Saanich will prepare the Section 219 Covenant document and send it out to your Solicitor or Notary Public for signature and registration. The process is as follows, depending on the type of application you have:
If a council covenant (for a development or rezoning application):
1) Following your Council meeting, whereby Council gives Second and Third reading to your application and passes a motion requiring a Section 219 Covenant, you will receive a letter from our Legislative Services department confirming Council’s motion and related covenant costs. Please contact our Legal department (250-475-5494 ext 3578) to arrange for payment of same by cash, cheque or debit, and provide your Solicitor/Notary Public’s name and contact information. Documentation will not be released to your Solicitor/Notary Public until payment is received.
2) Once payment is received, our Legal Department will prepare the Covenant document and send it your Solicitor/ Notary Public. The Solicitor/Notary Public will meet with you to review and sign the document, and also send it out to your Mortgage Lender to obtain their signature (if you have a mortgage or line of credit(s) registered on the property). Once all signatures are obtained your Solicitor/Notary Public will submit the covenant document to the Land Title Office for registration. The registration process at Land Titles usually takes about 7-10 days, at which time your Solicitor or Notary Public will advise our Legal Department of the registration particulars.
3) Our Legal department will then advise our Legislative Services Department that, pending all other conditions being met, the covenant is registered and your application can now proceed to Final Reading. At this time Legislative Services will be in touch with you directly to advise of your council date.
If a subdivision covenant (for a subdivision or strata application):
1) You will receive a Conditional Approval document from the Approving Officer in the Planning Department which will outline the covenant terms and conditions and also the fee associated with the covenant preparation. Because most covenants require legal survey plans as reference, preparation of a covenant is usually one of the last requirements of fulfilling the subdivision approval process.
Once the necessary plans have been received by the Approving Officer, a request for preparation of the covenant is forwarded to Saanich's Legal Department. It is at this point that the preparation fee is required to be paid in our Planning Department. Payment can be made using cash, cheque or debit. Please also provide your Solicitor/Notary Public's name and contact information. The covenant will not be signed and subdivision not approved until payment has been received.
2) Once the entire subdivision approval package has been sent to your Solicitor/Notary Public, they will meet with you to review and sign the documentation, and also send it out to your Mortgage Lender to obtain their signature (if you have a mortgage or line of credit(s) registered on the property). Once all signatures are obtained, your Solicitor/Notary Public will submit the subdivision package to the Land Title Office for registration which usually takes about 7-10 days. As part of the Approving Officer's final instructions to the Solicitor/Notary Public, they are requested to forward confirmation that all necessary documents have been registered.