Beginning on New Year’s Day 2023, British Columbia’s (B.C.) homebuyer protection period goes into effect. The homebuyer protection period provides the buyer with a three-day cooling off period after the buyer accepts the seller’s offer. During the cooling off period, the buyer may inspect the home, look over financing, and do any other due diligence associated with the purchasing of a home.

Here’s what B.C. Minister of Finance Selina Robinson had to say, in a press release, about the cooling off period, “Too many people have been faced with giving up an inspection in order to buy a home. This is a major step toward providing homebuyers with the peace of mind they deserve while protecting the interests of people selling their homes-for today’s market and in the future.”

Y’all see that last part, there, “providing homebuyers with the peace of mind they deserve while protecting the interests of people selling their homes?” Now, that last part right there, “protecting the interests of people selling their homes,” is key because it gets to the cancellation fee.

The homebuyer protection period includes a cancellation fee clause that requires a buyer, whose offer the seller has accepted, to pay 0.25% for every $100,000 that the buyer purchases.

For instance, if a buyer is middle class and a bank loans the buyer $350,000 to buy home and the seller agrees to the $350,000 offer, then the buyer will be on the hook for $875.

And as many of y’all know, $875 is a lot of money for a middle class family with two kids, a dog, a cat, and a $120,000 a year income. Those pennies only stretch so far.

Remember the part about an accepted offer?! Yeah, welp, whenever a person agrees to an accepted offer then that person has agreed to “purchase” the home. In other words, the cooling off period can easily include broke middle class folks trying to get blood out of a turnip in order to pay for a cancellation fee for a house they don’t want due to them being unable to fix the many problems the inspector tells them they will soon have after they move in.

Y’all know it’s the truth! Anyone who has purchased a home knows that those real estate agents and homeowners tend to be some shystering somebodies who’ll sell you a lemon with sugar sprinkled on top.

You gotta be on your p’s and q’s whenever you’re buying a home. And the one thing the B.C. government’s 0.25% cancellation fee does is to not help homebuyers be on their p’s and q’s.