Possessory interest

The Civil Forfeiture Act allows the director of civil forfeiture to claim a temporary possessory interest in personal property that is linked to unlawful activity.

The director establishes a possessory interest in property by publishing notice online. You can view current notices of possessory interest on the BC Data Catalogue website.

After publishing notice online, the director sends written notice of the possessory interest to:

• the person from whom the police seized the property
• the registered owner of the property

If the director has claimed a possessory interest in your property, you can dispute the director’s interest.

To dispute the director’s possessory interest, you must deliver a notice of dispute to the Civil Forfeiture Office. The notice of dispute must be delivered to the Civil Forfeiture Office no later than 14 days after you received the written notice of possessory interest from the director.

If you have questions about your deadline to dispute the director’s possessory interest, please contact the Civil Forfeiture Office.

You may choose to use the Notice of Dispute to a Notice of Possessory Interest form to dispute the director’s possessory interest. Notices of dispute must meet the requirements set out in section 78 of the Civil Forfeiture Act or they will not be considered valid.

A notice of dispute may be delivered by mail to the Civil Forfeiture Office.

After publishing notice of possessory interest online, the director has 120 days to do one of the following:

• commence civil forfeiture proceedings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia
• initiate administrative forfeiture
• remove the notice of possessory interest from the BC Data Catalogue website

If you deliver a valid notice of dispute to the Civil Forfeiture Office, then the director has 60 days to take one of those three actions. The director will notify you of the action taken.