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Construction draw schedule documents showing progress payment milestones, illustrating the 45 day lien filing window and the 55 day holdback period on a BC multiplex build
Legal & Compliance

The Holdback Is Not Released at 45 Days

David Babakaiff
David Babakaiff Co-Founder, VanPlex | 25+ Years BC Construction
6 min read

Ask ten BC owner-builders when the holdback comes out and most say 45 days. Section 20 gives trades 45 days to file. Section 8 sets the holdback period at 55. The ten days between them are your title search window.

builders-lien holdback construction-finance bc section-8 section-20

Ask ten BC owner-builders when the holdback gets released and most will say 45 days. That answer is wrong, and it is wrong in the direction that costs money.

The BC Builders Lien Act runs two separate clocks on every construction contract. They start on the same event and they finish ten days apart. Owners who collapse them into one number release the final payment while a claim can still be sitting on their title.

The two sections

Section 20 sets the time for filing a claim of lien. A claim must be filed no later than 45 days after the certificate of completion is issued. Where no certificate was issued, the window runs 45 days from the day the head contract is completed, abandoned or terminated.

Section 8 sets the holdback period. Where a certificate of completion was issued, the holdback period expires at the end of 55 days after that certificate.

Same trigger. Different sections. Different day counts.

Why the gap exists

The ten days are the owner’s search window.

Once day 45 passes, no new claim can attach for that contract. Section 22 extinguishes a lien that was not filed as required by the Act. So the filing risk is closed at day 45, and the owner then has ten days to search title, confirm nothing was registered at the last minute, and release the money on day 55.

Pay on day 45 and you have skipped that check. A claim filed on the morning of day 45 is validly filed. It may not appear on a title search you run that afternoon. The money leaves, the lien stays, and now you are negotiating with a claimant while holding no funds.

What this looks like on a fourplex

Say your certificate of completion is issued on October 1.

The filing window runs to November 15. Between November 16 and November 25 you search title. If it is clear, you release the holdback on November 25.

If your general contractor is pushing for the holdback on November 15 because “the lien period is over”, the lien period for filing is over. The holdback period under section 8 has ten days left to run. Those are different things and the Act treats them differently.

Owners who get the dates right sometimes get the fund wrong.

Section 4 requires a holdback of 10% of the greater of the value of work and material actually provided, or the payment made on account of the contract price. The phrase doing the work there is the greater of. If a trade performed $100,000 of work and you pay $60,000 this month, the holdback is $10,000, not $6,000.

An owner who calculates 10% of the payment rather than 10% of the work has under-retained, and the shortfall shows up exactly when a claim arrives.

What to do

Get a certificate of completion if anyone on your project can issue one. It fixes the date both clocks run from and replaces an argument with a document.

Then put three dates in your calendar: the certificate date, day 45, and day 55. Search title between them, and release on day 55.

Check what your lot can build before you sign the construction contract that these deadlines will attach to.

More detail on both deadlines is in the builders lien hub, and the 10% holdback page covers the calculation.

Frequently asked questions

Is the builders lien holdback released after 45 days or 55 days?

After 55 days. The 45 day figure is the deadline to file a claim of lien under section 20 of the Builders Lien Act, and the 55 day figure is the holdback period under section 8. They are separate sections serving separate purposes, and treating them as one number is the most common error on a small BC build.

When does the 45 day lien filing window start in BC?

Under section 20 the 45 days runs from the day the certificate of completion is issued. Where no certificate was issued, the window instead runs from the day the head contract is completed, abandoned or terminated, or from completion or abandonment of the improvement where no head contractor was engaged.

Why is the holdback period ten days longer than the filing window?

The ten day gap is the owner's search window. Once the 45 day filing period closes under section 20, no new claim can attach for that contract, so the owner uses the following ten days to search title and confirm nothing was registered at the last moment before releasing the money on day 55.

What happens if I release the holdback on day 45?

You pay out before the title search can be relied on. A claim of lien filed on the morning of day 45 is validly filed under section 20 even though it may not yet appear on a search you run that afternoon. The money leaves, the lien stays on your title, and you hold no funds to answer it.

How is the 10% holdback calculated in BC?

Section 4 of the Builders Lien Act requires 10% of the greater of two amounts: the value of the work and material actually provided, or the payment made on account of the contract price. An owner who calculates 10% of the payment when the work performed was worth more has under-retained the fund.

What starts the clocks if no certificate of completion was issued?

Both clocks run from completion, abandonment or termination of the head contract, or from completion or abandonment of the improvement where no head contractor was engaged. These are contestable events, which is why a certificate of completion under section 7 is worth obtaining wherever the final payment matters.

Does the holdback get released automatically at 55 days?

No. Section 8(4) permits payment after the holdback period expires but does not make it automatic. The owner should search title first, and the liens of the person paid are discharged only if no claim of lien was filed and no proceedings commenced in the meantime.

Do these deadlines apply to a small fourplex build?

Yes. The Builders Lien Act contains no small project exemption for these deadlines, so a fourplex runs the same 45 day filing window under section 20 and the same 55 day holdback period under section 8 as any larger project. The holdback obligation under section 4 applies equally.

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David Babakaiff

David Babakaiff

Co-Founder, VanPlex | 25+ Years BC Construction

David Babakaiff is Co-Founder of VanPlex with 25+ years scaling BC construction. He led Alair Homes Vancouver to the 2024 HAVAN Award for Best Multiplex Unit in the GVRD. VanPlex’s PlexRank™ algorithm scores residential parcels across BC for multiplex conversion potential under Bill 44.

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