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Section 7.2 · Estates in land

Fee simple: the closest thing to owning it all

In BC, all land is ultimately owned by the Crown. What a buyer really acquires is an estate: a bundle of rights to possess, use, and dispose of the land. The largest bundle the law recognizes is the fee simple estate, and it is what nearly every residential sale transfers.

A fee simple owner can sell the land, lease it, mortgage it, or leave it in a will, and the estate continues indefinitely, passing from owner to owner with no end date. That permanence is what separates it from every lesser interest in land.

Life estates: ownership with an end date

A life estate grants ownership for the length of a named life. When that life ends, the land passes to the remainderman set out in the grant. The life tenant may use and enjoy the land but must not commit waste by letting it fall into ruin.

Both are freehold estates. A leasehold, by contrast, is a non freehold interest: exclusive possession for a fixed term in exchange for rent, while the landlord keeps the fee simple.