What a BC Strata Council Can Keep Confidential

The minutes arrive and there it is: "Council moved in camera at 7:40 p.m." Nothing after that except the time the meeting ended. An owner emails asking what was decided, and the council — none of whom are lawyers — is suddenly guessing at what it is allowed to say.

The tension is rarely secrecy for its own sake. It is that nobody wrote down where the line sits between an owner's private business and the corporation's record. This post sets out what the Strata Property Act actually makes available to owners, what genuinely belongs outside the general record, and how to minute a closed discussion so the decision still shows up.

"In camera" is a habit, not a statutory category

The Strata Property Act does not define "in camera" and does not create a class of secret council business. Whether owners may sit in on council meetings as observers, and when they may be excluded, is governed by your strata's own registered bylaws — the Standard Bylaws apply only if your corporation has not filed something different, so read what is actually registered against your plan (Schedule of Standard Bylaws). If you are unclear on the difference between a filed bylaw and a rule council adopted on its own, see Strata Bylaws vs Rules in BC.

What the Act does set is the default direction of travel: the corporation's records are open to the people entitled to them, on a clock.

The default is access, on a deadline

Under s.36, on request the strata corporation must make its s.35 records available for inspection and provide copies to an owner, to a tenant assigned that right, or to a person either of them authorises in writing. Former owners and former tenants may request records relating to their period of ownership or tenancy. The corporation must comply within 2 weeks, except a request for the bylaws or rules, which must be met within one week. A copying fee may be charged, capped by the Regulation (Strata Property Act, Part 4).

Two consequences follow:

• "Confidential" is not a listed ground for refusing a s.35 record. Awkwardness is not an exemption.
• Legal opinions the corporation obtained are themselves records it must retain — permanently, along with the registered strata plan, resolutions dealing with changes to common property, decisions of a judge, arbitrator or the Civil Resolution Tribunal in proceedings the strata was party to, depreciation reports and electrical planning reports (Strata Property Regulation s.4.1). Whether a particular opinion can be withheld as privileged in a live dispute is a question to put to your lawyer, not something a council should decide on instinct.

Retention periods vary by record type — correspondence at least 2 years, minutes and books of account at least 6 years, contracts at least 6 years after they end — so "we keep everything forever" is not the rule either.

What genuinely belongs outside the general record

These are the categories where discretion is normal and defensible:

• Personal information about identifiable individuals. BC's Personal Information Protection Act applies to strata corporations as organizations. Medical details, hardship circumstances, an owner's employment or family situation, contractor employees' personal data — none of that needs to sit in minutes circulated to every unit.
• Bylaw-contravention files naming an owner or tenant. Record that a complaint was considered and what the council decided; the particulars belong in the file for that strata lot.
• Hearings requested under s.34.1. An owner or tenant may request a hearing at a council meeting by written application stating the reason; the council must hold it within 4 weeks, and where the purpose is to seek a decision, must give a written decision within one week of the hearing (Part 4). That conversation is the applicant's, not the building's.
• Live litigation strategy and insurance claims. In suits against the strata corporation, the corporation may join as a party the owner whose act or omission gave rise to the claim (s.168, Part 10) — which is exactly the kind of decision councils discuss before they announce it.
• Security details. Door codes, alarm settings, key inventories.

What does not belong on that list: contracts, budgets, arrears totals for the corporation as a whole, engineering reports, or a decision council simply expects owners to dislike.

Questions councils actually ask

Can council exclude owners from part of a meeting and leave it out of the minutes entirely?
No. Even where exclusion is permitted by your bylaws, the Standard Bylaws require that the results of all votes at a council meeting be recorded in the council meeting minutes (bylaw 18(3), Schedule). Write the decision without the private detail: "Council approved a payment plan for one strata lot in arrears." The same discipline applies to general meetings — see How to Prepare AGM Minutes in BC.

Does a purchaser see another owner's arrears?
No. A Form B Information Certificate discloses amounts owing for the strata lot it is issued for — plus matters like approved special levies, unfiled bylaw amendments, outstanding notices or work orders, proceedings the strata is party to, and a summary of insurance coverage. It must be given within one week of a request by an owner, purchaser or authorised person, for a maximum fee of $35 plus reproduction costs up to 25 cents per page (s.59; Regulation s.4.4 and Form B).

Can council sign an NDA that overrides owner access?
A contract between the corporation and a vendor cannot shrink an owner's statutory right to s.35 records. Treat confidentiality clauses as a reason to ask questions before signing, not as an answer to give owners afterward.

What a healthy strata does about it

Open by default is the cheaper setting. Councils that write the decision down, name the category of what was withheld and why, and answer records requests inside the two-week and one-week windows spend far less time defending themselves than councils that treat the record as theirs to ration.

Practically, that means: a standing line in the minutes template for closed-session outcomes; a single place where the records live; and a council that knows the retention periods rather than discovering them during a dispute. Owners researching a building can run disclosure packages through tools like SearchStrata for AI analysis of strata documents — which is a good reason for the record to be coherent before anyone else reads it. ManageStrata exists for the same reason: the council or the management company can change, but the corporation's documents, minutes, votes and books belong to the corporation and stay with it, and council can export a full copy at any time. That matters most for self-managed councils, where the record is only as durable as the volunteer keeping it.

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.