Special levies
Model a one-off charge for a major project, allocate it equally or by unit entitlement, and issue it to owner ledgers once the owners have approved it.
A special levy is a one-time charge on owners for a specific purpose — usually a major repair the reserve can't fully cover. It is the most consequential financial decision a strata corporation makes, and the one owners scrutinise hardest.
FinancesSpecial levy.
Before you model anything
How you allocate the levy decides the vote you need
In BC a special levy allocated by unit entitlement requires a 3/4 vote. Allocated any other way — including an equal split per lot — it requires a unanimous vote: every eligible voter in the corporation, not just those present (SPA s.108(2)). The resolution must state the amount, the purpose, how it's allocated, and when it's payable — and owners vote on exactly those words. See voting and resolutions.
Section 108(2) permits a 3/4 vote only where each lot's share is calculated under s.99, s.100 or s.195 — that is, by unit entitlement. Any other basis is "another way that establishes a fair division of expenses for that particular levy", and that route needs unanimity.
The practical consequence is worth stating plainly. A council that splits a roof levy equally across 30 lots and carries it 26–4 has not passed the levy. Any one of the four can have it set aside at the Civil Resolution Tribunal — after the invoices have gone out and some owners have already paid. Unless your lots are genuinely identical, allocate by entitlement: a 3/4 vote is achievable and a unanimous one rarely is.
Have these settled first:
- Scope and cost — quotes, not estimates. Owners will ask how many you got.
- What the reserve will contribute — a levy is normally the shortfall, not the whole cost.
- The allocation basis — and therefore your threshold. By entitlement: 3/4 vote. Anything else: unanimous.
- Instalments — one payment or several, and the dates.
- What happens if it comes in under or over — say so in the resolution.
Modelling it
The special levy page lets you model the numbers before anything is charged:
Enter the total to be raised
The project cost less whatever the reserve is contributing.
Choose the allocation
By unit entitlement (the s.99 basis) can be approved by a 3/4 vote, and depends on the entitlements on your lots being correct. Equally across lots requires a unanimous vote under s.108(2)(b) — every eligible voter in the corporation, not just those present. ManageStrata shows which threshold applies as you switch between them.
Review the per-lot amounts
This is the table owners will care about. Check it before it goes in the notice, because it is going in the notice.
Set the instalments
Two or three instalments over several months materially improves collection rates over a single large demand.
Putting it to owners
The levy resolution goes to a general meeting with the notice. Include the quotes, the reserve position, the per-lot table, and the instalment dates — and expect questions about all four.
Show the reserve projection
The most persuasive thing you can put in front of owners is the reserve projection showing why the reserve can't cover it. A levy presented as a consequence of the numbers passes; a levy presented as a request does not.
Issuing it
Once the resolution has carried and been finalized, issue the levy to owner ledgers. Each lot gets its charge, with the instalment schedule, and owners see it in their portal alongside their fees.
Finalize the vote first
The authority to charge comes from the finalized resolution. Issuing before it's finalized creates charges nothing authorised — awkward to explain and awkward to unwind.
A thinly-attended levy isn't settled for a week
If a 3/4-vote resolution passes at a meeting where less than 50% of the votes were present, owners holding 25% of the votes can demand an SGM to reconsider it — and they have one week to do it (SPA s.51). A levy carried at a poorly-attended AGM is therefore not final on the day. If turnout was thin, it is worth waiting out the week before issuing the charges rather than unwinding a ledger later.
From there it behaves like any other charge: payments are recorded against it, it appears on the ledger, and it shows on a Form F for a lot that's selling — which is exactly when an unpaid levy instalment surfaces.
Spending the money
Money raised by a levy is for the purpose the owners approved. Record project expenses against the right fund with a clear description, and link them to the work order and the component so next year's reserve projection knows the work was done.
If there's a surplus, your Act and the resolution govern what happens to it — commonly returned to owners in the same proportion, or transferred to the reserve with owner approval. Decide it properly and minute it.
If it comes in over, you're back to the owners. That is why the resolution should say what happens in that case.
What owners should ask
Reasonable questions, and a council that can answer them gets its levy:
- How many quotes, and why this contractor?
- Why can't the reserve cover it? What does the depreciation report say?
- Why this allocation basis?
- What happens if the work costs less, or more?
- What are the instalment dates, and is there any flexibility for hardship?
If you can't pass it
A defeated levy doesn't make the roof stop leaking. Options are: come back with a smaller or phased scope, look at financing, or raise the annual contribution and defer on professional advice. Whatever you do, minute the decision and tell owners what the deferral means — including that the eventual cost is unlikely to be lower.
Still stuck? Open Support in the top bar of the app, ask the Assistant, or contact us.