Strata and freehold ownership in British Columbia

Almost every buyer in Greater Victoria ends up choosing between these two at some point, usually without being told clearly what the choice is. The shorthand (“freehold means you own it, strata means you don’t”) is wrong, and believing it leads people to misjudge both the risk and the cost of a strata purchase.

This page sets out what each form of ownership actually is under British Columbia law, what you are responsible for in each, and where the real differences sit.

The first misconception: a strata lot is freehold

A residential strata lot in British Columbia is owned in fee simple, with its own indefeasible title in the land title register, exactly like a detached house on its own lot.

When a strata plan is deposited in a land title office, the land is subdivided into strata lots, and the registrar registers a new indefeasible title for each one (Strata Property Act, ss. 239, 249(2)). Those strata lots “may devolve or be disposed of in the same manner and form as any registered land”. You are not a tenant, you are not a shareholder in a company that owns the building, and you do not hold a lease.

The single real exception is a leasehold strata plan under Part 12 of the Act, where the owner holds a leasehold interest rather than the fee. Those exist and they are genuinely different. They are also uncommon, and a leasehold strata will be identifiable from the title.

So the difference is not freehold versus not-freehold. It is sole ownership of a parcel versus sole ownership of a strata lot plus a shared, governed interest in everything around it.

What you own in a strata

Three categories, and they are not interchangeable.

Your strata lot. The lot shown on the strata plan. Where the boundary between your lot and the next one runs through a wall, floor or ceiling, the boundary is the midway point of that structural portion unless the strata plan says otherwise (s. 68(1)).

Common property. Everything on the plan that is not part of a strata lot and, in a limb people routinely drop, service facilities such as pipes, wires, cables, ducts and chutes where they sit inside a boundary wall, floor or ceiling, or run through one strata lot but serve another lot or the common property (s. 1(1)). The practical consequence is not obvious: a pipe inside your wall that serves only your unit is generally yours; the same pipe serving the unit next door is common property. You own a share of common property as a tenant in common, in proportion to your unit entitlement (s. 66).

Limited common property. Common property designated for the exclusive use of one or more strata lots, typically a balcony, a patio, a parking stall. It is still common property; you just have exclusive use of it. It can only be created in the ways s. 73 allows, and it can only be removed the corresponding way (s. 75). A balcony described as “yours” in a listing may be limited common property, common property, or part of the strata lot, and which one it is changes who pays to repair it.

What you own in a freehold parcel

The parcel described on the title, subject to whatever is registered against it and to the exceptions in Land Title Act s. 23(2).

That second point matters more than most buyers expect. An indefeasible title is conclusive evidence of ownership in fee simple, but s. 23(2) lists ten express exceptions, including Crown grant reservations, unregistered taxes and municipal charges, a lease of three years or less where the tenant is in actual occupation, public highways and rights of way, boundary errors, and fraud or forgery in which the registered owner participated. BC’s system is strong. It is not absolute, and “the title is guaranteed” overstates it.

What sits on a freehold title in this region routinely includes statutory rights of way under s. 218 (utility corridors, drainage, access), easements, and s. 219 covenants. A s. 219 covenant can be positive as well as negative, does not need a neighbouring benefited parcel, and binds you as a successor in title. It is the usual instrument for a no-build area over unstable ground, a flood or erosion condition, a tree or riparian protection area, or a restriction on selling two parcels separately. Registration of a s. 219 covenant is expressly not a determination by the registrar that the covenant is enforceable (s. 219(10)), but it is on your title, and you are going to have to deal with it.

The point is that freehold does not mean unencumbered. It means nobody else is in the decision loop.

Governance: the real difference

This is what people are actually choosing between.

On a freehold parcel, decisions about the roof are yours. Timing, contractor, standard of finish, whether to do it at all this year. So is the bill.

In a strata, those decisions belong to the strata corporation, made by owners voting and a council acting between general meetings. You will sometimes pay for work you would not have chosen, at a time you would not have chosen, to a standard you would not have chosen, and you will sometimes have work done for you that you could not have afforded to commission alone. Both directions are real.

Two voting thresholds are worth knowing before you buy, because they explain why some buildings can act and others cannot:

Special levies are approved by a 3/4 vote at a general meeting where each lot’s share is calculated the ordinary way, by unit entitlement (s. 108(2)(a)). But if the levy is apportioned in any other way that the strata considers fairer for that particular levy, it requires a unanimous vote (s. 108(2)(b)). “Special levies always need 3/4” is a common and consequential simplification.

Spending from the contingency reserve fund needs only a majority vote where the expenditure is for something recommended in the most current depreciation report, or to obtain a depreciation report, or for certain electric-vehicle and electrical planning work. Otherwise it takes a 3/4 vote (s. 96). That is a deliberate design: a strata that has done its depreciation report can act on it more easily than one that has not.

Money: strata fees, the CRF, and levies

Owners contribute to an operating fund for expenses that usually occur at least once a year, and a contingency reserve fund for expenses that usually occur less often than once a year or do not usually occur at all (s. 92).

Strata fees are apportioned by unit entitlement: your unit entitlement divided by the total, applied to the budgeted contribution (s. 99(2)). Not by square footage as such, not by market value, and not by how much of the building you use. There are defined exceptions: costs that relate to and benefit only limited common property are shared only among the lots entitled to use it, and costs benefiting only one type of strata lot, where the bylaws identify types, are shared only within that type (Regulation ss. 6.4(1)–(2)). Any other formula requires a unanimous vote and only takes effect when filed in the land title office (s. 100).

Since 1 November 2023, the minimum annual CRF contribution is at least 10% of the total budgeted operating fund contribution for the year, determined after considering the most recent depreciation report (Regulation s. 6.1). The older rule, under which a strata could stop contributing once the CRF reached a proportion of the operating fund, is gone. If you read that a strata may cap or suspend CRF contributions, the source is out of date. (The Act’s marginal note to s. 93 still reads “Minimum and maximum contributions”, which does not help.)

On a sale, the seller gets nothing back from the contingency reserve fund (s. 101). Money paid in stays in.

And if a special levy is approved before the property is conveyed, s. 109 splits it by instalment due date: instalments due before the conveyance are the seller’s, instalments due on or after are the buyer’s, unless the parties agree otherwise in the contract. That is not the same thing as a closing adjustment, and it is worth being explicit about in the contract rather than assuming.

Depreciation reports: the rules changed, and most online summaries are stale

A depreciation report estimates the repair and replacement cost of a strata’s major components and their remaining service life. It is the single most useful document a buyer of a strata lot can read, and the regime around it has been rebuilt.

The current position, as at the sources read on 17 September 2026:

• The old provision letting a strata vote annually, by 3/4 vote, to skip a depreciation report is repealed. The Province dates the practical effect of that change to 1 July 2024.
• The renewal interval is at least once every five years (Regulation s. 6.21(2)). It used to be three, and a great many pages still say three.
• Stratas with fewer than five strata lots are exempt, for as long as that remains true (Regulation s. 6.22).
• For an existing strata established before 1 July 2024 that had not obtained a report since 31 December 2020, the deadline was 1 July 2026 inside a “specified area” (which includes the Capital Regional District) and 1 July 2027 outside it (Regulation s. 6.21(3)). The specified area excludes islands within the CRD or Metro Vancouver reachable only by air or boat, which is how the Southern Gulf Islands fall into the later group.
• Since 1 July 2025, the report must be prepared by one of a defined set of professionals: engineers and professional licensees, architects and architectural technologists, applied science technologists and certified technicians, AACI appraisers, certified reserve planners, and professional quantity surveyors (Regulation s. 6.2(0.1), as amended by B.C. Reg. 187/2025, effective 27 October 2025). “Anyone the strata thinks is qualified” is no longer the test.

Note that the CRD deadline for that first group has already passed. A strata in Greater Victoria that falls into that group and has no report is a fact worth understanding, not a reason to panic, but it is a question to ask.

There is a separate obligation to obtain an electrical planning report under s. 94.1, with its own deadlines of 31 December 2026 inside the specified area and 31 December 2028 outside it, and its own under-five-lots exemption. Different report, different section, different dates. They are frequently conflated.

Insurance: where the two diverge most sharply

A strata corporation must insure common property, common assets, the buildings shown on the strata plan, and fixtures installed by the owner developer as part of original construction, on a full replacement value basis, against the major perils listed in the regulations plus anything the bylaws add (s. 149).

Two consequences follow, and they surprise people.

Earthquake and overland flood are not mandatory. The list of major perils in Regulation s. 9.1(2) is closed: fire, lightning, smoke, windstorm, hail, explosion, water escape, strikes, riots or civil commotion, impact by aircraft and vehicles, vandalism and malicious acts. Neither earthquake nor flood is on it. Whether the strata carries earthquake coverage, and at what deductible, is a question to ask specifically. On this coast it is not a small one.

You can be liable for the strata’s deductible without having done anything wrong. Payment of the deductible on a claim against the strata’s insurance is a common expense (s. 158(1)), but that does not limit the strata’s ability to sue an owner to recover it where the owner is responsible for the loss (s. 158(2)). The word is “responsible”, not “negligent” and not “at fault”, and the Province states directly that an owner can be deemed responsible and required to pay even where they were not at fault, giving the example of a dishwasher hose that failed prematurely. Owners carry their own policy to cover that exposure, improvements, and liability (s. 161).

On a freehold house, the whole of it is your policy, your deductible and your decision. Simpler, and entirely on you.

The documents, and which one does what

Two strata forms are routinely confused, and they do different jobs.

Form B, the Information Certificate, is the disclosure document. On request by an owner, a purchaser, or someone authorised by either, the strata must provide it within one week (s. 59(1)). It sets out monthly strata fees, what the owner owes, approved special levies and their future instalments, expected budget overruns, the contingency reserve fund balance net of approved-but-unspent amounts, unfiled bylaw amendments and resolutions, any winding-up resolution, litigation and Civil Resolution Tribunal proceedings, outstanding notices and work orders, the parking stalls and storage lockers allocated to the lot, and a summary of the strata’s insurance (s. 59(3)). The mandatory attachments are the rules, the current budget, and the most recent depreciation report if there is one (s. 59(4)).

Two things about Form B worth knowing. The bylaws are not a mandatory attachment; unfiled bylaw amendments are, which is not the same thing, so ask for the registered bylaws separately. And the information in it is binding on the strata against someone who relied on it and acted reasonably (s. 59(5)), except the insurance summary, which is not binding if it came from the strata’s insurer or agent (s. 59(5.1)). Read the actual policy.

Form F, the Certificate of Payment, is the one that unlocks the land title office. The registrar must not accept a conveyance of title to a strata lot (or a lease, a lease assignment, or an agreement for sale) unless it is accompanied by a current Certificate of Payment (s. 256(1)). It certifies only that the owner owes the strata nothing (or has paid into court or trust, or made satisfactory arrangements); it says nothing whatever about the strata’s finances, bylaws or condition. It is current for 60 days from issue (s. 115(2)), and the strata has a week to produce it, so on a long completion date, timing it matters.

The fees a strata may charge for these are capped by regulation: $35 plus reproduction cost of up to 25 cents per page for a Form B, including its required attachments (Regulation s. 4.4); $15 for a Form F (Regulation s. 6.10); 25 cents per page for copies of records under s. 36, and nothing at all for inspecting them. Being charged the $35 and then a separate per-page charge for the attachments is a misreading of s. 4.4.

Beyond the forms, the records themselves (minutes of general meetings and council meetings, the registered bylaws, the depreciation report in full, engineering reports, the insurance policy) are what actually tell you what the building is like. Two years of minutes will tell you more about a strata than any brochure.

One further search that a title search alone will not do for you: charges registered against the common property do not appear on an individual strata lot title. They sit on a separate common property record (s. 252), which is a distinct search.

Rental and age restrictions, as things now stand

Both changed, and the change is complete rather than phased.

A strata cannot restrict rentals. Section 141 now reads, in full, that the strata corporation must not screen tenants, establish screening criteria, require approval of tenants, require terms in tenancy agreements, “or otherwise restrict the rental of a strata lot”. Existing rental restriction bylaws became invalid on 24 November 2022, without needing to be repealed.

Short-term rental bylaws survive. A strata may still prohibit or limit the use of a residential strata lot as vacation or temporary accommodation, and the maximum fine for contravening such a bylaw is higher than the ordinary maximum and can be levied daily (Regulation s. 7.1). The separate provincial short-term rental legislation and local licensing are a different regime again, not covered here.

Age restrictions are limited to 55 or older. A bylaw must not restrict the age of residents except one requiring one or more residents to have reached a specified age of not less than 55 (s. 123.1). Bylaws set at 19+, 40+ or 45+ became unenforceable. There are statutory exemptions for a resident who lived there lawfully before the bylaw was passed, for a live-in caregiver, and, since 1 May 2023, for a child whose caregiver is a qualifying resident, an adult who lived with a qualifying resident who was their caregiver before they turned 19, and the spouse of a qualifying resident (s. 123.2; Regulation s. 7.01(2)). The guide to 55+ communities in Victoria covers what these rules mean when you buy into an age-restricted building.

So which one

There is no general answer, which is why this page does not offer one. What is true is that the trade-off is not the one people expect. It is not risk versus safety, and it is not ownership versus part-ownership.

Freehold gives you control and hands you the whole cost and the whole decision. You will replace that roof eventually whether or not you have set money aside, and nobody will require you to plan for it.

A strata takes control away and, in a well-run building, replaces it with something a single owner rarely achieves: a professional condition assessment on a five-year cycle, a reserve fund with a legislated minimum contribution, insurance on a replacement-cost basis, and a mechanism for raising money that does not depend on one household’s finances. In a badly run building it gives you none of that and the bill arrives anyway.

Which is why, on a strata purchase, the documents are not paperwork. They are the property.

Related

• Bare land strata in BC: the third category
• Selling a condo in Victoria BC
• Condos for sale in Greater Victoria

Where this applies: condos for sale in Victoria BC, townhouses for sale in Victoria BC and houses for sale in Victoria BC.