Glossary

A – C

AGM — Annual General Meeting. The yearly meeting of all owners: budget approval, election of council, and any resolutions. Requires formal notice — 2 weeks in BC, but 18 days where notice goes by email, which is deemed received 4 days after sending (s.61).

Ageing — splitting what a lot owes by how long it has owed it: current, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days. An accounting convention, not a statutory threshold — nothing happens at ninety days in the Act. See arrears and interest.

Allocation — which charge a payment settled. Named on the payment form, or applied oldest-charge-first where it wasn't. The same allocation is read by the ledger, the ageing, the interest run and a Form B, so they can't disagree. See owner ledgers.

Arrears — money an owner owes and hasn't paid. See arrears and interest.

Budget line — one category of an adopted budget, and the thing expenses are reported against. Spend recorded without one shows as Uncategorised; spend under a line the budget didn't provide for shows as unbudgeted.

Attendance register — the roll taken at a general meeting: which lots are present, whether by themselves or by proxy, and whether in the room or on the call. Quorum is counted off it. A lot that leaves is marked departed and stops counting from that moment. See the registration desk.

Audit trail — the record of who did what and when. See privacy and data.

Bylaws — the corporation's own rules, binding on all owners and registered against the strata plan. Amendments need a 3/4 vote and filing at the Land Title Office to take effect.

Council seat — a seat held for the corporation rather than for a lot, which is why an owner elected to council holds two seats and keeps their lot's one. See council and roster.

Common property — everything not inside a strata lot: hallways, roof, exterior, grounds, lobby, parkade. The corporation's responsibility to maintain.

Communications log — the corporation's record of emails it has sent. Kept for 24 months by default, adjustable under SettingsRecords, and purged weekly — the one record ManageStrata deletes on a schedule. See corporation settings.

Condominium corporation — what a strata corporation is called outside BC. Same thing.

Confirm card — the preview the Assistant shows when you tell it to record something: the same review step as the form, with Confirm and Don't record it. Nothing is recorded until you press Confirm.

Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF) — savings for major, infrequent replacements. See contingency reserve fund.

Council — the elected owners who run the corporation between general meetings. Called the board in some provinces.

D – L

Depreciation report — a professional assessment of your components, their remaining life, replacement costs and the contributions needed to fund them. Required in BC for corporations of 5+ lots, then renewed every 5 years. The first deadline is regional: July 1, 2026 for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District, July 1, 2027 for the rest of BC. There is no waiver. See depreciation report.

Directive — in ManageStrata, a tracked follow-up arising from a meeting. See minutes and directives.

Electrical planning report — BC's report on a building's electrical capacity for EV charging, required of corporations with 5+ lots. Phased by regional district, like the first depreciation report. See depreciation report.

Envelope remediation — repair work done to a building's walls, windows or balconies, recorded separately from what the wall is now. Often a leaky-condo-era re-clad. Recorded per building.

Fiscal year — the corporation's financial year. Drives budgets, statements and closing the books.

Form B — Information Certificate — BC's disclosure certificate for a lot: fees, amounts owing, reserve balance, approved-but-uncollected levies, depreciation report status, court/arbitration/tribunal proceedings and judgments, parking and storage, and unfiled bylaw amendments. Maximum fee $35 plus up to 25¢/page, due within 1 week. It does not ask about building defects. See strata forms.

Form F — Certificate of Payment — BC's certificate of whether a lot owes money. Needed to complete a sale. Maximum fee $15, due within 1 week of the request.

Fund transactions — the corporation's fund cash journal: every fund posting, per fund, in date order with a running balance. Called General ledger in earlier versions; renamed because the postings are single-sided by design and there is no trial balance behind them. See finances overview.

Hand-off — the Assistant's answer to an instruction it deliberately won't carry out from chat, such as a fee run or a special levy: a link to the right page and a one-line reason.

In credit — a lot that has paid ahead, or had a charge reversed after paying it. Shown as "$150.00 in credit" rather than as a negative balance: the direction belongs in a word, not a minus sign. See owner ledgers.

Interest on arrears — BC has no statutory late fee. A corporation may charge interest on overdue strata fees and special levies only where its own bylaws set a rate, capped at 10% per annum compounded annually (SPR 6.8). No bylaw, no interest. See arrears and interest.

Lot (strata lot) — one individually-owned unit. Sometimes "unit".

M – R

Meeting format — how a general meeting is held: in person, by electronic means, or both. BC s.49 permits electronic meetings, and a lot attending that way is present for quorum. The format decides what the notice says and where owners register. See how the meeting is held.

Minutes — the official record of a meeting: what was decided, on what authority, by what margin.

Operating fund — pays this year's recurring costs. Distinct from the reserve.

Owner accounts — the corporation's receivables ledger: what every lot owes, aged, oldest arrear first. Open a lot from it for that lot's own ledger.

Owner ledger — one lot's charges, payments and corrections with a running balance. See owner ledgers.

Past seat — a seat that has ended. The row stays on the roster as the record of who held it, and stops counting as somebody who holds one. See ending a seat.

PIPA / PIPEDA — Canadian privacy legislation governing personal information. See privacy and data.

Proxy — authority for someone else to vote your lot when you can't attend. Counts toward quorum too.

Quorum — the minimum attendance for a meeting to make valid decisions. In BC, eligible voters holding 1/3 of the votes in person or by proxy — 2/3 for corporations with fewer than four lots (s.48). If quorum fails, the meeting adjourns to the same day the following week and whoever attends then is the quorum.

Overdue (component) — a component whose due year has passed. Counted as money needed now in the reserve projection.

Placeholder (names) — a token such as [P3] that stands in for a roster name when text goes to the AI provider, swapped back before you read the answer. See how AI works.

Rainscreen — a wall built with a drained, ventilated gap behind the cladding, so water that gets past it can escape. Recorded per building as full, partial or none.

Regional district — the BC area that phases the first depreciation report and electrical planning report deadlines. Set under SettingsCompliance; when it isn't, the later date is shown.

Remaining life — years until a component needs replacing, counted from the year the figure was recorded (the study's report date, or the day it was typed or edited) — not from today.

RSVP — an owner saying whether they intend to come to a meeting. A projection the council can chase against, never evidence: it counts toward nothing and never reaches the quorum figure. See who's coming.

RAG — red / amber / green. The status colours on the compliance calendar.

Reserve fund study — the Alberta and Ontario equivalent of a depreciation report.

Resolution — a decision put to owners for a vote. See voting and resolutions, and vote thresholds below.

S – Z

SearchStrata registry — the public registry of BC strata corporations that ManageStrata reads to look up your plan number and fill in your buildings, and that your council can choose to share facts with. Built from public land-title and assessment records; not a government registry, and not the same thing as the component registry on Assets.

Seat — one person's place in a corporation: owner (held for a lot), council (held for the corporation), or manager (held under a contract). One person can hold several at once. See council and roster.

SGM — Special General Meeting. Called between AGMs for something that can't wait — a levy, an urgent bylaw change.

Special levy — a one-off charge on owners for a specific purpose, usually a major repair. In BC the allocation sets the threshold: allocated by unit entitlement it needs a 3/4 vote; allocated any other way, including equally per lot, it needs a unanimous vote (s.108(2)). See special levies.

Strata corporation — the legal entity comprising all the owners in a strata development. In BC, The Owners, Strata Plan [number].

Strata fees — the regular contributions owners pay to fund the budget, split by unit entitlement (s.99). Changing that formula needs a unanimous vote and must be filed at the Land Title Office (s.100); a bylaw alone cannot do it. See billing strata fees.

Strata plan — the registered plan defining the lots, common property, and the schedule of unit entitlement.

Strata Property Act — BC's governing legislation. Alberta has the Condominium Property Act; Ontario the Condominium Act, 1998.

Vote thresholds — the Strata Property Act defines four, and names them directly; it does not use "ordinary resolution" or "special resolution". Majority vote: more than 1/2 of the votes cast. 3/4 vote: at least 3/4 of the votes cast. 80% vote: at least 80% of all eligible votes in the corporation. Unanimous vote: all the votes of all eligible voters, present or not. Abstentions are excluded from the count throughout. See voting and resolutions.

Unit entitlement (unit factor) — each lot's share of the corporation, from the strata plan. Determines fee splits and levy allocation — and not voting, which is one lot, one vote (s.53). See units and lots.

WorkSafeBC clearance — confirmation a contractor's workers' compensation coverage is current. Tracked per vendor, and worth checking before anyone works on your property: without it the corporation can be liable for the contractor's unpaid premiums.

Work order — a tracked repair, from report to close. See maintenance.