Working Out Each Owner's Special Levy Share

When a roof, an envelope repair or an elevator modernization outruns the contingency reserve fund, most BC strata corporations turn to a special levy. The hard part is rarely the total — it is working out, defensibly, what each owner owes. Get the division wrong and you have the wrong vote threshold, an unenforceable resolution, and owners who are entitled to ask why.

The two ways a levy can be divided — and the two different votes

Section 108 of the Strata Property Act lets the strata corporation raise money from owners by special levy, and it gives exactly two routes for dividing it:

• Calculated under sections 99, 100 or 195 (in practice, unit entitlement) — the levy must be approved by a 3/4 vote at an annual or special general meeting: s.108(2)(a).
• Divided "in another way that establishes a fair division of expenses for that particular levy" — the levy must be approved by a unanimous vote: s.108(2)(b).

That distinction is the single most important thing on this page. A levy split any way other than the statutory formula is not a 3/4-vote item.

A 3/4 vote is defined in section 1 as at least 3/4 of the votes cast by eligible voters present in person or by proxy when the vote is taken, excluding abstentions — not 3/4 of all owners, and not 3/4 of all strata lots. A unanimous vote, by contrast, means all the votes of all eligible voters in the corporation, whether or not they show up. In a 60-lot building that is a very different proposition.

The default calculation per unit

The default share comes from the strata fee formula in section 99(2):

unit entitlement of the strata lot ÷ total unit entitlement of all strata lots × the total levy

Unit entitlement is not floor area, not assessed value and not something the bylaws can change. It is the number in the Schedule of Unit Entitlement filed with the strata plan — the form is Form V in the Strata Property Regulation. Pull the actual schedule from the Land Title Office rather than relying on a figure typed into an old budget spreadsheet. (The same number drives regular fees — see How Strata Fees Work in BC.)

Worked example. A $240,000 levy in a strata with total unit entitlement of 10,000. A lot with unit entitlement of 95 owes 95 ÷ 10,000 × $240,000 = $2,280. A lot at 150 owes $3,600. Round carefully and make the column add to the total — the resolution has to state the amount for every lot.

When the default formula is modified

The Regulation changes the arithmetic in a few defined situations:

• If the strata has, by a bylaw passed under section 72(3), taken responsibility for repair and maintenance of specified portions of some but not all strata lots, a special levy for that work is shared only among the owners of the lots it relates to, using their unit entitlements over the total for those lots — Regulation s.6.5. The parallel rule for sections is s.11.3.
• Limited common property does not automatically narrow a levy. Regulation s.6.4 lets an operating fund contribution that relates to and benefits only LCP be shared among the users — but s.6.4(3) says a special levy is still calculated over the unit entitlement of all strata lots, subject to a resolution under s.100 or s.108(2)(b). So levying only the balcony owners for balcony work normally requires the unanimous route. Section 11.2 applies the same structure within sections.

Whether either applies to your building depends on your registered bylaws and on what the strata plan shows — not on what feels fair.

Questions councils actually ask

Can we charge only the owners who benefit?
Only through one of the recognized routes: a Regulation formula like s.6.5 or s.11.3 where the conditions are met, a resolution under s.100, or a "fair division" levy under s.108(2)(b) approved unanimously.

What must the resolution say?
All five items in s.108(3): the purpose, the total amount, the method used to determine each lot's share, each strata lot's share, and the payment or instalment dates. Put the full schedule of lot-by-lot amounts in the resolution package with the notice of the general meeting, which may be an SGM called under section 42. Notice must be at least two weeks, and emailed notice is deemed received four days after sending — see the Province's guidance.

What if an owner pays late?
BC has no automatic late fee. Interest may be charged only if a bylaw or the levy resolution sets a rate under s.108(4.1), capped at 10% per annum compounded annually by Regulation s.6.8. That interest is not a fine and forms part of the levy. An unpaid special levy can support a Certificate of Lien under section 116; fines and the costs of remedying a contravention cannot.

The unit sells mid-levy — who pays?
Section 109 splits it by date: the seller owes the portion payable before the conveyance date, the buyer owes the portion payable on or after it.

What happens to money left over?
Under s.108(5) the surplus is repaid to owners in proportion to their contributions; if no owner would receive more than $100, s.108(6) allows the strata to deposit the excess in the contingency reserve fund. Levy money must also be accounted for separately and used only for the stated purpose.

Before you levy

A levy is a budgeting decision as much as a legal one — test it against the CRF balance and the next few years of planned work while preparing the annual budget. Also confirm you are using the current Schedule of Unit Entitlement: it can be replaced following a strata plan amendment under section 264, and court-ordered corrections are tightly limited by Regulation s.14.13.

If the schedule, bylaws and prior resolutions are scattered across old PDFs, tools like SearchStrata can run AI analysis across strata documents to surface what is actually registered. And because the management company can change while the corporation continues, keeping the levy resolution, the lot-by-lot schedule and the meeting minutes in the strata's own system — the sort of continuity ManageStrata is built for — means the next council can still show its work.

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.