An offer written subject to financing gives you a window after the seller accepts. You have until a set date to get a firm mortgage approval, and if it doesn’t come, you can let the deal go. Once you remove the subject, the deal is firm, and what happens to your deposit if you can’t complete comes down to what your contract says.
This fall, buyers have more room to ask for that clause. BC home sales in August were 4.7% lower than a year earlier, according to the BC Real Estate Association, and the Victoria Real Estate Board said September ended with inventory outpacing sales “to a degree we haven’t seen in many years.”
A subject period is short, and when financing falls through near the end of it, the cause has often been sitting in the file since the first day. The twelve that follow are grouped by where they start, and each one notes the point where it could have been caught.
How the subject period works in BC
Your contract sets a date for removing the financing subject. Before that date, the lender needs to give a full approval. That means your income and down payment documents have been checked, the home has been appraised if the lender asks for it, and any conditions the lender attached have been met.
BC also has a separate home buyer rescission period. Since January 3, 2023, you can back out of an accepted offer on most residential property within three business days, but you pay the seller 0.25% of the purchase price to do it. On an $800,000 home, that’s $2,000. It runs alongside your subjects and doesn’t replace them.
The realtors we’ve spoken with plan the whole subject period around financing. One Saanich realtor with nine years in the business aims to have financing confirmed in the first week of a two-week subject period. He books the home inspection, which costs his clients $700 to $800, only in the last 72 hours, once he knows the money is there. When a deal collapses after the inspection, the buyer has paid that fee for nothing.
What changes after you write the offer
A pre-approval is a snapshot. The final approval is based on your file as it stands close to funding, and lenders can check your credit again before then. Four things tend to change the picture in that window.
1. You finance a vehicle
A truck or car loan signed a few days before funding adds a monthly payment the lender never counted. For an insured mortgage, CMHC caps your total debt payments, housing included, at 44% of your gross income. On a household income of $120,000 a year, that’s $4,400 a month for everything, and a $700 truck payment uses up 7 points of it. A file that was close to the line goes over, and the lender can pull the approval.
When it can be caught: before you sign for the vehicle. Wait until the mortgage funds, or call your broker first.
2. You change jobs
Even a better job can cause trouble. Lenders want income they can verify and expect to continue, and a new role with a probation period, or a move from salary to commission, can leave you without the income history a lender will count.
When it can be caught: the day the job offer arrives, before you accept it.
3. A co-signer steps back
If your approval depends on a parent or relative co-signing, it depends on that one signature. If they change their mind before funding, the approval goes with them.
When it can be caught: in week one, by making sure the co-signer understands they’ll be responsible for the mortgage and that it can affect their own borrowing.
4. Your rate hold runs out
Most pre-approvals come with a rate hold, commonly for 90 to 120 days. On a long completion, such as a presale or a closing set months out, the hold can expire before the mortgage funds. The file then has to be priced at current rates, and if rates have moved, the numbers may stop working.
When it can be caught: before you write the offer, by checking the hold’s end date against your completion date.
Money that isn’t where the lender needs it
Lenders need to see where your down payment came from, and most ask for a 90-day history of the money in your account. Money that moved recently, or hasn’t moved yet, is where these two start.
5. The gift money arrives late
CMHC accepts a gift from a relative as a down payment. The lender will still want a signed letter saying it’s a gift and not a loan, and proof the money has landed in your account. A gift that shows up days before subject removal, or stays in a parent’s account until closing, can hold up the approval while the paperwork catches up.
When it can be caught: before you write the offer. Move the gift into your account and get the letter signed first.
6. The down payment is in crypto
Most lenders won’t count crypto toward a down payment while it’s still crypto. It has to be sold and moved into a Canadian bank account, and the lender will want a clear trail from the exchange to your account. If prices drop between your offer and the sale, the amount you planned on may not be there.
When it can be caught: months before you start shopping. Sell, move the money, and keep every exchange record.
Credit surprises
7. A debt nobody mentioned
A pre-approval built only on what you typed into a form can miss things. A large credit card balance or a line of credit shows up as soon as the lender pulls your credit, and its monthly payment counts against the same 44% limit as the vehicle above. What you qualify for can drop by a lot, sometimes below the price you’ve already offered.
When it can be caught: before you shop. Ask whether your pre-approval included a credit check and a look at your documents. If it didn’t, treat it as an estimate.
8. An old collection
A phone bill you forgot about years ago can still be sitting on your credit report as a collection. For an insured mortgage, CMHC requires at least one borrower to have a credit score of 600 or more, and lenders can set their own minimum above that. One collection can be enough to drop a score under the line.
When it can be caught: before you shop, by checking your own credit report. Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada both let you see yours for free.
The property itself
Sometimes your file is fine and the lender says no to the home.
9. The appraisal comes in short
Lenders lend against what their appraiser says the home is worth, which isn’t always what you agreed to pay. If you offer $800,000 and the appraisal comes back at $760,000, the lender works from $760,000, and you have to cover the difference between what it will lend and your price, or renegotiate. Presales can be hit hardest, because the price was set long before the home was finished.
When it can be caught: when you set your price, by asking your realtor for recent comparable sales. On a presale, plan for a gap before completion day.
10. There’s an oil tank in the yard
Many older BC houses were once heated with oil, and some still have a tank buried in the yard. The District of Saanich, for one, warns that insurers and lenders may require an inactive tank to be removed before they’ll approve home insurance or a mortgage. Without insurance there’s no mortgage, and removal can take longer than a subject period lasts.
When it can be caught: in week one on any older house. Ask whether it was ever heated with oil, whether a tank was removed, and whether there’s paperwork to prove it.
11. The strata’s paperwork
Since July 1, 2024, BC stratas with five or more lots have had to get a depreciation report every five years. That report and the strata’s minutes show what repairs are coming and whether a special levy is likely. Some lenders read them too, and a large levy or a thin repair fund can make a lender wary of the whole building, not only your unit.
When it can be caught: the day your offer is accepted. Ask for the depreciation report, recent minutes and the Form B, and send them to your broker as well as your lawyer.
12. A leasehold with too few years left
With a leasehold, you buy the right to live in the home until a lease ends. BC lenders want that lease to run well past the end of your mortgage. Some want at least five years beyond the amortization, others want the amortization ten years shorter than the lease, and most will refuse a 25-year amortization on a lease with 30 years left. Prepaid leases are far easier to finance than others, and several lenders only lend on prepaid government or institutional leaseholds. BC’s leasehold buildings run from 99-year prepaid leases at UBC to older towers like Victoria’s Orchard House, where the lease ends in 2073 and the building isn’t governed by the Strata Property Act.
When it can be caught: before you write the offer. Get the lease’s end date and type in writing, and have your broker confirm a lender will finance that specific building.
What to sort out before you write an offer
Most of the twelve come down to a short list you can deal with before you ever write an offer:
- A pre-approval where someone has pulled your credit and read your income and down payment documents
- Your down payment, including any gift, in your own Canadian bank account, with the gift letter signed
- No new credit, no new vehicle and no job change until the mortgage funds, and a call to your broker first if one can’t wait
- On a strata, the depreciation report, recent minutes and Form B as early as you can get them
- On an older house, the heating history and any paperwork for a removed oil tank
- On a leasehold, the lease’s end date and type, and a lender willing to finance that building
- On a long completion, your rate hold’s end date set against your completion date
If you’re the realtor on the deal
Ask the broker in week one what’s still outstanding on the file, by name: which document, which condition, and by what date. “It’s looking good” isn’t an answer until you know what’s left.
Before you remove subjects
Nearly everything on this list can be fixed if it turns up on the second day of a subject period, and very little of it can be fixed on the ninth. If you’d like a broker to look at your file before you write an offer, call us at (778) 400-5727 or email hello@sureorigin.ca.
Sources
- BC Real Estate Association, Statistical releases (August 2026 sales, posted September 14, 2026)
- Victoria Real Estate Board, Market report for September 2026
- BCFSA, Home Buyer Rescission Period and consumer guide
- BCFSA, Consumer Guide to Deposits
- CMHC, CMHC Purchase (debt service ratios, credit score, gifted down payments)
- Canadian Mortgage Trends, Proof of down payment (90-day history)
- nesto, Mortgage rate lock, and RBC, Pre-approval rate guarantee
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, Getting your credit report and credit score
- District of Saanich, Oil tanks and oil burning equipment
- Province of BC, Strata depreciation report requirements
- Zealty, Leasehold vs freehold in BC
- Times Colonist, Leaseholder struggles with surprise costs (September 15, 2026)
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