British Columbia builders lien: 45 days from the head contract

British Columbia gives you forty-five days, and it does not start them when you leave the site.

That single sentence causes more lost liens in BC than everything else combined. In Ontario a subcontractor's clock can start on the day that subcontractor last supplied work. In Alberta it does start there. In British Columbia, unless a certificate of completion has been issued for your contract, section 20(2) measures from the head contract — completed, abandoned or terminated — or from the improvement itself. All three provinces side by side: construction lien deadlines: Ontario and Alberta 60 days, BC 45.

The consequences run in both directions, and both are counter-intuitive:

• A finishing trade that left in March may still be in time in September, because the head contract has not completed.
• A trade that finished early may be relying on a head contract it cannot see, and will not be told when it completes.

The BC calendar

Notice the ten-day gap between 45 and 55. That is deliberate: the holdback stays in place for ten days after the last liens could have been filed, so a payer knows what it is facing before releasing.

Section 20, read carefully

Where a certificate of completion exists — s. 20(1):

"If a certificate of completion has been issued with respect to a contract or subcontract, the claims of lien of (a) the contractor or subcontractor, and (b) any persons engaged by or under the contractor or subcontractor may be filed no later than 45 days after the date on which the certificate of completion was issued."

Where none exists — s. 20(2):

"A claim of lien that is not governed by subsection (1) may be filed no later than 45 days after (a) the head contract has been completed, abandoned or terminated, if the owner engaged a head contractor, or (b) the improvement has been completed or abandoned, if paragraph (a) does not apply."

And a warning against optimism, s. 20(3): subsection (1) "does not operate to extend or renew the time for filing" where that time would otherwise be determined with reference to an earlier certificate of completion, or where time had already started running under subsection (2). A certificate issued late does not reopen a window that has closed.

One further trap in s. 20(4): on filing, "the registrar or gold commissioner has no duty to inquire as to whether or not the lien claimant has complied with the time limit". The land title office will accept a late lien. Acceptance is not validity.

The certificate of completion is a lever, and you can pull it

Because everything turns on the certificate, section 7 gives you the right to demand one — and this is the most useful and least used provision in the Act for subcontractors.

Who issues it — s. 7(1): the "payment certifier" is an architect, engineer or other person identified in the contract or subcontract as responsible for payment certification; failing that, the owner acting alone for amounts due to the contractor, or the owner and contractor acting together for amounts due to any subcontractor.

You can demand a determination — s. 7(3):

"On the request of a contractor or subcontractor, the payment certifier must, within 10 days after the date of the request, determine whether the contract or subcontract has been completed and, if the payment certifier determines that it has been completed, the payment certifier must issue a certificate of completion."

And once issued, s. 7(4) requires the payment certifier within seven days to deliver a copy to the owner, the head contractor and the requester; deliver a notice of certification of completion to everyone who asked to be told under s. 7(2); and post a notice of certification of completion in a prominent place on the improvement.

If the certifier refuses — s. 7(5), (6): the court may, on application by the person who requested it and on being satisfied the contract has been completed, declare it completed; and that order "has the same effect as a certificate of completion issued by a payment certifier".

You can also ask to be kept informed — s. 7(2): a lien holder may by written request require the payment certifier to deliver particulars of certificates of completion issued before and after the request, either for the improvement or for stipulated contracts or subcontracts.

Put those together and a subcontractor in BC has a workable strategy that most do not use: request the certificate when your scope is finished, and register under s. 7(2) to be told about everyone else's. It converts an unknowable deadline into a dated one.

Holdback: ten percent, in an account

Section 4(1):

"The person primarily liable on each contract, and the person primarily liable on each subcontract, under which a lien may arise under this Act must retain a holdback equal to 10% of the greater of (a) the value of the work or material as they are actually provided under the contract or subcontract, and (b) the amount of any payment made on account of the contract or subcontract price."

Section 4(2) confirms the obligation applies "whether or not the contract or subcontract provides for periodic payments or payment on completion". Section 4(6) is the exemption worth knowing: "a holdback must not be retained from a worker, material supplier, architect or engineer."

And unlike most provinces, BC requires the money to sit somewhere identifiable. Section 5(1) requires an owner to establish a holdback account at a savings institution for each contract under which a lien may arise, pay into it the amount required under section 4, and administer it together with the contractor from whom the holdback was retained.

Section 5(2) makes amounts in that account charged with payment of all liens arising under that contractor and, subject to that, held in trust for the contractor. GST/HST on the withheld amount follows a different date than the invoice: GST/HST on holdback: no tax before the holdback is payable.

Under s. 8(4), payment of the holdback may be made after the holdback period expires, and all liens of the person paid and of anyone engaged by or under them are then discharged, "unless in the meantime a claim of lien is filed by one of those persons or proceedings are commenced to enforce a lien against the holdback."

Trust: money received, not just holdback

Section 10(1) is broader than the holdback and easy to overlook:

"Money received by a contractor or subcontractor on account of the price of the contract or subcontract constitutes a trust fund for the benefit of persons engaged in connection with the improvement by that contractor or subcontractor and the contractor or subcontractor is the trustee of the fund."

Section 10(2): until all the beneficiaries are paid, the contractor or subcontractor "must not appropriate any part of the fund to that person's own use or to a use not authorized by the trust."

Section 10(4) excludes money received by an architect, engineer or material supplier.

For a subcontractor who is not being paid while the general is being paid, this is a separate cause of action from the lien, with its own limitation period. Ontario runs a similar but more elaborate trust regime, with personal liability reaching directors and officers: Ontario construction trust funds: directors are personally liable. Section 14 requires an action by a beneficiary or against a trustee to be commenced no later than one year after the head contract is completed, abandoned or terminated, or — if the owner engaged no head contractor — the completion or abandonment of the improvement.

The year that can become twenty-one days

Filing the lien is not the end. Section 33(1):

"If a claim of lien has been filed, an action to enforce the claim of lien must be commenced and, unless the claim of lien has been removed or cancelled under section 23 or 24, a certificate of pending litigation in respect of the action must be registered, not later than one year from the date of its filing"

A year is comfortable — until somebody shortens it. Section 33(2) allows an owner, or a lien claimant who has commenced an action, to serve a notice to commence an action requiring the claimant to commence and register "within 21 days after service of the notice."

Service by mail is deemed effective "on the eighth day after deposit of the notice in the Canada Post Office at any place in Canada" (s. 33(4)) — so a mailed notice can consume a third of the period before you have opened the envelope.

And s. 33(5) leaves no room:

"Unless an action to enforce a claim of lien is commenced and a certificate of pending litigation is registered within the time provided in this section, the lien is extinguished."

Practical consequence: a filed lien in British Columbia requires a monitored address. A notice to commence sent to an old address on a claim of lien is still a served notice.

Five things to do on a BC job

1. Record the date your scope finished — you need it to request a certificate.
2. Request a certificate of completion under s. 7(3) when you finish. Ten days for a determination.
3. Register under s. 7(2) to be told about certificates issued on the improvement.
4. Watch the head contract, because s. 20(2) is measured from it and nobody will tell you.
5. Keep the address on your claim of lien current, because twenty-one days can start with a letter.

And note s. 17: there is no claim under $200.

---

Current as of August 29, 2026. This article describes British Columbia's Builders Lien Act and is not legal advice. It applies to British Columbia only. It does not cover the form and content of a claim of lien, general liens, mineral title claims under s. 18, removal or cancellation of a lien under ss. 23 to 25, priorities, the shared administration duties for a holdback account in detail, Crown land, or the substantive test for what constitutes an improvement. The Act text consulted was published by the King's Printer as current to the date shown on that site, and was checked on the date shown here. Consult a British Columbia construction lawyer.

What Zirko does: it holds jobs with their dates, documents and files in one place, and keeps a record per business partner with addresses — so a scope end date, a certificate request and the address on a claim are recorded rather than reconstructed. Zirko does not track lien deadlines, does not request certificates, does not file liens, does not monitor a head contract and gives no legal advice. Issued documents are immutable; a correction is a separate document.