What strata documents should I ask for before buying?

At minimum: two years of council and general meeting minutes, the Form B information certificate, the bylaws and rules, the depreciation report, the current budget and financial statements, the insurance summary, and the strata plan. Then anything the minutes refer to but do not include, particularly engineering reports, which are frequently discussed and rarely attached.

How long does a strata have to give me the documents?

A Form B information certificate must be provided within one week of a request by an owner, a purchaser, or someone authorized by either. For other records under the Act the strata has two weeks, except bylaws and rules, which must be provided within one week. Build those timelines into your subject removal period rather than discovering them inside it.

What can a strata charge for a Form B?

A maximum of $35, plus up to 25 cents per page for copying. A rush fee may be charged if you request it with less than seven days notice. If you are being quoted substantially more than that for the certificate itself, ask what the charge is for.

What is a Form B information certificate?

A prescribed form giving a snapshot of the strata and the specific unit: the monthly strata fee, the contingency reserve fund balance, any special levies that have been approved, money owing on the unit, parking and storage allocation, and whether there are bylaw amendments or legal proceedings. It is the single densest document in the package.

What should I look for in strata minutes?

Repetition. One mention of a leak is an incident. The same leak at four consecutive meetings is an unfunded problem. Also watch for deferred decisions, disagreements about money, any mention of engineers or lawyers, and votes that failed. Read two years of them, and read them oldest to newest so you can see how a problem developed.

What is the insurance deductible trap in a strata?

Strata water damage deductibles have risen sharply, and where an owner is found responsible for a loss the strata may pursue them for the deductible. A deductible of tens of thousands of dollars is not unusual now. Check the deductible amounts on the insurance summary and tell your own insurance broker, because personal policies can include coverage for that exposure.

Do I need a lawyer to review strata documents?

Not usually for the reading itself. You want one where the documents raise a legal question: a live lawsuit, a contested special levy, unusual bylaw wording, or a dispute about who is responsible for a repair. I will tell you when a document has moved past what a REALTOR should be interpreting for you.

What if the strata documents arrive too late to read properly?

Extend the subject removal date or do not remove subjects. That is an uncomfortable conversation and it is far less uncomfortable than the alternative. Documents arriving on the final afternoon of a subject period is a common situation and it is not a reason to skim. Ask for the extension.

How to read strata documents before you buy

By Dan Jones · September 12, 2026

Bottom line: request the documents the day your offer is accepted, because the strata is allowed a week for the Form B and two weeks for most other records, and those timelines eat a subject removal period before you have read a page. The Form B is capped at $35 plus 25 cents a page, so cost is not the obstacle. Time is. Read two years of minutes oldest to newest and look for the same problem appearing repeatedly, because a roof discussed at four consecutive meetings is a roof nobody has funded. Then set what the depreciation report says is coming against the contingency reserve fund balance on the Form B. That gap is the number that eventually gets asked of the owners, and once you complete, you are one of them.

I am Dan Jones, a REALTOR with Royal LePage Locations West in Penticton, licence number 1118346, licensed since 2004 after twenty-four years building. Reading these documents with clients is the part of the job my trade background earns its keep in, because an engineer’s report on a building envelope reads differently when you have built envelopes.

I am a REALTOR, not a lawyer. I will tell you plainly when a document has raised a question that needs one.

Request them immediately, not eventually

The Strata Property Act sets the timelines, and they are longer than people expect.

What you are requesting	Time the strata has
Form B information certificate	1 week
Bylaws and rules	1 week
Other records under the Act	2 weeks

A rush fee may apply on a Form B requested with less than seven days notice.

Now put that against a typical subject removal period. If you ask on day five of a ten day period, the documents can legitimately arrive after your deadline. The request goes in the day the offer is accepted.

Cost is not the barrier. A Form B is capped at $35 plus up to 25 cents per page for copying. If someone quotes you dramatically more for the certificate itself, ask what the charge covers.

What to ask for

Two years of minutes, both council meetings and annual or special general meetings
The Form B information certificate
The bylaws and the rules, which are two different things
The depreciation report, and the one before it if there is one
The current budget and the financial statements
The insurance summary
The strata plan
Anything the minutes mention but do not include

That last line is the one that separates a real review from a box-ticking exercise. Minutes routinely say a council received an engineer’s report on the envelope, the roof or the plumbing. The report itself is almost never in the package. Ask for it by name, using the date from the minutes.

Read them in this order

Most people start with the bylaws, because bylaws are readable. That is the wrong end.

1. The Form B first. It is a snapshot, it takes ten minutes, and it tells you whether there is a problem worth hunting for. Check:

The monthly fee, and what it includes
The contingency reserve fund balance
Whether any special levy has been approved, and whether it is paid
Money owing on this specific unit
Parking and storage allocation, which is a frequent source of later disappointment
Whether there are bylaw amendments passed but not yet filed
Whether the strata is party to any legal proceeding

2. The depreciation report next. Specifically the funding models and the components due in the next ten years. What the 2024 rules require it to contain covers how to read one properly.

3. The minutes, oldest to newest. Backwards is how most people read them and it hides the story. Forwards, you watch a problem develop.

4. The financials, against the Form B and the report.

5. The bylaws and rules last, once you know whether the building has a money problem. Pets and parking matter, but they are not what costs you fifty thousand dollars.

What you are actually looking for in the minutes

Repetition. One mention of a leak is an incident. The same leak at four consecutive meetings is an unfunded problem with a council that has not decided anything.

Deferral language. “Tabled”, “to be revisited”, “council will obtain further quotes” appearing across multiple meetings about the same item.

Failed votes. A special levy or a bylaw amendment that was put to owners and defeated tells you something about both the building and the ownership.

Money disagreements. Extended debate about fee increases in a building with an aging envelope is a warning about what happens when the levy comes.

Professionals appearing. Any mention of engineers, lawyers, remediation consultants or insurers. Those names appear for reasons.

Silence. A building of a certain age with no discussion of major components at all is not necessarily well run. Sometimes it means nobody is looking.

The deductible question

This is the item I most often find has been skipped, and it has become a real exposure.

Strata insurance deductibles, particularly for water damage, have risen sharply. Where an owner is found responsible for a loss, the strata may pursue that owner for the deductible. Deductibles in the tens of thousands of dollars are no longer unusual.

So on the insurance summary, look at the deductible amounts, not just the coverage. Then tell your own insurance broker what they are, because personal policies can carry coverage for exactly that exposure and it is inexpensive relative to the risk.

A hose failure under a sink is a small event in a freehold house. In a strata it can be a very large bill.

The gap that matters

Everything above narrows to one comparison.

What the depreciation report says is coming due in the next ten years, against what is actually in the contingency reserve fund.

If the roof is at end of life, the envelope needs work, and the fund is thin, that difference does not disappear. It is charged to the owners as a special levy or through fee increases. If you complete, you are an owner.

A strata with healthy fees, a well funded reserve and a levy every fifteen years is better run than one with low fees, no levies and a thirty year old roof. Low fees are not automatically good news. Sometimes they are the problem.

If the documents arrive late

Extend the subject removal date, or do not remove subjects.

Documents landing on the final afternoon of a subject period happens often. It is not a reason to skim two years of minutes in an hour. Ask for the extension. In my experience sellers grant it, because the alternative is a buyer walking or a deal collapsing later over something that was in the package all along.

What I do with them

I read them with you and I tell you what I think. If the minutes show a council arguing about a roof for two years with nothing in the fund, you will hear that from me before subject removal, not after.

Where it stops being my job: contract wording on who pays an approved special levy, unusual bylaw drafting, live litigation, or an engineer’s findings you want to challenge. Those are for a lawyer or the relevant professional, and I will say so rather than guess.

The full strata overview is here: what to check before you buy into a BC strata. If the property is a bare land strata, the documents matter just as much and cover different components.

Timelines and fee caps above come from the Strata Property Act and its regulations and are current as of September 2026. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

If you want help reading a package on a Penticton strata, email me at dano007@shaw.ca or call 250.488.0226.