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BUILD MANITOBA     winnipegconstruction.ca
BENCHMARKS
Much has been said about Manitoba’s 
recent change to its basic limitation 
period for construction disputes, 
which generally reduced the time to 
start lawsuits from six years to two 
years. However, the passage of two 
years may not always be the end of 
the story for an unpaid contractor or 
subcontractor. In particular, where a 
claimant has registered a builder’s lien, 
the deadline to start a court proceeding 
to enforce that lien is connected to 
the lien registration date, which may 
extend beyond the time limit for a 
straightforward breach of contract claim. 
In Manitoba, The Limitations Act1 
provides that a proceeding in respect of 
a claim must not be commenced more 
than two years after the day the claim is 
discovered. For example, if a contractor 
issues an invoice that becomes due 
and is not paid, claims relating to 
non-payment of the invoice will be 
deemed discovered as of the date 
payment should have been received. 
Thus, the contractor will generally have 
two years from when an invoice first 
became overdue to commence a breach 
of contract proceeding.
However, The Builders’ Liens Act2 
(BLA) expressly requires a lienholder to 
commence an action to enforce a claim 
for lien within two years after the date 
the lien is registered. In this way, the BLA 
contemplates a distinct statutory remedy 
for lienholders beyond the common law 
right to sue for breach of contract. Put 
simply, the limitation clock for enforcing 
a lien may not start at the same time  
as the breach of contract claim’s  
limitation clock.
Courts have recognized that lien rights 
are distinct from contractual rights. In 
Stuart Olson Dominion Construction 
Ltd. v. Structal Heavy Steel,3 the dispute 
concerned the relationship between 
statutory trust obligations and lien 
rights under the BLA – specifically, 
whether posting lien security to vacate 
a registered lien also satisfies, or 
extinguishes, separate trust obligations. 
The Manitoba Court of Appeal stated 
that, separate and distinct from the 
common law right to sue for breach of 
contract, a contractor has at its disposal 
the right to claim a lien over the property 
it improved. 
More recently, in Sterling Parkway 
Residences Inc. v. Boretta Construction 
2002 Ltd. et al,4 the Manitoba Court 
of King’s Bench reiterated that a 
contractor’s common law right to sue 
for breach of contract is supplemented 
by the BLA, which creates remedies 
(including lien remedies) that exist 
independently of contractual rights. 
Taken together, these decisions support 
the view that a proceeding to enforce 
a registered builder’s lien may be a 
separate and independent proceeding 
By Alexandre Mireault, MLT Aikins
LIENING INTO LIMITATIONS:
1 C.C.S.M. c. L150 (the “Limitations Act”).
2 C.C.S.M. c. B91 (the “BLA”).
3 2014 MBCA 8.
4 2024 MBKB 120.
Claims for lien and the limitations period

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