WHEREAS redundant covenants on title can contradict a local governments zoning bylaw and negatively impact development potential for private owned property; AND WHEREAS approvals for release of the charges by the signatories to the charges can be difficult to obtain and local governments are not authorized by the Land Title Act, the Community Charter or the Local Government Act to release the charges from title: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities lobby the provincial government to amend the Land Title Act to allow local governments to apply to the BC Land Title Survey Authority for the release of the charges from title.
Ministry of Forests, Mines Lands It is assumed that the term redundant covenants as used in the UBCM resolution refers to privately held restrictive covenants whose terms have become obsolete. Although restrictive covenants registered on title to a property may, in some cases, appear to contradict or limit a local governments land use planning goals or zoning provisions applicable to a particular property, they cannot override anything prohibited by a local governments bylaws. However, restrictive covenants are enforceable as private contracts that attach to the land and bind successive owners of the land beyond what would otherwise have been permitted under local government bylaws. Options currently exist to allow the removal of restrictive covenants from title. If a covenant is found to be unreasonable in terms of its impact on the persons having an interest in the land involved, the Supreme Court may order the covenant to be cancelled or modified under section 35 of the Property Law Act once the required criteria have been met to the satisfaction of the Court. Note that a local government would not likely have standing to make an application under this section unless it held an interest in the land that was subject to the covenant, which is uncommon. In cases where a local government is the beneficiary of a statutory covenant i.e. one that is registered under section 219 of the Land Title Act, the local government can apply unilaterally to the Land Title Office to have the covenant released without the consent of the party who granted the covenant in the first place.