell you which ones matter before you are committed.
Mortgage and lender documents
Prepared, explained, and signed in one appointment, timed to the week of completion.
Statement of adjustments
The math of who owes what: taxes, utilities, deposits. Walked through line by line, in numbers that sit still.
Registration and completion
Filed with the Land Title Office on completion day, funds moved through trust, keys released on possession.
3. What it costs
Purchases run $1,200 to $1,500, sales $950 to $1,250, refinances $900 to $1,150, always plus disbursements and taxes, which we list before you sign anything. Your exact figure is fixed in writing at the first meeting.
4. What happens next
The anxiety is almost never the law. It is not knowing what happens next. So here is what happens next.
- 4.1
Send us the accepted offer
Email it or drop it off. Same day, you get a written fee and a list of every document and dollar the file will need from you.
- 4.2
We search, gather, and flag
Title search, tax certificates, strata or rural documents where they apply. Anything unusual on title gets a phone call, not a footnote.
- 4.3
One signing appointment
The week of completion, about forty-five minutes. Every signature explained in plain English before the pen moves.
- 4.4
Completion day
We register at the Land Title Office, move the funds through trust, and call you the moment the keys are legally yours.
5. Who does the work
Rural files get our full attention on the unglamorous parts: water licences, septic records, and road access that exists on the ground but not on title. Bellwood property is rarely boring, and we like it that way.
6. Reading, before you spend a dollar
7. Questions people actually ask
- Do I need a lawyer for a conveyance, or can a notary do it?
- In BC, both lawyers and notaries handle standard conveyances, and for a clean transaction either works. The difference appears when something goes sideways: a title defect, a collapsing completion, a dispute over the deposit. A lawyer can advise on the dispute and act on it; a notary must send you elsewhere. You are welcome to ask us which your file actually needs.
- When do I actually get the keys?
- Possession date, which is usually a day or two after completion. Completion is the day money and title change hands at the Land Title Office; possession is the day the front door opens. Your contract sets both, and we confirm the timeline in writing at the first meeting.
- What will the disbursements be on top of the flat fee?
- Land Title Office registration fees, title search charges, tax certificates, and similar out-of-pocket costs that belong to your file. On a typical Bellwood purchase they run a few hundred dollars. You get the itemized list with your fee letter, before anything starts, and they are passed through at cost.
Begin with a conversation
Ten minutes on the phone, no charge, and an honest answer about whether you need a lawyer at all.