Question 4 of 9: Registered versus Deposited Plans

Question 4: Registered versus Deposited Plans (10)

Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.

They are not of equal significance. The two categories differ in what the act of filing accomplishes, and that difference carries through to the weight of the boundaries and the monuments shown.

Registered plans. A registered plan — most importantly a registered plan of subdivision — is part of the title record and is creative: on registration it brings new lots and blocks into legal existence, dedicates the streets shown to the public, and becomes the very instrument by reference to which the parcels are thereafter conveyed. The boundaries it depicts therefore carry the greater significance, and the monuments (iron bars) planted to lay out that plan are original monuments of the creating survey. Being the marks by which the lots were first defined and sold, found and undisturbed, they control the corners in any later retracement, standing at the top of the evidence hierarchy (below only natural boundaries and senior rights).

Deposited plans. A deposited plan — for example a reference plan (R-plan) deposited to describe parts for conveyancing, or a plan deposited under the Boundaries Act — is filed for reference and record. It graphically describes or illustrates parcels but does not of itself create new title or subdivide land (a reference plan merely gives a convenient "part" description; a Boundaries Act plan takes effect through the confirmation, not the mere deposit). Its depicted boundaries therefore carry, in general, lesser creative significance than those of a registered plan of subdivision.

But the physical evidence is weighed on its own footing. The iron bars shown on a deposited plan are not worthless: whether a monument controls depends not on the label of the plan but on whether it is the original monument of the survey that created the boundary in question. An original bar recorded on a deposited reference plan is still competent, high-ranking evidence; a bar merely re-set to illustrate an existing line ranks lower. In short, a registered plan of subdivision creates and controls the fabric, so its boundaries and original monuments have the greatest significance; a deposited plan describes, so its boundaries carry lesser creative weight — while any iron bar, on either plan, is given the weight appropriate to whether it is original to the creating conveyance.