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Strata Property Act Amendments in Effect

Certain amendments to the Strata Property Act (British Columbia) that received Royal Assent on October 29, 2009, as well as certain amendments to the Strata Property Regulation (Regulation 43/2000), were brought into force on December 14, 2011 by Regulation 238/2011. As a result of these amendments:

  • Strata corporations are now required to obtain depreciation reports (prepared by a "qualified person" after an on-site visual inspection) that, among other things, estimate the repair or replacement costs for major items in the strata corporation and their expected life. Depreciation reports are not required if the strata plan includes less than five strata lots or if, by December 13, 2013 and annually thereafter, the strata corporation waives the depreciation report requirement by a three-quarter vote.
  • Strata corporations may now, by simple majority vote, approve additional contributions to the contingency reserve fund even if the amount in the fund exceeds 25% of the operating budget. Previously, if the contingency reserve fund exceeded 100% of the operating budget, a three-quarter vote was required to approve additional contributions. This change is intended to allow the strata corporation to accumulate sufficient funds to pay for work recommended in a depreciation report.
  • As of March 1, 2012, copies of the rules of the strata corporation, the current budget, the owner developer’s rental disclosure statement and the most recent depreciation report must be attached to a Form B Information Certificate issued by the strata corporation (and the form itself will be significantly changed as of January 1, 2014 to include specified information about the allocation of parking stalls and storage lockers).

The amendments to the Strata Property Act, and numerous others, were originally contained in Bill 12 (Strata Property Amendment Act, 2009) and were outlined in the June 2009 issue of Real Estate MATTERS (Volume 1, Issue 2). The progress of Bill 12 was delayed by the 2009 provincial election, and it was subsequently reintroduced to the Legislature, in almost identical form, as Bill 8. As reported in the January 2010 issue of Real Estate MATTERS (Volume 2, Issue 1), portions of the Strata Property Amendment Act, 2009 were previously brought into force by Regulation 312/2009 on December 11, 2009, but a number of them are still not in effect. We will be monitoring these and reporting on their status from time to time in future issues of Real Estate MATTERS.