Handwritten Wills in BC: Why WESA Still Asks for Two Witnesses

A university student in Kelowna stops in to see his grandfather on a Sunday and finds him at the desk by the window, copying out a will by hand on lined paper. The grandfather is proud of it. He read somewhere that "handwritten wills are fine in Canada," and he has signed and dated the last page. His grandson, who has just finished a first-year law elective, gently asks whether anyone watched him sign.

Nobody had. And in British Columbia, that detail matters more than the handwriting does. This guide explains why BC treats a handwritten will differently from Ontario or Alberta, what a will written by hand needs to work here, and what a family can do if the paperwork falls short. If you want the cross-country comparison first, our explainer on holograph wills in Canada lays out the provinces side by side.

BC has no separate rule for handwritten wills #

Some provinces have a section saying a will made entirely in the will-maker's handwriting needs no witnesses. BC's Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA) does not.^[NaN]

That does not make writing by hand a problem in itself. Pen and paper satisfy the requirement that a will be in writing. What it means is that the handwriting earns no special treatment. A handwritten will in BC generally has to meet exactly the same signing rules as a typed one.

The section 37 checklist, applied to a page in pen #

Section 37(1) of WESA sets out what a will needs to be valid. In summary, it must be:

1. in writing;
2. signed at its end by the will-maker, or the will-maker must acknowledge the signature at the end as theirs, with at least two witnesses there together at that moment; and
3. signed by two or more of those witnesses in the will-maker's presence.^[NaN]

Section 40(1) adds that witnesses to the will-maker's signature must be 19 or older.^[NaN]

The grandfather's pages pass the first test and, because he signed at the end, part of the second. The missing piece is the two witnesses. For his document to meet section 37, he would generally need two adults aged 19 or over to be present together while he signs or acknowledges his signature, and then to sign themselves while he watches.

Section 37(2) then states the consequence. A will that does not comply with subsection (1) is invalid unless the court orders it effective under section 58, it is recognized as valid under section 80, or it is valid under another provision of the Act.^[NaN] So an unwitnessed handwritten will is not automatically lost, but it generally cannot stand on its own without one of those routes.

Age to make a will, and the one exception that needs no witnesses #

BC's starting age is 16. Under section 36, a person who is 16 or older and mentally capable may make a will.^[NaN] A sixteen-year-old writing by hand would still need two witnesses who are 19 or older.

The only route the Act offers that dispenses with witnesses is narrow. Section 38 lets a member of the Canadian Forces placed on active service make a will in writing, signed at its end, regardless of age, and if the member signs it personally, no witness needs to be present or sign.^[NaN] That is a provision about military service, not a general handwritten-will rule.

Editing a handwritten will in BC #

A month after that Sunday visit, the grandfather wanted to change the name of the charity in his third paragraph. In BC, changes follow the same discipline as the will.

Section 54 of WESA says an alteration to a will (other than an electronic will) must generally be made in the same way as a valid will under section 37. The will-maker's signature to the change, and the witnesses to that signature, are to be placed in the margin or near the alteration, or at the end of or opposite a memo referring to it.^[NaN] An alteration that does not follow this is generally ineffective, subject to narrow exceptions in section 54(4), unless the court orders it effective under section 58.^[NaN]

In practice, an unwitnessed line crossed out and rewritten in pen is likely to raise questions. Two witnesses and fresh signatures near the change are the statutory path.

Section 58: the court's curative power #

When a will or an alteration does not meet the Act, section 58 lets a family ask the court for help. On application, the court may order that a record, document, or writing or marking on a will be fully effective as the will (or part of the will) of the deceased, if it determines that the record represents the deceased's testamentary intentions, even though the Act was not complied with.^[NaN]

The language is permissive. The court "may" make the order, and this article makes no prediction about how often it does. Our separate article on section 58 of WESA goes deeper into how the provision is framed. For planning purposes, the sensible approach is to treat section 58 as a remedy for the unexpected, not a substitute for witnesses.

What probate asks about the signing #

Even a properly witnessed will may need some evidence about how it was signed. Under the Supreme Court Civil Rules, if a will has no attestation clause, or its clause does not show the signing requirements were met, the applicant for a grant generally must file an affidavit from at least one of the subscribing witnesses confirming the requirements were met, unless the will has been proved in solemn form.^[NaN] If no witness affidavit can be obtained, rule 25-3(16) sets out fallback evidence the applicant can file instead.^[NaN]

That is one more reason to choose witnesses who are easy to reach in later years. Our guide to the grant of probate in BC shows where the will and supporting affidavits fit in the application.

Choosing witnesses for a will written by hand #

Because a BC handwritten will relies on the same two witnesses as any other, choosing them deserves the same care. A few points flow directly from the Act and the court rules:

• each witness should be 19 or older, as section 40(1) requires;^[NaN]
• both need to be there together when you sign or acknowledge your signature;
• each then signs while you are present; and
• if the will lacks an attestation clause, or its clause falls short, one of them may later be asked for an affidavit at probate,^[NaN] so people you expect to be able to reach years from now are a sensible pick.

None of that changes because the will is in your handwriting rather than typed.

What the grandfather decided #

After the conversation, the grandfather did not throw his pages away. He used them as notes. Then he booked an afternoon when two neighbours, both well over 19, could sit with him, and he signed a clean version in front of them both. The handwriting stayed his; the witnessing brought it in line with section 37.

If you prefer a typed document, our walkthrough of writing a will in British Columbia covers each formal step, and our British Columbia wills page describes what we offer people living there.

A home for the signed original #

Once the will is signed and witnessed, put the original in a safe at home and lodge a copy in your bank's safety deposit box, then tell your executor where to look.

If talking through your wishes one question at a time sounds easier than drafting from a blank page, you are welcome to start your will with It's Simple Will whenever you are ready.