Pull a title in Langley or South Surrey and the useful part is rarely the owner's name. It is the list underneath, the charges, liens and interests. Most titles out here carry a right of way or an easement, and most buyers never order the document behind it. A right of way can take a strip of the lot out of play for anything you want to build, and the listing will not mention it.
Two things that look alike on title
An ordinary easement is a right over one parcel for the benefit of another. The Land Title and Survey Authority calls it a limited right attached to land for the benefit of the dominant tenement. On acreage in Campbell Valley or Glen Valley, usually a shared driveway.
A statutory right of way is different. Section 218 of the Land Title Act lets an owner grant an easement with no benefited parcel at all, in favour of the Crown, a municipality, a utility or a pipeline permit holder. The Act says the rule requiring a dominant and servient tenement is abrogated for that purpose. That is how BC Hydro or the Township holds a right over your lot without owning anything nearby.
Three things follow.
- You inherit it. Section 218(3) binds the grantor, the grantee and their successors in title to the terms in the instrument.
- The title summary does not carry the rules. Section 218(3)(b) gives the holder the right to use the land in accordance with the terms of the instrument, and those terms sit in a separate document.
- Age is no defence. Section 218(5) is retroactive and applies to all statutory rights of way whenever created. A 1968 right of way is as live as a 2024 one.
BC Hydro publishes its list, and it is short
BC Hydro says a registered right of way gives it the right to keep the area clear of all structures, fire hazards, vegetation, and any other use that may interfere with the asset's operation or maintenance. Its compatible use guidelines list what it may approve inside a corridor: trails, driveways and access roads, fencing, farming, tree farms, and non permanent, non metallic sheds under 3.6 metres tall with no more than 36 square metres of floor space and no wiring or plumbing.
Not compatible without written authorisation: buildings or portions of buildings, including foundations and eaves, deposit of fill, stockpiling of material, and organized parking of vehicles. Anything inside the corridor should sit at least 10 metres from poles, towers and anchors. Landscaping is restricted to low growing trees, shrubs and plants.
Work cannot start until a Compatible Use Letter is issued, signed and returned, and BC Hydro wants proposals six weeks ahead. If approval means relocating their infrastructure, that can take a year or more at your cost. Their rights are not always registered in their own name, and sometimes sit inside a City right of way or a covenant. The Properties helpdesk is 604 623 3637.
Township of Langley: the widths are in the servicing bylaw
Most Langley rights of way are municipal, for water, sanitary sewer or storm drainage. Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw 2019 (No. 5382) puts those systems in the road unless that is not technically possible, in which case they sit in a statutory right of way. Schedule B sets the minimum widths: 4.5 metres for one sewer and 6 metres for two or more utilities.
A storm sewer outside the road needs a width of twice the pipe depth from finished grade to the crown. A ditch crossing private property needs 6 metres, offset to leave 3 metres of maintenance access. The Municipal Engineer can also require a covenant that the foundation of any wall abutting a right of way sit no higher than the invert of the lowest utility.
The Township's permit guide asks for a title search no more than 30 days old and a site plan showing easements, rights of way and watercourses with setbacks to the buildings. A 6 metre strip across the back can also remove the only place a coach house would have gone, so read it alongside how many units your Langley lot allows.
Surrey and the City of Langley
Surrey says a City right of way lets it access a specified area of private property, mainly to maintain and repair water and sewer pipes under part of a lot. It calls an encroachment an unauthorized intrusion onto a neighbouring property, road or right of way, and its examples are the ordinary ones: a fence or retaining wall, hedges or trees, paving to extend a driveway, irrigation lines.
Surrey can require removal at any time at the owner's expense, and immediately where the encroachment is a safety risk, interferes with utilities or traffic, or sits on land needed for a City project. For the line itself, COSMOS gives a rough answer and a survey company gives certainty.
The City of Langley, a separate municipality from the Township, puts it plainest: footings and overhangs are not permitted to encroach into an easement, right of way or restrictive covenant area unless the registered title document says otherwise.
The charge that catches Morgan Creek and Willoughby buyers
Not every restriction belongs to a utility. Section 220 lets a developer selling two or more parcels register a declaration of building scheme as a charge. From the date it is endorsed, the restrictions bind all the land affected and every part of it, and every purchaser and successor in title, without further registration. Discharging one takes the consent of the owners of the land defined in the declaration, not only yours.
These turn up in planned subdivisions, which here means Morgan Creek, Grandview Heights and the newer parts of Willoughby, and they can control roof material, fence height, exterior finish and minimum floor area. Section 221 is the balance: registering a restrictive covenant is not a determination by the registrar of its enforceability. Registered does not mean enforceable, but get advice before you ignore it.
If something is already built in the wrong place
Section 36 of the Property Law Act is the fix, and it is a court application. Where a survey finds a building encroaching on adjoining land, or a fence improperly located so as to enclose adjoining land, the Supreme Court may grant an easement for a period with compensation, vest title in the encroaching owner on compensation, or order the structure removed. Note the trigger. Without a survey there is nothing to apply on.
Section 35 is broader. Anyone interested in land can ask the court to cancel or modify an easement, a statutory right of way, a building scheme or a restrictive covenant, on grounds including that it has become obsolete or that reasonable use will be impeded without practical benefit to others. The order binds everyone, served or not. Price it as litigation, not paperwork.
What to check before you remove subjects
- Pull the title and order every charge document and plan, not only the summary. At the LTSA a title search is $11.06 and a document or plan copy is $17.78, on the fee listing current to April 1, 2026.
- Plot it from the registered plan. Wording like "over part of" means nothing until you see the strip.
- If you plan to build, write to the holder before subject removal. BC Hydro wants six weeks, a scaled drawing with clearances, and written consent from every other charge holder.
- If a structure may already sit inside the area, order a survey.
- Read what title insurance covers in BC, because boundary and area errors sit outside the land title assurance fund.
Scale is why this is worth an hour. The October 2026 Fraser Valley detached benchmark was $1.448M in Langley and $1.607M in South Surrey and White Rock. A 6 metre strip across the back of a lot at those prices is not a rounding error. If it removes the suite you were underwriting, re-run the affordability calculator and get pre-approved on the real figure. Current pricing is in the October 2026 Langley market update.
If you are looking at homes in Langley or South Surrey and a title shows a right of way, send me the address and the charge numbers. I will order the documents and tell you what the strip actually costs you.
Sources
Land Title Act sections 218, 220 and 221, and Property Law Act sections 35 and 36, from bclaws.gov.bc.ca. Easement and statutory right of way definitions and the fee listing current to April 1, 2026 from ltsa.ca. BC Hydro's statutory rights of way package and its compatible use guidelines. Township of Langley Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw 2019 (No. 5382), section 6.6 and Schedule B, and the Township's residential construction guide. City of Surrey property boundaries page. City of Langley accessory building package. Benchmark prices from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's October 2026 package. Checked November 6, 2026. Not legal advice.