Unclaimed property laws vary considerably from province-to-province in Canada. Modern Canadian unclaimed property laws are based on the Uniform Law Conference of Canada’s Uniform Unclaimed Intangible Property Act (UUIPA) that was drafted in 2003. The UUIPA was designed “to provide a harmonized legislative scheme for the consideration of those provinces and territories which may wish to enact unclaimed property legislation.” Though parts of the UUIPA have been incorporated into provincial […]
When Vancouver resident Trevor O’Reilly received a letter from the BC Unclaimed Property Society in 2008 informing him he had unclaimed money waiting for him, he was understandably skeptical. “At the time, I never heard of the BC Unclaimed Property Society,” he recalls. Trevor went on the BCUPS website, did some research, and decided it would be worth a phone call. Turns out he has a little more than $800 […]
Many BC companies and organizations don’t realize that they have a legal obligation to locate and notify the owners of the dormant accounts that are sitting on their books. Under the BC Unclaimed Property Act, an account is deemed to be dormant when a prescribed period of time has elapsed with no activity, ranging from as little as 7 days to 10 years depending on the type of account involved. […]
