Financial Controls That Protect a Self-Managed Strata

Self-management is a legitimate choice in British Columbia. There is no requirement in the Strata Property Act to hire a property manager, and any strata corporation may be run by its elected council — see the Province's overview of strata councils. What self-management removes is not the legal duty to account for other people's money; it removes the layer of process that a brokerage's back office would otherwise supply. Building that layer yourself is what strata financial controls are.

What the Act already requires of you

Some controls are not optional practice — they are built into the legislation.

• An approved budget. The strata corporation must prepare a budget for the coming fiscal year, approved by a majority vote at each annual general meeting, and the proposed budget must go out with the notice of the AGM accompanied by a financial statement (s.103). The proposed budget may be amended by majority vote at the meeting before the budget itself is voted on.
• A financial statement with real content. Regulation s.6.7 requires the statement to show opening and current balances in both the operating fund and the contingency reserve fund, income from all sources except special levies, expenditures out of each fund — including details of any unapproved expenditures under s.98 — and any special levy income and expenditures. A statement updated to the end of the fiscal year must be prepared within 8 weeks after the fiscal year ends. Bylaws may allow a summarised version for distribution with the notice, but the full statement must still be placed before the AGM.
• Proper notice. At least 2 weeks' written notice of a general meeting is required, and for an AGM the notice must include the budget and financial statement (s.45). Notice sent by email, mail or fax is conclusively deemed received 4 days after sending, so an emailed AGM package realistically needs to go out about 18 days ahead.
• Spending authority. Contingency reserve fund spending generally needs a 3/4 vote, with a defined set of exceptions that need only a majority — including work recommended in the most current depreciation report and EV charging infrastructure (the CRF rules are summarised here). Section 98 allows unapproved spending only from the operating fund up to the bylaw limit (or, if the bylaws are silent, the lesser of $2,000 and 5% of the annual operating-fund contribution), or from either fund on reasonable grounds that an immediate expenditure is necessary for safety or to prevent significant loss or damage.

Budgeting is also where your maintenance obligations get funded. The corporation's duty to repair and maintain common property under s.72 includes keeping fire and life-safety systems inspected and tested at the intervals the BC Fire Code sets for each system — those are recurring line items, not surprises. Our guides to how strata fees work in BC and preparing a strata annual budget go deeper on both.

Controls worth adding on top

The Act does not prescribe who signs cheques or how the books are kept. That comes from your strata's registered bylaws and council practice, so check your filed bylaws before assuming any of the following applies to you:

• Separate the person who approves from the person who pays. One council member approves an invoice; a different signer releases payment.
• Two authorisations on every disbursement, whether that is two cheque signatures or dual approval in online banking.
• Read-only bank access for the whole council, so any member can see the accounts without being able to move money.
• Monthly reconciliation of every account against statements, reviewed at the next council meeting rather than filed unseen.
• No cash, no personal accounts, no commingling. CRF money belongs in a separate account from operating money.
• A written spending limit in the bylaws, so "unapproved expenditure" has a number attached to it.
• Documented conflicts of interest when a council member's own business bids on strata work.

Owners have a lever here too: by majority vote at a general meeting the strata corporation may direct or restrict the council in exercising its powers, provided the direction is not contrary to the Act, regulations or bylaws and does not interfere with the council's case-by-case discretion on bylaw enforcement (s.27). A resolution requiring dual signing authority is a legitimate use of that power.

Questions self-managed councils ask

Do we have to keep our financial records forever?
No. Regulation s.4.1 sets different retention periods for different records. Books of account, budgets and financial statements, bank statements, cancelled cheques, certificates of deposit and minutes must be kept at least 6 years; written contracts including insurance policies for at least 6 years after they end; correspondence at least 2 years. Depreciation reports and electrical planning reports are retained permanently, while the bylaws and rules, the council list and the owner list are simply kept as current copies.

Can an owner demand to see the bank statements?
Owners may inspect and obtain copies of the records listed in s.35, and the strata must comply within 2 weeks — except a request for the bylaws or rules, which must be met within one week (s.36). Responding promptly is itself a control: councils that answer records requests routinely rarely have hidden problems.

We are a brand-new strata. What are we owed from the developer?
Within one week after the first AGM the owner developer must transfer control of the strata corporation's money to the newly elected council and hand over keys and other means of access (s.22). For 2 years after that transfer the developer must keep the financial records covering the pre-transfer period, make them available for inspection free of charge on request, and the strata may copy or audit them at its own expense (s.23).

Warning signs of a control failure

Fraud in small stratas rarely looks dramatic. It looks like statements that arrive late, a treasurer who is the only person with banking access, reconciliations that are "coming", vendors nobody chose, and CRF withdrawals that no resolution matches. Because the CRF is the largest pool of money most stratas hold, read our contingency reserve fund guide alongside your own bank records. When you are reviewing a stack of minutes, statements and contracts and want a faster read on what they actually say, SearchStrata offers AI analysis of strata documents. For the ongoing side — budget tracking, records retention and a clear audit trail on every approval — ManageStrata is built for self-managed councils doing their own bookkeeping.

Strata fraud prevention is not about distrusting your neighbours. It is about making sure no single volunteer is ever in a position where their word is the only record.

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.