How to Vet a Presale Developer in BC (2026): The Public Records That Warned Buyers First
Four public records, twenty minutes. In BC's biggest presale insolvency now before the courts, every red flag was public before the project collapsed.
You can vet a BC presale developer in about twenty minutes using four public records — the BC Housing licence registry, the New Homes Registry warranty status, the municipal building permit, and a court judgment search. In the biggest presale insolvency now before the BC Supreme Court, every one of those red flags was publicly visible before the project collapsed. Nobody thought to look.
The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% again today — the sixth consecutive hold, with the Bank Rate at 2.5%. Stable rates are good news for presale buyers. But rates were never the risk that hurt BC presale buyers over the last eighteen months. Developer solvency was.
The Fraser Valley condo benchmark sits at $476,400 in June 2026, down 9.1% year-over-year and down 1.5% from May. Condos are taking 38 days to sell. When prices soften and sales slow, thinly-financed developers run out of runway — and presale buyers are the last people to find out.
Every red flag at Eclipse was public — years early
Thind Properties' Eclipse tower in Burnaby is the case every BC presale buyer should study. The 34-storey building was roughly 95% complete with 232 of its 329 units pre-sold when it entered creditor protection in January 2025. Two groups of purchasers representing 32 units — a combined $26 million in presales — filed applications in April 2026 asking a judge to declare their contracts unenforceable.
Their argument, per the court filings: the developer breached BC's Real Estate Development Marketing Act (REDMA) by failing to disclose material facts. Look at what those filings say was already on the public record:
| Date | What happened | Where a buyer could have seen it |
|---|---|---|
| June 2023 | CRA obtained a judgment against the developer for approximately $12 million | BC Supreme Court civil search (CSO) |
| Oct 2024 | Home warranty coverage for the development suspended | BC Housing New Homes Registry |
| Nov 2024 | City of Burnaby suspended the building permit; construction ceased | Municipal permit portal |
| Jan 2025 | Project enters creditor protection (CCAA) | Too late |
The purchasers allege those facts were never disclosed to them, "in clear breach of the REDMA." Whichever way the court rules, the lesson is already free: an eighteen-month paper trail existed in public databases while units were still being sold. Nobody at a presentation centre is going to walk you through it.
Eclipse isn't isolated. Siena at the Heights in North Burnaby took in more than $5 million in presale deposits before Desjardins moved to put it into receivership in November 2025 over roughly $30 million in defaulted loans; Deloitte was appointed receiver in February 2026 and the lands were ordered sold. The CURV tower at 1075 Nelson in Vancouver went into receivership in 2025 owing lenders north of $91 million.
The four checks to run before you sign
1. BC Housing Licence Registry
Search the developer at newhomesregistry.bchousing.org. Confirm an active licence — and note the registry has listed people not in good standing since November 19, 2007. Stuck? Licensing & Consumer Services: 1-800-407-7757.
2. New Homes Registry (warranty)
Confirm the specific project carries active 2-5-10 home warranty insurance. Eclipse's coverage was suspended in October 2024. A suspension is a solvency signal, not paperwork.
3. Municipal building permit
Check the permit status with the city (Surrey, Burnaby, Langley all publish it). An expired, suspended, or never-issued permit on a project actively selling units is the loudest flag there is.
4. Court & lien search
A BC Supreme Court civil search on the developer's legal entity surfaces judgments, foreclosures, and builders liens. A CRA judgment is a solvency red flag, full stop.
Check the entity, not the brand.
Developers build each project inside a single-purpose numbered company. A parent brand with twenty finished towers tells you nothing about the numbered company on your contract. The legal entity is named in the disclosure statement — search that name.
"Your deposit is safe in trust" — the honest version
Here's what you'll hear everywhere: under REDMA, presale deposits must be held in trust by a lawyer, notary, or licensed brokerage, and the developer cannot touch that money during construction. That is true, and it is a genuinely strong protection.
Here's what almost nobody adds. Whether federal creditor-protection law (the CCAA) overrides that provincial consumer protection when a developer becomes insolvent is a live constitutional question — it is being argued in the BC Supreme Court right now, in the Eclipse case. "Safe" and "available to you next month" are not the same sentence. Deposits can sit frozen for years while lawyers argue about who ranks where.
What being wrong actually costs
Take a $650,000 Surrey presale with a staged 15% deposit — $97,500 of your money. Your developer follows the Eclipse path and files for creditor protection.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Deposit frozen pending court outcome | $97,500 |
| Time frozen (Eclipse: Jan 2025 → still in court, 18+ months) | 18–36 months |
| Opportunity cost @ 3% GIC over 18 months | ≈ $4,400 |
| Your share of group legal counsel | $5,000–15,000+ |
| Contract price vs a benchmark down 9.1% YoY | Possibly above market |
You most likely get the $97,500 back. You do not get 2026 and 2027 back. That is the real risk — not a total loss, but a multi-year freeze on your capital in a market where you had better uses for it.
Green lights worth paying for
Active licence and clean registry history · active 2-5-10 warranty on the project · building permit issued and construction visibly underway · construction financing confirmed in the disclosure statement · a completed local project you can physically walk · deposits held in a named lawyer's trust account · a realistic outside completion date. A developer with all seven has nothing to hide, and their lawyer will confirm it in writing.
Who is supposed to do this for you
Not the presentation centre. The person across that desk works for the developer and is paid to sell that building — they will not run a court search on their own employer. A buyer's agent is paid out of the developer's marketing budget whether you bring one or not, which means this due diligence costs you nothing extra. Here's how that actually works.
If a developer's answers get vague when you ask about the numbered entity, the permit, or the trust account — that's your answer. See also: when you should not buy a presale as an investor, and if you're planning an early exit, how assignment fees and taxes really work. Browsing now? Start with Surrey presale condos.
The Bottom Line
Twenty minutes in four public databases is the highest-return work you will do on a presale — higher than negotiating $10,000 off the price. The Eclipse buyers didn't lose because presale is a bad idea. They lost time because the warning signs sat in registries nobody told them to check. We run these searches on every project before a client signs, and we tell you when the answer is no. Book a free 15-min call and we'll pull the records on the project you're considering.