How to Deal with a Bad Moving Company in BC

Two things decide whether you get anywhere with a bad mover, and most advice online mentions neither.

The first is a deadline. Under the conditions of carriage that BC requires in every household goods bill of lading, you have 60 days from delivery to give written notice of loss or damage. Miss it and the carrier can rely on that to refuse the claim.

The second is a forum. The Civil Resolution Tribunal handles disputes up to $5,000 online, for a filing fee of $75 or $125, with no lawyer and no courtroom. That covers the overwhelming majority of moving disputes, and dozens of them are decided there every year. The body most people assume will help, Consumer Protection BC, does not license or regulate moving companies.

General information, not legal advice. The authorities and the regulation are named throughout so you can check your own position.

No regulator will do this for you

Consumer Protection BC does not license moving companies and does not regulate the industry as a sector. In its own words, “the moving industry isn’t regulated in Canada.” Movers do not appear on its list of licensed sectors, which covers funeral services, debt collection, home inspection, payday loans, telemarketing and travel. Its enforcement page states outright that the options it lists only capture businesses it licenses or practices it regulates.

That is not the same as saying consumer law does not reach a mover, and this is where most advice online goes wrong in the other direction. The agency administers the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, and that Act applies to any supplier in a consumer transaction, a moving company included. What you do not get is a regulator who will investigate your complaint and discipline the company. You do get a statute you can enforce yourself, at the tribunal, in about the time it takes to fill in a web form. It also says you are welcome to contact it and it may be able to answer a question or point you somewhere better suited, so the call is worth making, just not as your enforcement route.

The section of that Act that matters most to a moving dispute is section 4(3)(c)(iii). It makes it a deceptive act or practice where a supplier’s estimate of the price is materially less than the price it later demands, unless the customer expressly agreed to the higher price before the work was done. Section 5(2) then puts the burden of proving there was no deceptive practice on the supplier, and section 171 lets you take the resulting loss straight to the Civil Resolution Tribunal. If a mover quoted one number and billed a much larger one, that is the provision to name.

What to do, in order

1. Give written notice inside 60 days

Do this before anything else, even if you are still hoping to resolve it informally, because the deadline runs regardless.

The notice needs to set out the origin, destination and date of shipment, and an estimate of the amount you are claiming. Send it in writing to the carrier you contracted with or the one that delivered. Where goods never arrived at all, the window is 9 months from the shipment date. The claim itself has to be filed within 9 months of shipment.

Some carriers write much shorter windows into their own paperwork, 14 days, 30 days, in one case 48 hours. Those clauses have fared badly at the tribunal, but it is worth being precise about why, because the reason is not the one you would expect.

In Husband v. Rawlinson Moving & Storage Limited, decided 11 August 2026, a subcontractor on a Toronto-to-Vancouver move relied on a line in an email requiring damage to be reported within 48 hours. The tribunal declined to apply it, and gave two reasons: the customers had in fact reported the damage immediately, and there was no evidence they had ever agreed to that term, having had no contract with that company at all. It awarded $5,466.20. In other cases a 14-day clause was set aside because the mover had itself emailed a payout offer and so waived it, and elsewhere because the mover could not show the customer had ever seen the terms.

No BC decision has held that a mover’s short deadline is void simply because the regulation gives you 60 days. The clauses fail on ordinary contract grounds instead: the customer never agreed, or was never shown the term before the contract was made, or the mover behaved as though the deadline did not apply. Read that as a reason to give notice early rather than a reason to relax.

2. Document it properly

What makes a claim succeed is boring and specific: the written estimate, the signed contract, the bill of lading, the inventory, dated photographs before and after, and any weight tickets if you were billed by weight.

The bill of lading is the document that matters most. That document is the contract of carriage and the record of what was shipped and in what condition.

3. Try to resolve it directly, in writing

Put the claim to the company with the evidence attached and a specific number. Keep it in writing even if conversations happen by phone, because a paper trail is what a tribunal reads.

4. Go to the Civil Resolution Tribunal

Adding the tribunal’s decision fee of $50 where a claim goes all the way to adjudication, a $4,000 damage claim costs you $175 to pursue. Filing a response is free online.

Moving disputes sit within the tribunal’s small claims jurisdiction as contract and goods-and-services matters. Damage, overcharging, non-delivery and deposit disputes all qualify.

5. The consumer-protection law that can help

Three parts of the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act are worth knowing about.

Deceptive acts or practices, sections 4 and 5. A representation with the capacity or effect of misleading a consumer is prohibited, and section 5(2) puts the burden on the supplier to show it did not happen. A quote that bore no relation to the final bill is the obvious application.

Unconscionable acts or practices, sections 8 to 10. These can occur before, during or after a transaction, and where one has occurred the transaction “is not binding on the consumer”. This is the provision that speaks to being pressured into paying more than agreed while your possessions sit in a truck.

The consumer contract rules, sections 18.2 to 18.4 and, for a contract booked remotely, sections 47 to 50. A moving contract is a future performance contract, and usually also a distance sales contract because it was booked by phone or email. That brings a list of things the contract has to contain: a detailed description of the services, the supply date, an itemised price, the terms of payment, the total price, any limitations or conditions that apply, and the company’s cancellation and refund policy. Where required information is missing, a consumer may cancel, within a year for a future performance contract and within 30 days for a distance sales contract. Section 50 then requires the supplier to refund all money received “without deduction” inside 15 days, which is what a “non-refundable deposit” clause runs into. Section 3 makes any waiver of these rights void.

These rules were rebuilt over 2025 and took full effect on 1 August 2026, so anything you read about them written earlier may be describing the old sections.

6. Reviews, and what they are for

Write an accurate review. It will not get your money back, and describing what happened factually is more useful to the next customer than describing how it felt.

If a mover refuses to unload until you pay more

This has a name in the industry, a hostage load, and Canada’s Competition Bureau has published a consumer alert about it. The pattern is a low quote online, then a much larger bill presented at pickup or delivery, with the goods held until it is paid, sometimes with storage charges added.

The honest starting point is that a mover can lawfully hold your goods for money you owe, and a page that tells you otherwise is setting you up. Since 30 June 2025 that right comes from the Commercial Liens Act, which replaced the old Warehouse Lien Act and abolished the common law carrier’s lien. Any advice still citing the Warehouse Lien Act is out of date.

What the Act gives a mover, though, is narrow in a way that matters. Section 6 secures the lien for “the amount agreed on for the provision of the services,” and where nothing was agreed, the market value. It does not secure a figure invented on the driveway. Section 50 requires every right under a lien to be exercised in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner. Section 37 means the goods cannot be sold for 30 days after default, and section 38 requires at least 20 days’ notice before any sale, with a statement that you can redeem the goods by paying. Section 43 preserves that right to redeem until the goods are actually disposed of. Those protections cannot be contracted away.

There is also a provision in the conditions of carriage that is made for this exact moment. Article 14 says that where the total actual charges exceed the estimate by more than 10 per cent, you must be allowed 15 clear days after delivery to pay the part above 110 per cent of the estimate. Put another way, the disputed excess is not something the mover can make a condition of unloading, unless it told you the actual total immediately after loading or you signed a waiver of that extension.

So the options, running in parallel rather than in sequence:

• Say, in writing and on the spot, that you are paying under protest and dispute the amount. This is what actually works. In one tribunal case a customer paid an inflated weight-based invoice rather than risk her goods being driven away a second time, then recovered $1,607.85 of it when the tribunal cut the chargeable weight from 5,490 pounds to 3,500. In another, a mover that demanded $2,320.50 on a $1,100 phone quote and whose crew refused to leave the house until paid recovered only the $1,100, because it could produce no invoice, contract or written communication of any kind.
• Point at Article 14 and at section 4(3)(c)(iii) of the consumer protection Act. The first buys you 15 days on the excess; the second makes the gap between quote and bill a deceptive practice the mover has to disprove.
• Report it as possible fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and to local police. The Competition Bureau’s alert on rogue movers directs consumers to both, and describes the pattern precisely: a low phone quote, insistence that a verbal contract is enough with paperwork signed on the day, then a different contract at the door.
• Claim the overcharge back at the tribunal. Paying and then claiming is slower than it should be and it is still the route that produces money.
• Contact your card issuer if you paid by credit card. A chargeback is a card network process with its own deadlines rather than a legal remedy, and it works best after you have tried the company first.
• Do not sign anything that promises not to complain. The industry association has documented operators asking victims to sign exactly that. Section 14.2 of the consumer protection Act makes a term prohibiting a customer from posting a review void, and section 14.3 does the same to arbitration and class-proceeding clauses in consumer contracts.

The one route that is technically available and usually not worth it: section 44 of the Commercial Liens Act lets you petition the BC Supreme Court over the validity of the lien or the amount secured, and sections 45 and 46 let the goods be released on payment into court. Quick, in the sense that you get your things back, and more expensive than most households’ furniture is worth. Naming it is more useful than pretending it is a practical answer.

If you were billed by weight

Billing by weight is the most winnable version of an overcharging dispute, because the regulation puts the paperwork obligation entirely on the mover.

Article 18 of the conditions of carriage makes it the carrier’s responsibility to show the correct tare, gross and net weights on the bill of lading using a certified public scale, and to attach the weigh scale ticket to its copy. Where no certified scale exists within 16 kilometres of the origin, it must instead use a constructive weight of 112 kilograms per cubic metre of properly loaded van space.

A mover that bills by the pound and cannot produce the tickets is in real trouble. In one case a company billed $5,982.79 on a written-in weight of 8,766 pounds, told the tribunal the tickets were available on request, and never filed them. An adverse inference followed, the weight could not be reconstructed from volume either, and the company’s entire claim was dismissed: it had proven it did the work but not what the work was worth, so it recovered nothing and paid the customer $1,953.53.

If you are billed by weight, ask for the weigh scale tickets before you pay, and ask to be present at the weighing. A refusal is worth writing down.

About deposits

You will read that movers should never ask for more than 10 to 15 per cent up front. Treat that as an industry convention, because no BC rule sets a deposit limit for moving services.

A cap does exist in BC law, and it is narrower than people think. Section 20(3)(b) of the consumer protection Act says a direct sales contract is not binding on the consumer where the supplier required a down payment above the prescribed amount, and the Consumer Contracts Regulation sets that amount at the lesser of $100 or 10 per cent of the total price. A direct sales contract means one entered into in person somewhere other than the supplier’s own premises. So if an estimator signs you up at your kitchen table, the cap is engaged and an over-cap deposit makes the contract unenforceable against you. Book by phone or email, which is how most moves are booked, and it is a distance sales contract and the cap does not apply.

What does apply either way is the refund machinery. If the contract is cancellable because required information was missing or a copy never arrived, section 50 requires all money received to be refunded without deduction within 15 days, whatever the deposit was called.

The practical protection is still behavioural rather than legal: a large deposit demanded by wire transfer or e-transfer with no written contract is the most reliable warning sign in this industry. The province’s consumer agency lists a large up-front deposit as a red flag in its own words, and says legitimate movers either collect on delivery or take a small deposit with the balance due at delivery.

What the industry bodies can and cannot do

The Canadian Association of Movers takes complaints about members and non-members. For members it forwards the complaint and acts as a facilitator. It states plainly that it cannot order refunds, force a settlement or demand compensation. For non-members it records the complaint and refers you elsewhere. Useful, and not a remedy.

The Better Business Bureau publishes complaints and letter grades. It is a private industry-funded body with no enforcement power.

The Competition Bureau enforces the federal Competition Act against misleading advertising and will take your complaint, but it investigates for broader enforcement purposes and does not resolve individual disputes or order refunds.

Avoiding it in the first place

The vetting checks that actually work are in our guide to what a BC mover must legally have: a BC Registries search, a free WorkSafeBC clearance letter search, and Canadian Association of Movers membership. Ten minutes, and it filters out most of the operators these complaints are about.

Beyond that: get the estimate in writing with the access details it assumes, ask what the hourly rate includes and what the minimum is, and read the liability section of the bill of lading before you sign it rather than on the driveway. Our explanation of what a mover owes you for damage covers what that section actually does.

Working with a company that documents things

Most of what goes wrong in this industry is a paperwork failure that becomes a dispute. An estimate that ignored the stairs, a bill of lading nobody explained, a claim with no inventory to check it against.

Secure Moving quotes against real access details, provides the documentation, and carries $5 million in liability coverage with active WorkSafeBC registration. For a quote that will still be the price on move day, our team works across the region as a moving company in Vancouver.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to claim for damage from a mover in BC?

Written notice within 60 days of delivery, under the conditions of carriage BC requires in household goods bills of lading. Goods that were never delivered carry a 9-month window from the shipment date, and the claim itself must be filed within 9 months of shipment. Shorter windows appear in some carriers’ own paperwork, and a tribunal has declined to enforce one the customer had not agreed to.

Who regulates moving companies in BC?

No licensing regulator oversees the occupation. The provincial consumer agency states the moving industry is not regulated in Canada, and no provincial mover’s licence exists. Movers are still bound by a mandatory bill of lading with prescribed conditions of carriage under the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations, by mandatory cargo insurance, and by the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act. Enforcement is yours to bring: the Civil Resolution Tribunal up to $5,000, Provincial Court Small Claims above that.

Can I take a moving company to small claims in BC?

Yes. Up to $5,000 the Civil Resolution Tribunal handles it online for a filing fee of $75 for claims to $3,000 or $125 for claims to $5,000, plus $50 if it reaches adjudication. Above $5,000 it goes to Provincial Court Small Claims, which covers up to $35,000.

What if movers hold my belongings until I pay more?

Movers do have a lien for the amount agreed for the work, under the Commercial Liens Act. What it does not have is a lien for a figure invented on delivery day, and Article 14 of the conditions of carriage gives you 15 days after delivery to pay any part of the bill above 110 per cent of the estimate. Say in writing that you are paying under protest, then claim the overcharge back at the tribunal, which is the route that produces money. Report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and local police as the Competition Bureau’s alert directs, and ask your card issuer about a chargeback if you paid by credit card.

How much deposit should a moving company ask for?

Nothing in BC law sets a deposit limit for moving services, so the commonly quoted “10 to 15 per cent” is an industry convention. The lesser-of-$100-or-10-per-cent cap in BC law attaches only to a contract signed in person away from the company’s own premises, which most moves are not. BC’s consumer agency treats a large up-front deposit as a red flag and says legitimate movers collect on delivery or take a small deposit with the balance due then.