Know your obligations

You must report any changes to your business within 14 days including a business name change, location change, changing partner or corporate officer, change in business model, or if you are selling your business.

Submit a notice of change form – business information
Submit a notice of change form – purchase of business.
Submit a notice of change form – corporate officers.

You must report any changes of your employee including new hires, termination or transfer.

Submit an employee termination form (pdf)
Submit an employee termination form (online)
Submit an employee transfer form – to different employer.
Submit an employee transfer form – same employer, different location.

You must submit your financial report within 90 days of your business year-end date annually.

Learn more about what you must report, and what you don’t (with examples)

Submit your financial report in MyAccount.

You must publicly display your licence in your place of business. You must also include your licence number on any print or web materials, including:

• ads
• business cards
• print collaterals (such as brochures and flyers)
• documentations (including contracts)
• your website

Renew annually by December 31 to maintain your debt collection or bailiff agency licence.

Log in to your MyAccount to complete this process.

If your business has more than one location, each location will require its own licence.

Submit a  licence application form.

You must collect and keep organized records of consumer transactions, your accounting, and other financial information documents.

You must not communicate with a debtor either by phone or in person on a statutory holiday, on a Sunday between 1 pm and 5 pm local time, or any other day between 9 pm to 7 am.

You must keep proper records for your trust account – this includes money deposited, all disbursements, account balance, and balance for each customer where money has been deposited into the trust account where funds must be kept separate and apart from the business’s transactions.

BC consumer protection laws require that businesses have a licence for each location from where it conducts business. Conducting business from a location means several things, including:

• A location from which your physical presence, address, or telephone number in British Columbia is given in a telephone directory.
• A location from which your physical presence, address, or telephone number in British Columbia is given in any verbal or written advertisement,
• You have, in British Columbia, a resident agent, or a warehouse, office, or place of business.

We understand that you may provide remote working options to your employees.

Provided they are not conducting business in the way described above, remote workers may work from remote locations if they follow these guidelines:

1. They can only work remotely from their home-based location.
2. If the law or health directives allow, they are only to directly meet and serve clients from licensed locations and not at remote or unlicensed home-based locations.
3. While conducting business, they must only, use the contact information of the licensed location in any visual representation, correspondence, business cards, or on any printed or electronic advertisement.
4. Other than cell phone numbers or corporate IP-based phone numbers, they may not disclose their personal telephone number(s) to suppliers or clients nor reveal that they are conducting business from any unlicensed location.
5. Payments for services may be received only at the licensed office unless those payments are through electronic means via credit card or immediate EFT, and no payment information is retained or stored in the home-based location.
6. All client files, arrangement details, and associated original records of accounting or contracts handled by a telecommuter must be kept at the businesses’ licensed location. (It is permissible for telecommuters to retain copies of routine correspondence and other records at their home-based location).
7. Persons selling or otherwise arranging for the supply of goods and services to consumers with the expectation of receiving payment or benefit for so doing, are deemed to be acting as licensees and are required to comply with the provisions of these guidelines.

Except for items 6 and 7 above, these guidelines do not apply to employees of licensees performing purely accounting or other administrative functions.

We perform routine, random, follow-up and complaint-based inspections on all our regulated businesses to ensure they comply with the law.

Find out what to expect and how to prepare for an inspection.

Read the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, section 4.

You must notify us if you are transferring from one agency to another, or to another location within the same company.  You must also notify us if you wish to terminate your licence.

Submit an employee termination form.(pdf)
Submit an employee termination form (online)
Submit an employee transfer form – to different employer.
Submit an employee transfer form – same employer, different location.

Renew annually to maintain your debt collector or bailiff licence.

You must not communicate with a debtor either by phone or in person on a statutory holiday, on a Sunday between 1 pm and 5 pm local time, or any other day between 9 pm to 7 am.

We perform routine, random, follow-up and complaint-based inspections on all our regulated businesses to ensure they comply with the law.

Find out what to expect and how to prepare for an inspection.

By law, you must not engage in deceptive or unconscionable acts.

Read the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, section 4.