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).

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

General ledger — the corporation's complete transaction record, per fund, in date order. See finances overview.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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