Chargebacks and Fines: Two Different Ways to Recover a Cost

Council meetings tend to collapse these two things into one sentence: "Let's just charge it back to the owner." But the Strata Property Act gives a strata corporation two distinct tools with different purposes, different limits, and — importantly — one shared procedural gate. Getting the choice wrong is one of the most common reasons a cost recovery gets reversed at the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

A fine punishes a contravention. A chargeback recovers a cost.

A fine is a penalty for breaking a bylaw or rule. Under s.130, the strata corporation may fine an owner where the bylaw or rule was contravened by the owner, by a visitor or person the owner admitted to the premises, or by an occupant where the lot is not rented out. A tenant can be fined on the same basis for their own conduct, their visitors, and occupants.

A chargeback — the Act does not use that word — is cost recovery under s.133. The corporation may do what is reasonably necessary to remedy a contravention of its bylaws or rules, including doing work on a strata lot, common property or common assets and removing objects from common property. It may then require the reasonable costs of remedying the contravention to be paid by the person who could be fined for that contravention under s.130.

Notice the hinge: s.133 is tied to a bylaw or rule contravention. It is not a general power to bill an owner for anything that goes wrong near their unit.

How much can a fine be?

The corporation must set its maximum fine amounts in its bylaws (s.132), and those maximums cannot exceed the caps in Regulation s.7.1:

• $200 for each contravention of a bylaw
• $50 for each contravention of a rule
• $1,000 for each contravention of a bylaw prohibiting or limiting use of a residential strata lot for remuneration as vacation, travel or temporary accommodation
• Frequency for a continuing contravention: no more often than every 7 days — daily in the short-term accommodation case

Those are ceilings, not defaults. If your strata has never amended the fine bylaw, the Standard Bylaws still govern: Standard Bylaw 23 allows a maximum of $50 per bylaw contravention and $10 per rule contravention, and Standard Bylaw 24 permits a fine every 7 days where the contravention continues without interruption for longer than 7 days. Check what is actually filed in the Land Title Office for your corporation before you quote a number — and note that bylaws and rules carry different maximums, which is one practical reason the distinction in Strata Bylaws vs Rules in BC matters.

A s.133 cost recovery has no dollar cap, but it has a different limit: the cost must be reasonable and must be the cost of remedying the contravention.

Q&A: the questions councils actually ask

Can we fine an owner and also charge back the cleanup cost for the same incident?
The Act treats them as separate remedies with separate bases — a penalty under s.130 and reasonable remediation costs under s.133. Both run through the same procedural requirements, so each must be supported by its own written decision.

Do we need an owners' vote?
No. Fines and s.133 cost recovery are decisions the corporation makes, normally through council. They are not general-meeting business.

An owner's dishwasher flooded two units. Is that a chargeback?
Only if it was a contravention of a bylaw or rule. Where damage is not a contravention, s.133 does not apply. Recovering an insurance deductible from an owner runs on a different track: the deductible on a claim against the strata's policy is a common expense, and separately the Act allows the corporation to sue an owner who is responsible for the loss or damage. Responsibility is not automatic simply because the water started in that strata lot (BC government guidance on strata insurance).

Can we add a fine to the account and lien the lot?
Fines are not among the amounts a strata corporation can secure by lien under the Act's lien provisions in Part 6, which cover strata fees and special levies. Interest on overdue strata fees and special levies is permitted only where a bylaw sets the rate, within the cap in the Regulation.

Both tools require the same s.135 steps

This is where most recoveries fail. Section 135 applies to imposing a fine, requiring a person to pay the costs of remedying a contravention, and denying use of a recreational facility. Before any of those, the corporation must have:

• received a complaint about the contravention;
• given the owner or tenant written particulars of the complaint and a reasonable opportunity to answer it, including a hearing if requested;
• notified the landlord and the owner if the person is a tenant.

The corporation must then give written notice of its decision as soon as feasible. Once it has complied for a particular contravention, it may fine or penalize for a continuing contravention of that same bylaw or rule without repeating the steps. A fine imposed without these steps is void, and it cannot be fixed after the fact by sending the letter later.

Document it like you will have to prove it

The evidence a CRT member looks for is unglamorous: the complaint, the dated particulars letter, the owner's response, the hearing (if requested), the council's decision in the minutes, and the written decision notice. Self-managed councils in particular benefit from a standing template — see How to Self-Manage a Strata in BC — and from recording the decision cleanly, as covered in How to Prepare AGM Minutes in BC.

If you are not certain what your registered bylaws say about fine maximums or cost recovery, tools like SearchStrata can run an AI analysis across your bylaw set and minutes to surface the relevant clauses. And because enforcement files often outlive the council that opened them, ManageStrata is built on the premise that the management company can change but the strata's knowledge shouldn't — the minutes, decisions and records belong to the corporation.

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.