Selling a condo in Greater Victoria

Selling a condo is not selling a smaller house. The buyer is not only buying your unit; they are buying a share of a corporation, its finances, its decisions and its liabilities — and their lawyer’s job is to find out what those are.

Which means the subject period on a strata sale is spent reading. If the reading material arrives late or arrives incomplete, that is where the deal slows, gets extended, or gets renegotiated. Almost everything in this page is about preventing that.

Order the documents before you list

The two forms have statutory timelines, and both are one week.

Form B, the Information Certificate. On request by an owner, a purchaser, or a person authorised by either, the strata corporation must provide it within one week (s. 59(1)). Section 59(3) sets out what it contains:

• the monthly strata fees for the lot;
• any amount owing to the strata by the owner, other than money paid into court or held in trust;
• any agreement under which the owner takes responsibility for expenses relating to an alteration;
• future instalments of an already-approved special levy, and their due dates;
• any expected budget surplus or deficit for the current fiscal year;
• the contingency reserve fund balance, minus approved but unspent amounts;
• bylaw amendments not yet filed in the land title office;
• resolutions requiring land title filing that have not yet been filed;
• any winding-up resolution passed;
• notice given for any resolution not yet voted on requiring a 3/4, 80% or unanimous vote or dealing with bylaws;
• court, arbitration or Civil Resolution Tribunal proceedings to which the strata is a party, and judgments or orders against it;
• outstanding notices or work orders;
• the parking stalls and storage lockers allocated to the lot; and
• a summary of the strata’s insurance coverage.

The mandatory attachments are the rules, the current budget, and the most recent depreciation report, if any (s. 59(4)).

Two things about Form B that sellers regularly get wrong. The registered bylaws are not a mandatory attachment — unfiled bylaw amendments are, which is a different thing, so the bylaws have to be ordered separately. And the information in the certificate is binding on the strata as against someone who relied on it and acted reasonably (s. 59(5)) — except the insurance summary, which is expressly not binding where the information came from the strata’s insurer or agent (s. 59(5.1)).

Form F, the Certificate of Payment. Also within one week (s. 115(1)). It certifies that you owe the strata nothing, or that money owed has been paid into court or to the strata in trust, or that satisfactory arrangements have been made. It says nothing whatever about the strata’s finances or condition.

It is the one that is not optional. The registrar must not accept a conveyance of title to a strata lot — or a lease, a lease assignment, or an agreement for sale — for registration unless accompanied by a current Certificate of Payment (s. 256(1)). It is current for 60 days from the date it is issued (s. 115(2)).

That 60-day window is worth thinking about at the offer stage. A long completion date can outlive a Form F ordered early, and the strata has a week to produce a replacement. Order it to suit the completion date rather than the listing date.

What Form F may include: the lienable amounts — strata fees, special levy, s. 85 work reimbursement, the lot’s share of a judgment — plus fines and the costs of remedying bylaw and rule contraventions, including tenant fines you are responsible for (s. 115(4)). What it must not include: claims for damages not yet determined by a court, arbitration or the CRT (s. 115(5)).

The fees are capped

• Form B: $35, plus reproduction cost of up to 25 cents per page, including the required attachments (Regulation s. 4.4).
• Form F: $15 (s. 6.10).
• Records under s. 36: 25 cents per page, and nothing at all for inspection (s. 4.2).

Records must be produced within two weeks of a request, or one week where the request is for the bylaws or rules (s. 36(3)).

Being charged the $35 and then a separate per-page charge for the Form B attachments is a misreading of s. 4.4. Being charged a “rush fee” or a “management company fee” on top is worth questioning against those sections.

The depreciation report is the document the buyer is really reading

For most condo buyers, and every careful buyer’s lawyer, this is the file. And the rules around it have changed enough that a seller relying on what they remember will be wrong.

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

• The old provision allowing a strata to vote annually by 3/4 vote to skip a depreciation report is repealed, with the Province dating the practical effect to 1 July 2024.
• The renewal interval is at least once every five years (Regulation s. 6.21(2)). It was three. A great deal of published material still says three.
• Stratas with fewer than five strata lots are exempt, for as long as that remains true (s. 6.22).
• An existing strata established before 1 July 2024 that had not obtained a report since 31 December 2020 had to obtain one before 1 July 2026 where it is wholly or partly in a “specified area”, which includes the Capital Regional District, and before 1 July 2027 outside it (s. 6.21(3)). That CRD deadline has passed.
• Since 1 July 2025, the report must be prepared by one of a defined group 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 (s. 6.2(0.1), as amended effective 27 October 2025). “Whoever the strata thinks is qualified” is no longer the test.

The content requirements are substantial: an on-site visual inspection by the preparer; an inventory and evaluation of components with estimated service life over 30 years, expressly covering structure, roofs and roof decks, doors, windows and skylights, electrical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, fire protection and security systems, amenities, parking and roadways, water and sewage utilities, landscaping, interior finishes, green building components, and balconies and patios; identification of the common property and limited common property that owners rather than the strata must maintain; and a 30-year financial forecast with stated assumptions, the current CRF balance net of approved-but-unspent amounts, and at least three cash-flow funding models.

If your strata has a current report showing a funded reserve against a credible plan, that is an asset and it should be in the hands of a buyer early. If it does not have one, or the report is old, or the funding models show a shortfall, a buyer is going to find that out — and the difference between them finding it out on day two of a subject period and day eight is the difference between a question and a renegotiation.

There is a separate obligation to obtain an electrical planning report under s. 94.1, with deadlines of 31 December 2026 inside the specified area and 31 December 2028 outside it. Different report, different deadline; they are constantly conflated.

Money: fees, the reserve, and levies

Strata fees are apportioned by unit entitlement — your unit entitlement over the total, applied to the budgeted contribution to the operating fund and the contingency reserve fund (s. 99(2)). There are defined exceptions for costs relating to and benefiting only limited common property, and for costs benefiting only one type of strata lot where the bylaws identify types (Regulation ss. 6.4(1)–(2)); any other formula needs a unanimous vote filed in the land title office (s. 100).

The CRF minimum has been at least 10% of the budgeted operating fund contribution each year since 1 November 2023, determined after considering the most recent depreciation report (Regulation s. 6.1). The old regime, under which a strata could cap or suspend contributions once the fund reached a proportion of the operating budget, is gone. On a sale you get nothing back out of the CRF (s. 101).

Special levies are where sale timing gets sharp.

A levy apportioned the ordinary way, by unit entitlement, needs a 3/4 vote. A levy apportioned any other way that the strata considers a fair division for that particular levy needs a unanimous vote (s. 108(2)). The resolution must set out the purpose, the total amount, the method of determining each lot’s share, the actual amount of each share, and the payment or instalment dates (s. 108(3)).

And on a sale, where the levy was 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. That is a statutory default, not a closing adjustment, and if you intend something different it has to be in the contract.

Three practical consequences:

• A levy approved during your listing period is a Form B item and a price conversation. It does not disappear by not being mentioned.
• A levy that has been proposed but not yet voted on is also a Form B item — notice given for a resolution not yet voted on requiring a 3/4 or unanimous vote must be disclosed (s. 59(3)(i)).
• Where a buyer is uneasy about an upcoming levy, agreeing a holdback or a price adjustment early is a far better outcome than discovering it at day eight of the subject period.

Insurance: the two questions buyers now ask

Strata insurance became a live consumer issue and buyers ask about it directly. Two answers are worth having ready.

What the strata must insure. Property insurance on 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 any the bylaws add (s. 149). Liability insurance with a statutory minimum of $2,000,000 (s. 150; Regulation s. 9.2). The strata must review the adequacy of its insurance annually, report at each AGM, and inform owners and tenants as soon as feasible of any material change including any increase in a deductible (s. 154).

What is not required. 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. Earthquake and overland flood are not on it. On this coast, whether the strata carries earthquake coverage and at what deductible is a real question, and the honest answer is the one in the policy.

The second question is about deductibles. 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 Province states directly that an owner can be deemed responsible and required to pay the strata’s deductible even where they were not at fault or negligent, giving the example of a prematurely failed dishwasher hose. That is why owners carry their own policy (s. 161), and it is a reasonable thing for a buyer to ask about.

Remember that the insurance summary on Form B is not binding on the strata where it came from the insurer or agent. Provide the actual certificate or policy summary if you can obtain it.

Disclosure on a strata sale

The same framework as any BC sale, with strata-specific edges.

A Property Disclosure Statement is not legally required. There are no prescribed disclosure forms in BC; the PDS is a voluntary standard form whose force is contractual once it is incorporated into the Contract of Purchase and Sale.

The material latent defect duty is mandatory, and it binds the licensee. Under Rule 59, a licensee providing trading services to a disposing client must disclose to all other parties, promptly and before any agreement is entered into, any material latent defect known to them — including a defect that would involve great expense to remedy, a circumstance about which a local authority has given notice that it must or should be remedied, and a lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits. If a client instructs a licensee to withhold one, the licensee must refuse to provide further trading services in respect of the trade.

On a condo, the items that most often engage this are unpermitted alterations inside the unit — a removed wall, a relocated plumbing fixture, a heat pump or an in-suite laundry installed without the strata’s written approval under s. 71 and without a permit where one was required. Alterations agreements under which an owner has taken responsibility for expenses are themselves a Form B disclosure item (s. 59(3)(c)).

Building envelope history, past or pending remediation, and litigation are not concealable in any case: litigation and CRT proceedings, work orders and unfiled resolutions are all Form B content.

Pricing a strata lot

Beyond the usual comparables work, three strata-specific factors move price in ways sellers underestimate:

The reserve position relative to the depreciation report. Two identical units in two buildings of the same age are not the same asset if one has a funded reserve against a current 30-year plan and the other has neither.

Known upcoming work. A roof, an envelope, elevators, plumbing risers, a parkade membrane. Whether the money is raised by levy or drawn from the reserve, a buyer prices it.

Strata fees relative to what they buy. A higher fee that funds a proper reserve is a different proposition from a higher fee that funds amenities, and both are different from a low fee that reflects deferred contributions. Buyers increasingly read it that way.

Current market context for Greater Victoria condos — inventory, days on market, sale-to-list by price band — belongs in a pricing conversation with dated figures rather than as a fixed statement on a page, and is deliberately not asserted here. The market page carries the current board statistics with their release date.

The document package, as a checklist

Order early. Order all of it.

• Form B, with the rules, current budget and most recent depreciation report attached.
• Form F, timed to the completion date and its 60-day currency.
• The registered bylaws — ordered separately, because they are not a Form B attachment.
• The depreciation report in full, and the previous one if it exists, because the comparison is informative.
• The electrical planning report, if the strata has obtained one.
• Minutes: AGM, SGM and council, ideally two years.
• The budget and financial statements.
• The insurance certificate or policy summary, not just the Form B summary.
• Engineering or envelope reports, and any remediation documentation.
• The strata plan, to show what is strata lot, common property and limited common property — and the common property record, which is a separate search from the title and is where a charge against the common property appears.
• Any alteration agreement affecting your unit.
• Parking stall and storage locker documentation.

The cost of assembling that is capped at the amounts above, and it is the cheapest thing in the transaction. What it buys is a buyer who can remove subjects on schedule instead of asking for a week and coming back with a number.

Related

• Strata and freehold ownership in BC
• What it costs to sell a home in BC
• Selling a home in Victoria BC
• Condos for sale in Greater Victoria