B.C.’s Commercial Liens Act: Key lessons from the first year in the courts

British Columbia’s Commercial Liens Act (the “Act”) came into force on June 30, 2025, giving businesses that transport, tow, store, salvage, repair, maintain, or improve goods a statutory lien to secure payment for their services. By replacing a patchwork of older lien statutes and common law liens with a single regime, the Act changes how service providers can secure payment, and how they must document and enforce their rights.

The Act is a significant change for carriers in particular. Previously, road carriers generally relied on the common law carrier’s lien, which depended on retaining possession of the goods, and was lost on delivery. Under the Act, with the right paperwork, a lien can be registered and enforced after the goods are released. But the Act’s formal requirements matter: a lien that does not comply may be unenforceable, and improper enforcement can expose the service provider to liability.

We summarize how the Act works and discuss three B.C. Supreme Court decisions from its first year that show how courts are applying it. The decisions matter both to service providers seeking payment, and to the shippers, owners, and lenders on the other side of a lien.

Key takeaways:

• Confirm the service qualifies. The Act covers only the services it lists. Holding someone’s goods while an account is unpaid does not, on its own, create a lien.
• Describe the goods precisely. A service provider without possession can enforce its lien only with a signed authorization or acknowledgement that describes the goods. For carriers, the bill of lading, work order or other document the customer signs should list each item in specific terms. A generic description will not do.
• Register promptly after releasing goods. A lien holder that releases the goods must register within 15 days to remain continuously perfected.
• Do not take separate security for the same debt. A lien arises automatically under the Act, while a security interest is usually created by agreement. A service provider cannot hold both for the same debt: taking a security interest in the goods to secure the amount that its lien secures ends the lien.
• Enforce carefully. Seize only the goods the lien covers, claim only the amount it secures, and act in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner.
• Keep records. The lien secures the agreed price for the services or, if none was agreed, their market value. Reasonable enforcement expenses are also recoverable, but must be proven.

How does the Act work?

The Act repeals the Livestock Lien Act, Repairers Lien Act, Tugboat Worker Lien Act, Warehouse Lien Act and Woodworker Lien Act, and abolishes the common law repairer’s and common carrier’s liens. It does not apply to contractor’s liens under the Forestry Service Providers Protection Act (s. 3) and does not affect builders liens on land under the Builders Lien Act.

The Act applies to the following services provided for consideration (s. 2(1)): providing labour or materials to restore, improve or maintain the condition or properties of goods; storing goods; transporting, carrying or towing goods; and salvaging goods.

A service provider has a lien for these services if they were requested by the owner, another person with an interest in the goods, or a person in, or legally entitled to, possession of them (s. 4(1)).

Key features of the Act include:

• Attachment: A lien attaches when the services begin (s. 5).
• Enforceability: Without possession, a lien is enforceable only with a written authorization for the services, or acknowledgement of the obligation to pay. It must be signed by the customer, the owner or other person with an interest in the goods, and must describe the goods (s. 7). A signature obtained after the goods are released will not make the lien enforceable against anyone who acquired an interest in them in the meantime (s. 7(5)).
• Perfection: A lien is perfected by possession or by registration of a financing statement in the Personal Property Registry. A lien holder that releases the goods must register within 15 days to stay continuously perfected (ss. 11–14).
• Amount secured: The agreed price once the services are complete; otherwise, the market value of the services (s. 6).
• Enforcement: After default, only a bailiff may seize the goods, under a direction describing them. If the amount secured is unpaid 30 days after default, the lien holder may dispose of the goods on at least 20 days’ notice (ss. 32–38).
• Duties: A lien holder must take reasonable care of goods in its possession and act in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner (ss. 24 and 50).
• Disputes: An owner or other interested person can pay money into court to release the goods. The lien then becomes a charge on the payment while the court resolves the dispute (ss. 44–46).

Early decisions under the Act

What counts as storage: 1446649 B.C. Ltd.

In 1446649 B.C. Ltd. v. 1443120 B.C. Ltd., 2025 BCSC 1707, the court held that the respondent, which had licensed land to the petitioners’ daycare business, was not “storing” the daycare’s modular portables and so had no lien over them.

After a payment dispute, the respondent registered a lien and had a bailiff seize the portables, claiming its licence fees were storage fees. But the fees were for the right to install the portables and run a daycare, and the fees claimed began more than a year before the portables arrived. The court found support in the repealed Warehouse Lien Act, which applied to businesses storing goods as bailees for hire.

The court added that any lien would have ended in any event under section 10 of the Act, because the respondent had also taken and registered a security interest in the portables for the same debt.

Old Liens and Enforcement Costs: Bennington

In Bennington Financial Corp. v. Victoria International Marina Ltd., 2026 BCSC 423, the court held that a marina’s lien under the repealed Warehouse Lien Act continued under the Act. It also held that the marina could add its reasonable enforcement expenses to the amount needed to redeem the vessel.

The vessel had stayed at the respondent marina after moorage payments stopped in early 2025. The petitioner, which claimed a security interest in the vessel, paid into court to release it and disputed the lien. Even though the marina could not find its moorage agreements, unchallenged evidence that the vessel was deposited “for storage” was enough to establish the lien.

Without proof of an agreed rate, the lien secured the market value of the moorage and shore power. The recoverable expenses included a marine survey for prospective buyers. Legal fees can also qualify, but because the marina’s invoice was redacted, the court allowed only $5,000 for these expenses.

Paperwork and Proportionality: Rock Ranger

In Rock Ranger Inc. v. Rad Dad Transport Ltd., 2026 BCSC 1123, the court held that the respondent carrier could not enforce its lien, and that its seizure of the petitioner’s equipment was unlawful, because the carrier’s signed agreement described the goods only as “one (1) crushing spread.”

A crushing spread’s make-up varies, so the phrase did not identify the equipment, even though both parties knew what was meant. Without possession, the paperwork must describe the goods clearly enough to instruct a bailiff.

The carrier also failed to act in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner, as section 50 requires. It used the seizure to pursue its entire $208,091 debt, including amounts not secured by any enforceable lien. Its principal warned he “could really hurt” the petitioner’s business. And it seized over $1.5 million of equipment not listed in its registration or direction of seizure.

Without a valid lien, the carrier had no claim to the $116,834 the petitioner had paid into court to have its equipment released. The court returned that money to the petitioner, leaving the carrier to pursue its debt in a separate action, and ordered the carrier to pay the petitioner’s $8,000 cost of borrowing it, plus costs.

We can help

McCarthy Tétrault’s Transportation & Logistics Group and commercial litigation team are recognized leaders in their fields. If you have questions about the B.C. Commercial Liens Act, lien enforcement, or other transportation and logistics disputes, please contact the authors or other members of our Transportation & Logistics Group.