THE ADVOCATE 203
VOL. 80 PART 2 MARCH 2022
HOW TO MAKE A GIFT OF LAND
PART I: TESTAMENTARY
By Bruce Woolley, Q.C.*
T his article is dedicated to first-year Property Law students. It
delivers the “goods” on how to make an effective gift of land
situate in British Columbia, the title to which is registered at
the Land Title Office (“LTO”). This article is also for real property
lawyers, who, over the years, may have lost some of the delight in the
legal and equitable principles involved in what appears to be a simple matter.
Part I of this article deals with testamentary gifts, while Part II, which
will appear in a later issue of the Advocate, deals with inter vivos gifts.
I have written this article at my home office in Surrey, B.C., the traditional,
ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including
the Semiahmoo, Katzie and Kwantlen land-based nations. This article
does not deal with making a gift of interests in reserve land or treaty settlement
land.
This article wanders down some less travelled paths that, on their face,
might not directly relate to gifts. Those paths may raise some uncertain outcomes.
Let us remember and appreciate the delight in making new connections
and facing uncertainties, which can often lead to newly discovered
paths, untrod by others.
WHAT IS A GIFT?
A gift is a voluntary and gratuitous transfer of property.1 A gift is not a contract.
You cannot use contract principles to assist if there has not been a
completed gift. As well, equity will not force a volunteer to complete that
which is incomplete.2
Three conditions must be met to complete a valid inter vivos gift: the
donor must have the intention to make a gift,3 the donee must accept the
gift4 (generally presumed once the third condition is met) and the subject
matter of the gift needs to be delivered to the donee. “Unless and until all
* The author thanks all who reviewed this article and provided such helpful comments. Special thanks to Kenny Wu for his
guidance, assistance and excellent Word skills.