BCLI welcomes new Commercial Liens Act
March 8, 2022
BY Kevin Zakreski
BCLI is pleased that a bill introduced yesterday in the legislative assembly will implement its Report on the Uniform Liens Act and modernize the law of commercial liens.
The new Commercial Liens Act is intended to update “B.C. law for liens so that service providers can more easily understand and use liens and their customers can protect their rights to their own property.” (“Liens commonly give people the right to keep another person’s property to secure payment for services that improve the property’s value.”)
As BCLI’s report noted:
The existing law governing the liens of repairers, storers and common carriers is in need of reconsideration as it is become outdated, inflexible and inefficient, with the result that it no longer provides an appropriate means of securing payment for outstanding obligations. Three examples are illustrative. First, the current law is unnecessarily complex as it does not adopt a consistent approach to procedures and enforcement measures despite the similar characteristics of these liens. Second, the integration of these liens with modern Personal Property Security Act legislation has been either inadequate or non-existent. Third, under the existing law valid liens have limited scope and may be easily lost.
In response to these problems, the report’s “principal recommendation [was] that the Uniform Liens Act prepared by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada be adopted to govern these liens. This Act provides a modern, comprehensive approach to commercial liens and effectively harmonizes this area of the law with Personal Property Security Act principles.”
The bill (bill 11) was given first reading yesterday and will proceed through the legislative process during the spring session.
