I am disturbed by the misleading information in your recent article Financing for vacation properties by Shirley Evans in the October REM.  You state, “In British Columbia, for instance, there are aboriginal claims on a lot of land, which means your client can only lease the land, even if they own the property.”

This is incorrect. If you own the land it is not up for land claims. Private land in B.C. is not negotiable and although private land may fall within “territorial lands” it does not give First Nations the right to obtain ANY private land.  I have dealt with a great deal of land claims issues on the West Coast of Vancouver Island and under no circumstances is private land threatened. It is mis-information like this that causes fear amongst buyers.

There are financing limitations if someone chooses to lease First Nations land.

Large corporations such as Weyerhaeuser Company Limited and Island Timberlands Ltd. have chosen to sell large tracts of land to the federal government for land claims at fair market value, but they did not have to do this.  It was beneficial for them to do this.

Judy Gray

Team Leader

Re/Max Mid-Island Realty

Ucluelet, B.C.

 Shirley Evans replies: I am sorry about the confusion with this recent article.  Possibly we were not clear enough in our explanation. We were making reference to if you owned the property but not land (leased land).

As with crown land here in Alberta, the client does buy the home but enters into a lease agreement with the Government of Alberta. Once the lease has expired, the government has the option to renew or not renew. The only point that we were trying to make is that clients need to be fully informed that purchasing a house on leased land is different from a freehold purchase.