A complete package for a British Columbia strata lot runs to a dozen document types and often past a thousand pages. This is what each one is, what it tells you, and what is most often missing.
Two deadlines make 2026 different. Depreciation reports moved to a mandatory five-year cycle in July 2024, and the old annual ¾-vote to defer one is gone. Separately, a new electrical planning report is required of most strata corporations — and in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District the deadline is 31 December 2026. Packages assembled from an older checklist will not mention it.
| Document | What it is | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Form B Information Certificate | A certificate the strata corporation signs | Fees, arrears, levies, reserve fund, parking, litigation, insurance summary |
| Bylaws and rules | The registered bylaws plus any rules | Rentals, pets, renovations, parking, fines |
| Minutes | Council, annual and special general meetings | What the building has been arguing about and paying for |
| Depreciation report | An engineering study of major components | What needs renewal, when, at what cost, and how it would be funded |
| Electrical planning report | New: electrical capacity and future demand | Whether the building can support EV charging and electrification |
| Financial statements and budget | The corporation's accounts | Reserve and operating balances, arrears, surplus or deficit |
| Insurance summary | Summary of the corporation's cover | Policy period, limits, deductibles — water damage above all |
| Engineering reports | Envelope, roof, plumbing, elevator studies | Known building problems, in the words of the people who looked |
| Strata plan | The registered survey plan | Unit boundaries, limited common property, parking and storage |
| Form F Certificate of Payment | Certificate needed to register a transfer | That the seller owes the corporation nothing |
| Form J Rental Disclosure Statement | Filed by the original developer, if any | Rental exemptions that may still run with certain lots |
| Home warranty | 2-5-10 coverage on newer buildings | What is still covered and until when |
The Form B is the single most concentrated document in the package. It is issued by the strata corporation under section 59 of the Strata Property Act, and what it states is binding on the corporation as against the person who requested it.
It sets out the monthly strata fees for that lot, any amount the current owner owes the corporation, any approved special levy still payable, the contingency reserve fund balance, parking and storage allocation, whether the corporation is involved in court or tribunal proceedings, whether there are outstanding work orders, whether there are bylaw amendments not yet filed in the Land Title Office, and a summary of the corporation's insurance coverage.
A Form B is incomplete without its attachments. The Strata Property Act requires these to come with it:
Depending on the circumstances, the Form B also carries copies of any agreement under which an owner took responsibility for alteration expenses, resolutions passed but not yet filed, and the details of any proceeding or work order it discloses.
The most common gap in a package is a Form B with nothing attached to it. If the budget and the depreciation report are not behind it, the Form B is telling you figures you cannot check.
Bylaws are registered in the Land Title Office and bind everyone. Rules are made by the council and govern use of common property. The two are separate documents and a package should contain both.
What buyers most often need out of them: whether rentals are restricted and how, whether the pet is permitted, what flooring changes require council approval, how parking and storage may be used, and what the fines are. Note that a bylaw filed years ago is still the bylaw in force today — age is not a reason to skip it.
Council minutes, annual general meeting minutes, and any special general meeting minutes. This is where a building tells on itself: the recurring leak, the disputed assessment, the contractor who did not come back, the levy that was debated before it was passed.
Two years of minutes is the common request and a reasonable default. Read the AGM minutes for the votes and the council minutes for the problems. Watch the dates — an unexplained gap in the meeting record is worth asking about, and it is only visible if you put the minutes in date order.
A study commissioned from an engineering firm. It inventories the building's major components — roof, envelope, elevators, plumbing, parkade membrane — estimates when each will need renewal and at what cost, and models funding scenarios showing what happens to owners' contributions and special levies under different levels of saving.
Since 1 July 2024 these are on a mandatory five-year cycle, and strata corporations may no longer hold an annual ¾ vote to defer one. Corporations with four or fewer lots remain exempt. The transition deadlines:
So the age of the report in front of you now carries more weight than it used to. A report dated 2016 is not merely old — in much of the province it is past the date by which a newer one was required.
The newest document in the package, and the one most likely to be absent from a checklist written before this year. An electrical planning report sets out the current capacity of the strata corporation's electrical system and how to plan for future demand — in practice, whether the building can support EV charging and electrification without a service upgrade, and what that upgrade would involve.
Strata corporations with five or more lots must obtain one. The deadlines are 31 December 2026 for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District, and 31 December 2028 for the rest of the province. Once obtained it must be disclosed on the Form B and attached to it.
The approved budget for the current fiscal year, and financial statements showing where the corporation actually stands: operating and contingency reserve balances, any special levy fund, receivables, and the variance between budget and actual.
The reserve balance on its own means very little. Its meaning comes from reading it next to the depreciation report's funding model — a healthy-looking figure can be small against what the study says is coming.
A summary of the corporation's coverage, including the policy period, limits and deductibles. The water damage deductible is the number that matters most to an individual owner, because a claim below it, or an owner-responsible loss, lands on the owner.
Check the period. An insurance summary whose stated period has already ended describes cover that is no longer in force; the policy has probably been renewed and the renewal simply not supplied, but that is a question to ask rather than an assumption to make.
Envelope condition reports, roof assessments, plumbing investigations, elevator studies, any remediation scope. Not every package has them, and there is no general requirement to commission them — but where they exist they are the most direct account of a building's physical problems available, written by the people who went and looked.
The registered survey plan. It shows the boundaries of the strata lot, what is common property, what is limited common property allocated to a particular lot, and the location of parking stalls and storage lockers where those are shown on the plan rather than assigned by the council.
Form F, Certificate of Payment. Required to register a transfer in the Land Title Office. It certifies that the seller does not owe the strata corporation money, and it is a conveyancing document rather than a due-diligence one.
Form J, Rental Disclosure Statement. Filed by the original developer where the development set aside lots for rental. Where one exists it can create exemptions attaching to particular lots that survive later bylaw changes, so it is worth having in hand if renting is part of the plan.
Newer buildings carry 2-5-10 coverage: two years on labour and materials, five on the building envelope, ten on structure, running from the original date of coverage rather than from a resale. If the building is within those windows, the certificate is worth having and the dates worth reading.
One email to the strata manager usually fixes several of these at once, and asking for the original PDFs rather than scans is worth the extra line in that email.
This page states what the documents are, not what yours say. Nothing here is legal advice, and the deadlines above are stated as at September 2026 — confirm the current position for your own transaction. Sources are the Province of British Columbia's strata housing pages on the Form B Information Certificate, depreciation report requirements and electrical planning reports.
A complete package contains the Form B Information Certificate with its required attachments, the registered bylaws and any rules, council and general meeting minutes, the most recent depreciation report, an electrical planning report where one exists, the current budget and financial statements, an insurance summary, any engineering reports, the strata plan, and — where they apply — Form F, Form J and home warranty documents.
The Strata Property Act requires the rules of the strata corporation if any, the current budget, the most recent depreciation report if any, and a copy of all electrical planning reports. A Form B supplied with nothing behind it is the commonest gap in a package.
Every five years, since 1 July 2024. Strata corporations of four or fewer lots are exempt, and the annual three-quarters vote that once allowed owners to defer a report no longer exists. Transition deadlines are 1 July 2026 for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District, and 1 July 2027 for the rest of the province.
An electrical planning report sets out a strata corporation's current electrical capacity and how to plan for future demand, which in practice means EV charging and electrification. Strata corporations with five or more lots must obtain one by 31 December 2026 in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District, and by 31 December 2028 elsewhere in British Columbia.
Two years is the common request and a reasonable default. Read the annual general meeting minutes for the votes and the council minutes for the problems, and put them in date order — an unexplained gap in the meeting record is only visible that way.
A scanned page holds a picture of text rather than text, so it cannot be searched and must be read by optical character recognition, which is good but not perfect. Asking the strata manager for the original PDFs rather than scans is worth the extra email.
Once you have the package, the problem is finding anything in it. Upload it and the free preview names every document it contains and its page range, in seconds. The full index — every Form B field and candidate passage located by page — is $29.95 + GST.
Last reviewed and updated 2026-09-21.