Unit Entitlement in BC Stratas: How Your Strata Fees Are Calculated

Every owner who has ever compared their strata fee to a neighbour's has run into the same number: unit entitlement. It is not a value assessment, not a measure of how much you use the building, and not something your strata council can adjust to make things feel fairer. It is a figure fixed on a schedule filed with your strata plan, and it drives most of what owners pay.

What unit entitlement actually is

Under section 1 of the Strata Property Act, "unit entitlement" means the number indicated in the Schedule of Unit Entitlement established under section 246, used to determine a strata lot's share of:

• the common property and common assets, and
• the common expenses and liabilities of the strata corporation.

So the same number that sets your monthly fee also sets your share of a special levy and your interest in the common property. It comes from the schedule filed with the strata plan — not from the bylaws and not simply from unit size.

Where the number comes from

Section 246 sets out how the person depositing the strata plan must calculate unit entitlement, and the figures are recorded on Form V, Schedule of Unit Entitlement:

• Residential strata lots — either the habitable area in square metres as determined by a BC land surveyor (rounded to the nearest whole number), or a whole number that is the same for all residential lots, or a number approved by the Superintendent of Real Estate as allocating a fair portion of common expenses.
• Non-residential strata lots — either the total area in square metres as determined by a BC land surveyor, or a whole number that is the same for all non-residential lots, or a superintendent-approved number.
• Bare land strata lots — a whole number that is the same for all strata lots in the plan, or a superintendent-approved number.

Where a plan has both residential and non-residential lots, the schedule must be approved by the superintendent as fairly distributing common expenses between the two groups. That is why two buildings of identical size can allocate fees very differently: one used habitable area, the other gave every lot the same number.

How the strata fee calculation works

Section 99 requires owners to contribute their strata lots' shares of the total budgeted contributions to the operating fund and contingency reserve fund. The basic proportion is:

your unit entitlement ÷ total unit entitlement of all strata lots × the total budgeted contribution

The budget itself is what sets the dollars. Owners approve it by majority vote at a general meeting, and every budget must include a contingency reserve fund contribution of at least 10% of the total budgeted operating fund contribution, determined after considering the most recent depreciation report (BC government guidance). If you want the mechanics of building that number, see our guide to preparing a strata annual budget in BC, and for the report that informs it, how to read a depreciation report.

When owners don't all share equally

The Strata Property Regulation carves out situations where an operating expense is not spread across every lot:

• Limited common property. If a contribution to the operating fund relates to and benefits only limited common property, Regulation s.6.4 shares it only among owners entitled to use that LCP, by unit entitlement within that group.
• Types of strata lot. The same section applies where an operating contribution relates to and benefits only one type of strata lot and that type is identified as a type in the bylaws — a genuinely bylaw-dependent rule worth checking against your registered bylaws.
• Portions of strata lots the strata has taken on. Where a bylaw passed under s.72(3) makes the strata responsible for specified portions of some but not all lots, Regulation s.6.5 shares that operating contribution or special levy only among the affected lots.
• Sections. Regulation s.11.2 applies parallel formulas within a section.

Note that in each case the contingency reserve fund contribution still goes back to unit entitlement across all lots.

Questions owners ask

Does unit entitlement give me more votes?
No. Unit entitlement allocates expenses, not voting power. Where a strata plan includes at least one non-residential strata lot, votes may be set out in a Schedule of Voting Rights under section 247 — in a mixed plan, residential lots have one vote each.

Can our strata just change unit entitlement to make fees fairer?
Not by council decision and not by majority vote. There are two distinct routes:

• Use a different formula for contributions. Section 100 lets a strata agree, by a unanimous vote, to use one or more different formulas for calculating each lot's share of operating and CRF contributions. It has no effect until filed in the land title office with a Certificate of Strata Corporation.
• Amend the schedule itself. To reflect a change in habitable area where entitlement was calculated on that basis, section 261 requires a unanimous vote, a new schedule meeting s.246 with the superintendent's approval, and an application to the registrar. Where a strata plan amendment changes unit entitlement, section 264 requires a new schedule using the same formula as the one being replaced, submitted to the superintendent. Examining a schedule costs $200 per schedule under Regulation s.14.8.

What if the recorded area is simply wrong?
Section 246(7) allows an owner or the strata corporation to apply to the Supreme Court where entitlement was calculated on habitable area or square footage and the actual area is not accurately reflected. Regulation s.14.13 narrows this considerably: no application may be brought where the inaccuracy was in the schedule when the strata plan was deposited, and otherwise only where the actual area differs by at least 10%, or by at least 20 square metres. This is lawyer territory.

What about late payment?
Section 107 permits a bylaw that establishes a schedule for paying strata fees to set a rate of interest on late payment, not exceeding the rate set out in the Regulation. Interest is only available if your bylaws actually provide for it — it is not a fine. See collecting strata fee arrears in BC.

Practical takeaway for councils

Pull your registered Schedule of Unit Entitlement and confirm the totals your fee roll uses match it. Owners asking to "review" fees are usually asking about the budget, not entitlement — and tools like SearchStrata can help analyse strata documents to see which formula your plan actually used. Once the schedule and budget are confirmed, software such as ManageStrata can apply the section 99 proportion consistently across every lot.

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.