Consultation Paper on the Partition of Property Act

When one or more co-owners of land want to sell or divide the land and the other co-owners oppose it, the stalemate may be broken by recourse to the remedies of partition of the land proportionally in accordance with the size of the co-owners’ interests, or sale of the land in lieu of partition. In British Columbia, the remedy of sale is governed by the Partition of Property Act. The remedy of partition is governed by the Act only in part.Co-owners now have a presumptive right to partition and sale. The remedies can only be refused if justice requires it. If the eligible class of applicants is expanded to include mortgagees and judgment creditors, the question arises whether they too should be presumptively entitled to partition or sale on application, or whether the remedies should be discretionary in their case. The consultation paper does not take a stance on this question, and instead asks the question for purposes of consultation. Readers are invited to make their views known on that point as well as on the tentative recommendations themselves.