Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• Antrim Balanced Mortgage Fund Ltd. sought court approval of a $3,200,000 sale of foreclosed waterfront property in Belcarra, BC, opposed by registered owner Davina Tang.

• An order nisi of foreclosure was granted on May 9, 2024, with a redemption amount of $2,577,449.72 plus daily accruing interest, and the redemption period expired without payment.

• Competing appraisals valued the property between $3,500,000 and $3,950,000, while the 2026 BC Assessment placed it at $4,650,000, creating a significant valuation dispute.

• Despite extensive marketing since September 2022 through multiple brokerages and numerous price reductions, the petitioner's conduct of sale produced only one offer at $3,200,000.

• Ms. Tang's reliance on a purportedly comparable nearby sale at $4,800,000 was undermined by evidence that the comparable property was a newer, superior home.

• The court applied the provident sale test from Mission Creek Mortgage Ltd. v. Angleland Holdings Inc., concluding that prolonged market exposure and the absence of competing bids established market value.

The foreclosure of a Belcarra waterfront property

This case concerned a residential property located at 4995 Robson Road in Belcarra, British Columbia. The property, situated in Belcarra's Whiskey Cove with views of Indian Arm, consisted of two side-by-side lots — one a vacant treed lot and the other containing a 2,900-square-foot, two-level house built in 1969, with an associated waterfront dock. Davina Tang was the registered owner on title, while Antrim Balanced Mortgage Fund Ltd. held the first mortgage against the property and Chico Holdings Inc. held a second mortgage securing a loan of approximately $500,000.

The mortgage default and foreclosure proceedings

An order nisi of foreclosure was granted on May 9, 2024, establishing a six-month redemption period and indicating that the amount required to redeem the mortgage was $2,577,449.72 as of that date, with interest accruing at $668.31 per day. The redemption period expired on November 9, 2024, without the mortgage being redeemed. On January 27, 2025, the court granted exclusive conduct of sale of the property to Antrim. The petitioner also noted that property taxes were in arrears and that the local municipality had warned it would initiate a tax sale if they remained unpaid by September 2026. Ms. Tang had essentially had possession of the property for an extended period without making mortgage payments or paying property taxes.

A prolonged and unsuccessful listing history

Prior to the petitioner assuming conduct of sale, the property had been listed for sale by the owner on multiple occasions through different brokerages. The first recorded listing was on the Multiple Listing Service with Pacific Evergreen Realty in September 2022 at $5,180,000, later reduced to $4,995,000. The owner then hired Dan Tan of Angell Hasman & Associates and listed the property at $4,995,000, subsequently reducing it to $4,588,000. In December 2023, the owner hired Malcolm Hasman of Angell Hasman & Associates and listed the property at $4,638,000. In May 2024, an offer of $4,250,000 was received but rejected by the owner as too low. In June 2024, the owner hired yet another real estate firm, Royal LePage West, and listed the property at $4,785,000, later reduced to $4,388,000. Once Antrim obtained conduct of sale, its retained realtors listed the property on February 4, 2025, at $4,188,000. The realtors extensively marketed the property throughout 2025 and into January 2026 via the Multiple Listing System, websites, digital platforms, newspaper advertising, and full-page glossy ads in Haven Magazine.

Competing valuations and the comparable sale dispute

An appraisal attached to the petitioner's materials assessed the property's market value at $3,500,000 as of May 5, 2025. Ms. Tang countered with her own appraisal, which assessed the property at $3,950,000 as of May 12, 2025. She also pointed to the 2026 BC Assessment of $4,650,000 as of July 1, 2025, and referenced a nearby property at 4825 Belcarra Bay Road that sold in January 2026 for $4.8 million, arguing it was a comparable sale. However, the court found no evidence that the two properties were truly comparable. Evidence from realtor Calvin Lindberg revealed that the buyer of 4825 Belcarra Bay Road had in fact viewed the subject property on two separate occasions but determined it was too old, required too much work, and opted instead to purchase the 5,200-square-foot waterfront home with an infinity pool and private dock at 4825 Belcarra Bay Road, which was a newer home in the same area.

The legal test for a provident sale

Associate Judge Vos applied the legal test set out in Mission Creek Mortgage Ltd. v. Angleland Holdings Inc., 2013 BCCA 281, which requires that the mortgagee go about finding a buyer in a businesslike manner and that the court be satisfied the proposed sale is provident in all the circumstances. Citing Kokanee Mortgage MIC Ltd. v. 669655 B.C. Ltd., 2014 BCSC 458, the court also considered whether both the marketing and sales process had been fair and whether the proposed price reflected fair market value. Drawing on The Bank of Nova Scotia v. Marvin, 2016 BCSC 1033, and Romspen Mortgage Corporation v. Lantzville Foothills Estates Inc., 2013 BCSC 2222, the court emphasized that when a property has had lengthy and proper exposure to the market, "there comes a point where the market speaks loudly and the appraisals become relegated to not much more than well-meant but inaccurate predictions."

The court's ruling and outcome

The court concluded that the property had been exposed to the market for over a year under Antrim's conduct of sale, in addition to the owner's own listing efforts dating back to September 2022, with extensive marketing yielding only one offer during the petitioner's conduct of sale. No competing bids were presented in court, and there was no realistic basis to believe a better offer would materialize in the foreseeable future. Continued delay would only increase the shortfall on the petitioner's mortgage due to ongoing interest charges. Finding that the sale process was carried out in a provident manner and that the offer represented market value, Associate Judge Vos approved the sale of the property at $3,200,000 as proposed by the petitioner, Antrim Balanced Mortgage Fund Ltd. The sale resulted in a shortfall of more than $5,000 on the first mortgage and no payment at all to Chico Holdings Inc. on its second mortgage. Costs were awarded to the petitioner at Scale A.