Bare land strata in British Columbia

Bare land strata is the ownership form most likely to be misunderstood by everyone in the transaction, including people who have owned one for years. It looks like freehold (a house on a lot, a driveway, a garden, no shared walls), and it is governed like a condominium.

That gap between what it looks like and what it is produces a specific set of surprises, most of them about infrastructure and most of them expensive.

What actually defines a bare land strata lot

The definition is in the Strata Property Act itself, not in the regulation. A “bare land strata plan” is a strata plan on which the boundaries of the strata lots are defined on a horizontal plane by reference to survey markers, and not by reference to the floors, walls or ceilings of a building (s. 1(1)).

That one sentence is the whole thing. In a conventional strata, your lot is a volume of space inside a building, and the boundary usually runs through the middle of the structural portion of a wall, floor or ceiling (s. 68(1)). In a bare land strata, your lot is a piece of ground, surveyed and pegged, and the boundaries must be shown by survey markers in compliance with the rules made under the Land Surveyors Act (s. 68(4)).

Two consequences follow immediately.

A strata plan normally has to show the location of the buildings, except for a strata lot in a bare land strata plan (s. 244(1)(a)). The house is generally not on the plan. It is a structure you built, or someone built, on your piece of ground. Some manufactured home communities use the same structure, so that you own the lot instead of renting a pad in a park; the manufactured and mobile homes guide sets out how the two arrangements differ.

And a bare land strata plan cannot be deposited without the approval of an approving officer, who must not approve it unless it complies with the Bare Land Strata Regulations (s. 243). That approval process is where the servicing questions on this page were originally decided, decades ago in many cases, and the record of it is worth finding.

Unit entitlement also works differently: in a bare land strata it must be a whole number that is the same for every strata lot, or a number approved by the Superintendent of Real Estate (s. 246(6)). So strata fees are usually shared equally, regardless of lot size or house size.

The roads are common property, and that is the crux of it

Everything inside the plan that is not a strata lot is common property (s. 1(1)). In a bare land development, that characteristically means the internal roads, the shared parking, and the shared servicing infrastructure.

This is not an inference. The Bare Land Strata Regulations define an “access route” as “those portions of the common property in a bare land strata plan intended to provide vehicular access to the strata lots” (s. 1(1)), and require a bare land strata plan to provide such parking areas as the approving officer considers necessary, as common property or limited common property (s. 17).

So: the road outside your house is very likely owned collectively by the owners of the strata, as tenants in common, and maintained, repaved and eventually reconstructed at the strata’s expense, which is to say, at yours, in proportion to your unit entitlement.

Will the municipality take it over eventually? Nothing in the Strata Property Act or in the Bare Land Strata Regulations requires or provides a mechanism for a local government to assume internal access routes as public highway. The regulation’s structure runs the other way: land intended to become public highway is dedicated before approval, by registering a subdivision plan (ss. 8–10), and what remains inside the plan as an access route is common property by definition. The approving officer’s power is to refuse approval where access routes are insufficient for police and fire access (s. 6), not to commit the municipality to maintaining them.

A specific municipality could, in principle, take a road on through its own process. But “the city will take it over at some point” is a claim that needs a municipal source, and in the absence of one it should be treated as not true. Budget as though the road is permanently yours.

Water, sewage and drainage: decided at approval, inherited by you

The servicing rules in the Bare Land Strata Regulations are the most useful thing on this page, because they tell you exactly what questions to ask and what documents should exist.

Where the land would have had to connect to a public system had it been subdivided conventionally (s. 12), the approving officer must not approve the plan unless the connecting water, sewer or storm drainage mains have been built to the local bylaw standard, or the developer has posted security for them. And on-site (s. 13), the officer must be satisfied that a water distribution, sewage collection and drainage system serving all the strata lots can be built to code.

Where connection to a public system was not required (s. 13), the officer must be satisfied that each strata lot has an adequate proven source of potable water (or that a distribution system connects every lot to a single source), and either that a sewage disposal system meeting code can be built on each lot, or that a collection system connecting each lot to a common facility has been built.

Two further provisions do a lot of work in practice:

• Where a water source is off the property, rights of way or easements are required, and a licence under the Water Sustainability Act must be obtained before approval; regulated sewage discharge requires a provisional permit under the Environmental Management Act (s. 14).
• Where service pipes will run on or under a strata lot, approval cannot be given unless the developer has agreed in writing to register easements sufficient to allow the strata corporation to enter and install, repair, maintain or replace them (s. 15).

Section 13(5) also allows approval on the basis of covenants registrable under Land Title Act s. 182 where those servicing requirements are not otherwise met, and s. 13(6) allows reliance on a professional engineer’s certificate.

Translate that into what to ask for:

1. Does the strata own and operate a water system, a sewage system, or both? If it operates a shared water system serving more than one residence, that is a regulated water supply system with its own permitting and monitoring duties. See the wells and septic guide, because it is a materially different obligation from a private single-family well.
2. What does the depreciation report say those systems will cost, and when? Provincial guidance is explicit that bare land strata corporations are usually responsible for long-term repair and maintenance of bare land infrastructure: roads, water, electricity, sewage. A road and a water main are large, lumpy, unavoidable costs with no partial option.
3. Where are the easements for the service pipes, and are they registered?
4. Is there a s. 182 covenant on title recording a servicing condition that was never fully satisfied at approval?

Bare land strata insurance: who insures what

A bare land strata still has to insure. The Province is explicit that all strata corporations must carry property and liability insurance under the Strata Property Act, and it names bare land strata developments with single family homes or townhouses among them. What changes is what the strata’s policy is for.

The strata corporation must insure the common property, the common assets, the buildings shown on the strata plan, and fixtures installed by the owner developer as part of original construction. In a bare land strata, the houses are usually not shown on the strata plan, and the Act deals with that directly: the requirement to insure fixtures built or installed by the owner developer as part of original construction does not apply to a bare land strata plan (s. 149(3)), and an owner in a bare land strata plan may insure buildings or fixtures built on the strata lot (s. 161(2)). The Province’s own guidance puts it plainly: in a bare land strata, the owner of the strata lot is responsible for the insurance, repair and maintenance of the buildings on the lot, such as the house and a garden shed.

That is exactly backwards from a conventional strata, and it is the mistake buyers moving from a condo or townhouse make. In a condo, the strata’s policy insures the building and you insure your contents, improvements and liability. In a bare land strata, if you buy only a “condo policy”, your house may not be insured by anyone.

The exception to watch for: the Province notes that the houses are excluded from the strata’s property insurance unless the strata corporation has taken responsibility for all or parts of the strata lots, including buildings not shown on the plan. Some bare land stratas do, for example for exteriors or roofs. Only the bylaws and the actual policy tell you which kind you are buying into.

What the strata’s policy covers, and what it does not

The strata’s property insurance must be for full replacement value and must cover the perils listed in the regulation: fire, lightning, smoke, windstorm, hail, explosion, water escape, strikes, riots or civil commotion, impact by aircraft and vehicles, vandalism and malicious acts. Liability insurance must be at least $2,000,000 (s. 150; Regulation s. 9.2). Insurers will usually want a replacement cost appraisal done within the past two or three years, so the date of the strata’s last appraisal is worth asking for.

Two things are not required: earthquake and overland flood cover. Both are optional add-ons the strata may or may not have bought. Where a strata does carry earthquake cover, the deductible is typically 10% to 20% of the full replacement value of the insured property, not of the loss. For a bare land strata the insured property is the common assets rather than the houses, but the owners share that deductible all the same.

What you have to carry yourself

For a bare land strata lot, the Province recommends a homeowner package with what it calls the bare land endorsement, so the house and other buildings on your lot are properly covered, on top of the usual owner coverage:

• the house and outbuildings on your lot, at replacement value;
• contents, personal liability and additional living expenses if you have to live elsewhere after a loss;
• cover for the strata’s deductible, if a loss starts on your lot. A strata can recover its deductible from the owner responsible even where that owner was not negligent;
• cover for special levies that follow a loss the strata’s policy does not fully pay for;
• earthquake cover for your own house, which the strata’s policy will not provide.

Tell the insurer, in writing, that the property is a bare land strata lot, and give them the strata’s insurance summary. The Province’s advice is to review the two policies together so the gaps between them are closed.

Deductibles, the reserve fund and the depreciation report

This is where insurance and the infrastructure questions above meet. A strata can pay its insurance deductible from the contingency reserve fund without the usual 3/4 vote, or by special levy, also without that vote. It can also pay an unexpectedly high premium from the operating fund or the reserve without a vote, where the spending is needed to keep the strata insured (s. 98(3) and (3.1)).

Those are sensible rules for getting repairs started quickly. In a bare land strata they also mean a single claim, or a premium jump, can draw down the reserve that the depreciation report says is needed for the roads and the water and sewage systems. So read the reserve balance, the depreciation report, the claims history in the minutes and the insurance summary together, not one at a time. A reserve that looks adequate for the next repaving may not be once a deductible has been paid out of it.

What to ask for before you remove subjects

1. The Form B, with its insurance summary attached. Since 2023 it has to be attached when a buyer asks.
2. The strata’s policy or certificate of insurance: the insured perils, the full replacement value and the date of the appraisal behind it, the deductibles for each peril, the liability limit, and whether it includes earthquake or overland flood.
3. The registered bylaws, for who is responsible for insuring and repairing the buildings on each lot, and whether a bylaw lets the strata charge its deductible back to an owner.
4. Two years of minutes, for claims, premium or deductible increases, and any notice that the insurer will not renew. Insurers must give the strata 30 days’ notice of non-renewal or a material change, and the strata must pass material changes on to owners.
5. Your own insurance quote, in writing, with the bare land endorsement, before subject removal rather than after. If the house is under ten years old, also ask for the home warranty summaries: a strata-titled home has two warranty policies, one for the home and one for the common property.

Everything else in the Act still applies

A bare land strata is a strata corporation in full. All of the following apply in the ordinary way:

• Strata fees contributed to an operating fund and a contingency reserve fund (s. 92), apportioned by unit entitlement (s. 99), which, in a bare land strata, is usually equal across all lots.
• A minimum annual CRF contribution of at least 10% of the budgeted operating fund contribution, in force since 1 November 2023 (Regulation s. 6.1).
• Special levies, by 3/4 vote where apportioned the ordinary way and by unanimous vote where apportioned any other way (s. 108(2)).
• Depreciation reports: five-year renewal interval, under-five-lots exemption, and the same deadlines as any other strata. For a bare land strata this is the most important document in the file, because the components being assessed are roads and buried infrastructure rather than a roof.
• Bylaws. A bare land strata can have bylaws about building form, siting, landscaping, fencing, RV and boat storage, and pets, and they are enforceable. This surprises people who bought expecting freehold latitude. One structural point: in a bare land strata plan, no bylaw amendment may be made before the second annual general meeting except by unanimous vote (s. 127(1)).
• Form B and Form F, on the same one-week timelines and the same capped fees: $35 plus up to 25 cents a page for Form B, $15 for Form F.
• The rental and age restriction rules, on the same footing as any other strata: rental restrictions are gone; age restrictions are limited to 55 or older.

One difference in the small print: the shelter easements that the Act provides between strata lots do not apply to bare land strata lots (s. 69(5)), which makes sense once you remember there is no shared building.

Financing and lender treatment

Lenders do not all treat bare land strata the same way, and this is the item most likely to derail a purchase late. A property that is legally a strata lot, physically a detached house, and served by a privately owned road and a privately owned water system does not fit neatly into a standard underwriting box.

This page does not assert what any particular lender will do; that is not something that can be sourced. What it does say is: settle it before you remove subjects, tell the lender specifically that it is a bare land strata, and tell them what the strata owns. Finding out afterwards is the expensive order.

What to read before you commit

The documents, in rough order of how much they will tell you:

• The depreciation report, in full, with attention to the roads, the water system, the sewage system and any dam, culvert or retaining structure.
• Two years of minutes, general meeting and council. Infrastructure arguments show up there long before they show up in a budget.
• The registered bylaws, not a summary, and not the rules.
• The budget and the CRF balance, read together with the depreciation report rather than on their own.
• The strata plan, to see what is a strata lot, what is common property, and what is limited common property.
• The title, plus the common property record, which is a separate search and is where a charge against the common property will show up.
• The insurance policy, to confirm what is and is not covered, and by whom.
• The approving officer’s file and the servicing covenants, if you can obtain them, for anything that was conditioned rather than completed at approval.

Bare land strata is not a worse form of ownership than freehold. For a lot of buyers in this region it is the only way to get a detached house at a given price in a given location, and a well-run one with a funded reserve and a current depreciation report is a perfectly sound purchase. But it is a form where the important facts are in the corporation’s records rather than in the house, and the cost of not reading them is not a surprise about a kitchen. It is a surprise about a road.

Related

• Strata and freehold ownership in BC
• Wells and septic systems: what to check
• Buying acreage near Victoria

Where this applies: townhouses for sale in Victoria BC, houses for sale in Victoria BC and mobile and manufactured homes.