How to Serve Guardianship Papers in BC: Notice Rules and Substituted Service

Who Gets Served

Under Section 52 of the Family Law Act, notice of a guardianship application must reach every person with a legal interest in the child's care. That means:

• Every biological parent or existing legal guardian
• Any adult the child currently lives with who exercises care
• The applicable Indigenous Governing Body, Nisga'a Lisims Government, or Treaty First Nation if the child is Indigenous

Give the required notice to each applicable party. Missing a required recipient can create a serious procedural problem.

Personal Service Is Required for Initiating Documents

The instructions below describe the Provincial Court forms. For Supreme Court chambers applications, Rule 8-1 requires you to serve the application materials first, then set the hearing date and file the complete application record.

Your Form 3 (Application About a Family Law Matter), Schedule 7, Form 5 (Guardianship Affidavit), and the Notice of Hearing must be personally served on each respondent. Personal service means an adult — who is not you — physically hands the documents to the respondent.

You can use a friend or family member who is willing to serve, or hire a professional process server ($50–$150). Either way, the person who delivers the documents must complete a Certificate of Service (Form 7) recording the date, time, location, and method of service.

All service must happen at least seven clear days before the scheduled hearing date. "Clear days" means you don't count the day of service or the hearing day itself. Serving on a Monday for a hearing the following Monday leaves only six clear days between those dates, so it does not meet the seven-day requirement.

When a Parent Can't Be Found

Kinship care situations often involve a parent who is absent, transient, struggling with addiction, or simply unreachable. BC law recognizes this and provides two mechanisms:

Substituted service lets you serve the parent through an alternative method — email, social media messaging, or even newspaper advertisement — but only with the court's permission. You file an application for substituted service, supported by an affidavit that documents your exhaustive search efforts: contacting known relatives, checking social media, searching electoral lists, trying last-known addresses.

Dispensation of notice goes further — the court excuses you from the notice requirement entirely. This is reserved for extreme circumstances where the parent truly cannot be located by any means and further delay would harm the child.

Both require you to demonstrate that you've made genuine, documented efforts to find the parent. A single unanswered phone call won't satisfy the court. Think in terms of a paper trail: dated letters to last-known addresses, screenshots of unanswered messages, statements from other family members confirming they have no current contact information.

Serving an Incarcerated Parent

If a parent is in custody, arrange personal service through the warden or the correctional facility's legal liaison officer. Contact the facility to confirm how it handles service.

Personal service through the facility follows the required personal-service process. The parent retains the right to respond to the application; ask the court and facility about arrangements for participating in a hearing.

The Consent Route Shortcut

If both parents agree to the guardianship, the service requirement still applies — but the process is simpler. The parties can file an Application for a Consent Order (Form 17) and a draft Consent Order (Form 18) alongside your Form 5. Parental consent does not bypass the background check requirement, but it does avoid the contested hearing process.

Even with consent, the judge reviews the guardianship affidavit and all three background checks before signing the order.

Keeping a Service Record

Document every service attempt and completion. Note the date, time, location, method, and who performed the service. Keep copies of everything you send and receive. This record feeds directly into your Certificate of Service, and if there's ever a question about whether proper notice was given, your documentation is your evidence.

The BC Guardianship Court Process Guide includes a service and notice tracking log designed for this exact purpose — a printable worksheet where you record each step of the service process as you go.

See more British Columbia guides →