The Real Estate Development Marketing Act (Bill 42) has passed First Reading. An unofficial copy is available at http://www.legis.gov.bc.ca/37th5th/1st_read/gov42-1.htm.

Companion legislation to the Real Estate Services Act (Bill 41), Bill 42 repeals and replaces Part 2 of the Real Estate Act regarding marketing real estate developments.

Bill 42 makes amendments to simplify and streamline how developers can market new properties, including to:

• permit developers to market property at an earlier time in the development stage;
• permit developers to file less complex disclosure statements;
• permit developers to use purchasers’ deposit monies for construction subject to arranging insurance as required by the Act;
• eliminate prospectuses;
• require that developers must not market a development unit unless they have made adequate arrangements to ensure that a purchaser of the development unit will have assurance of title, including holding title to the development unit in trust by a lawyer;
• allow purchasers who do not receive a disclosure statement the right to rescind their purchase agreements with the developer at any time;
• allow purchasers receiving disclosure statements a 7 day period in which to rescind their purchase agreements;
• provide for liability for misrepresentation by developers;
• specify the circumstances in which developers, land or transactions, or a class of any of these, can be exempted from provision of the Act; and
• increase the Superintendent of Real Estate’s enforcement powers.

he Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57 (the “New Act”) came into force in B.C. on March 29, 2004. The primary intentions of the New Act are to
1. modernize the former B.C. Company Act;
2. include in the New Act the most desirable features of the other corporate business statutes in Canada, including the CBCA; and
3. provide the profession and the business community with a versatile and more flexible corporate statute.A BC company must transition from the former Company Act to the New Act by completing the following steps within two years after the coming into force of the New Act:
1. File a transition application with the registrar;
2. Alter articles if required to ensure compliance with the New Act; and
3. Supplement information in the central securities register (replaces current registers of members, allotments and transfers)

Failure to do so is grounds for the registrar to dissolve the company.

The following is a summary of some of the important changes contained in the New Act in connection with the incorporation and organization of companies:
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