Caretakers and Building Managers: Employee or Contractor?

Many BC strata corporations hire someone to sweep the parkade, change light bulbs, meet trades on site and respond to after-hours calls. Whether that person is an employee of the strata corporation or an independent contractor is not a labelling choice — it is a legal characterization with payroll, insurance and liability consequences. Getting it wrong is one of the more expensive mistakes a self-managed council can make.

The Strata Property Act does not answer this question

The Strata Property Act is silent on employment classification. It tells you who governs the corporation and what the corporation must do; it does not tell you how to structure a caretaker relationship. There is also no requirement to hire a property manager at all — any strata corporation may be self-managed by its elected council, and many self-managed stratas engage a caretaker instead.

What fills the gap is general law: the Employment Standards Act and its regulation (administered by the Employment Standards Branch), the Canada Revenue Agency's rules on source deductions, WorkSafeBC coverage, and the common-law tests applied by courts.

Employee or contractor: who actually decides?

Q: Can our strata just write "independent contractor" into the agreement and be done with it?

No. The CRA, WorkSafeBC and the courts look at the substance of the relationship, not the label on the paperwork. The factors generally weighed include:

• Control — does the council set the hours, the schedule and how the work is done, or only the result?
• Tools and equipment — who supplies the mower, the ladder, the truck?
• Chance of profit / risk of loss — can the person make more by working efficiently, or do they earn a fixed wage?
• Integration — is this person effectively part of the strata's operation, or running their own business with other clients?

A full-time resident building manager who works set hours, uses the strata's equipment and takes direction from council looks like an employee no matter what the contract says. A landscaping company that attends weekly with its own crew and insurance looks like a contractor.

Q: Does it matter that the caretaker lives on site?

It can. The Employment Standards Act and its regulation contain specific rules for resident caretakers, including how minimum wage is calculated for that role. If accommodation forms part of the compensation, there may also be questions about whether a tenancy exists. Both points are worth confirming with the Employment Standards Branch or a lawyer before the arrangement starts.

Q: What if the person is an owner in the building?

Being an owner does not change the employment analysis, but it raises governance issues — particularly if that owner sits on council. Council members should be alert to conflicts of interest and should not be voting on their own remuneration.

If the caretaker is an employee, the strata takes on employer obligations

The strata corporation is the employer. In practice that means:

• Registering for payroll and remitting CPP, EI and income tax source deductions; issuing T4s
• Meeting Employment Standards minimums — wages, overtime where applicable, statutory holidays, annual vacation, and notice or pay on termination
• WorkSafeBC registration and premiums for workers (for genuine contractors, obtain a clearance letter instead)
• Reviewing insurance. The corporation's mandatory property insurance covers common property, common assets, buildings shown on the strata plan and original owner-developer fixtures (s.149) — it is not employment-practices or employer's liability coverage. Ask your broker what the policy does and does not respond to.

Define the scope of work against the strata's actual duties

A caretaker performs work the corporation is responsible for — they do not absorb the responsibility. Under Standard Bylaw 8, the strata corporation must repair and maintain common assets, common property, limited common property (to the extent described) and, in non-bare-land plans, defined parts of a strata lot. Your registered bylaws may differ, so read them before drafting a job description.

Be realistic about scope, too. Fire and life-safety systems must be inspected, tested and maintained at the intervals the BC Fire Code sets for each system, and much of that work requires certified technicians. Similarly, an electrical planning report must be prepared by a qualified person as defined in Regulation s.5.10 — a caretaker qualifies only if they personally meet those credentials. Our overview of EV charging in BC stratas covers that planning work, and strata maintenance planning and work orders covers how to assign and track the rest. Councils that also own in Alberta should note the framework there is different — see condominium management in Alberta.

Paperwork and records

Put it in writing. Written contracts to which the strata corporation is a party are records the corporation must retain under s.35(2)(g), and the Regulation requires written contracts, including insurance policies, to be kept for at least six years after they end.

Note one gap: s.37 requires a person providing strata management services to return s.35 records within four weeks of the contract ending. A caretaker is usually not providing strata management services, so build key, fob, record and equipment return into the agreement itself rather than assuming the statute covers it.

When reviewing an inherited arrangement, tools like SearchStrata can run AI analysis across your bylaws, minutes and contracts to surface what was actually agreed, and ManageStrata keeps the resulting contract, renewal dates and work orders in one place.

This article is general information about BC strata law, not legal advice; verify against the current Strata Property Act and Regulation or consult a BC strata lawyer.