Buying a Home With Tenants In It
The tenancy runs with the title, and so does the deposit. The Residential Tenancy Branch states it flatly: once a property is sold, the buyer becomes the new landlord and tenancies continue under the same terms. Nothing resets. Policy Guideline 17 puts the deposit on the same footing, the obligations of a landlord with respect to a security deposit run with the land, so if the landlord changes, the new landlord retains them. Whoever owns the property when the tenant moves out owes the money back, whether or not it ever crossed the completion table. It belongs on the statement of adjustments with the pet damage deposit and interest, set by the Province at 0% for 2026.
The fixed term decides your move-in date. A fixed term does not end the tenancy when it expires: in most cases a fixed-term tenancy cannot end simply because the agreement has ended, and it becomes month-to-month on the same terms. Buyers miss the other direction. The Branch's generated notice says it on its face, for a fixed term tenancy agreement, the effective date cannot be earlier than the date the term ends. A tenant on a term running to 31 August 2027 is there until 31 August 2027, whatever your financing needs. Read the written agreement and its end date before you write a price.
You must ask in writing, and the seller cannot volunteer. Section 49 lets a landlord end a tenancy for a purchaser's occupancy only where there is a good-faith agreement to sell, all the conditions on which the sale depends have been satisfied, and the purchaser asks the landlord in writing to give the notice. A seller cannot serve it on their own initiative for your benefit, and the Branch is explicit that serving the notice cannot be a condition of the sale. The occupant must be you or a close family member: a spouse, parent or child of yours or of your spouse. The standard Buyer's Notice to Seller for Vacant Possession (BC2032, January 2025) exists for this step and cites section 49(5).
Since July 2024 the notice is generated by the Province, not typed by anyone. A purchaser's-use notice (RTB-32P) has had to come from the Branch's Landlord Use Web Portal since 18 July 2024, a landlord's-use notice (RTB-32L) since 18 June 2025, each carrying a unique Notice ID. The seller needs a Basic BCeID, must complete the form in one sitting, there is no save function, and must upload form RTB-58, Contract of Purchase and Sale Information: the buyer's brokerage, the parties, the PID, and the contract, completion and possession dates, certified as matching the final contract. Errors in those details are errors in the notice.
Three months, to a month end, from when the notice is received. The portal arrived with a four-month period. It was cut to three for purchaser's use on 21 August 2024, the Province's reason was that four months was blocking first-time buyers, particularly those with insured financing requiring vacant possession at closing, and to three for landlord's use on 18 June 2025. The effective date must be the last day of a month, and service has its own arithmetic: a document is deemed received on the fifth day after mailing, the third after emailing or posting. A notice mailed in early September ends the tenancy on 31 December, not in early December.
Twenty-one days to dispute, and a tenant who may leave sooner. The tenant has 21 days to file for dispute resolution, and an arbitrator who finds the stated purpose dishonest sets the notice aside. Section 50 meanwhile lets the tenant give 10 days' written notice and go early, paying only for the days occupied and keeping the compensation. Neither outcome is yours to control. And the notice is not available at all where the unit sits in a building of five or more rental units that is not strata-titled, or is strata-titled with five or more units owned by the same owner.
One month's rent now; twelve months' rent if the move-in does not happen. The tenant is owed the equivalent of one month's rent, on or before the effective date, or may withhold it from the last month's rent. Then the real exposure: except in extenuating circumstances, if the stated purpose is not accomplished within a reasonable period, or the unit is not used for that purpose for at least 12 months, the tenant is entitled to an amount equal to 12 months' rent. Policy Guideline 2A treats re-renting at a higher rent instead of occupying as a marker of bad faith, and the Branch can add penalties of up to $5,000 per contravention, per day, where non-compliance continues.
You inherit the rent and its clock, so price the tenancy rather than the vacancy. The 2026 limit is 2.3%, announced 26 August 2025 and down from 3%; it takes three full months' notice on form RTB-7, once every 12 months from the last lawful increase, and the Branch states that this rule applies if there is a new landlord. A suite $600 under market stays $600 under market for a year at a time. Ask for the agreement, every RTB-7 with its dates, the deposit receipt and the move-in condition inspection report, a landlord who never completed one has lost the right to claim against the deposits for damage, and that loss transfers to you. Then write dates that survive the arithmetic above. Vacant possession is time you buy, not a thing you assume.
Sourced from the Residential Tenancy Branch's pages on selling a rental property, types of evictions, rent increases, deposits and move-in inspections (last updated between March and July 2026), Policy Guidelines 2A, 12, 17 and 50, the Branch's generated sample notices RTB-32L and RTB-32P and form RTB-58, the Province's news releases of 18 July 2024, 1 August 2024 and 26 August 2025, BCFSA's advisory of 7 August 2024, BCREA's Legally Speaking 574, and the Greater Vancouver REALTORS® tenant-occupied property package of January 2025, all verified 25 August 2026. This report describes and informs; it is not legal advice, and a specific tenancy, a specific agreement and a specific completion date deserve specific verification. Want to know what the tenancy on a property you are watching obliges you to, and the earliest date you could move in?