The 2-5-10 Home Warranty: What New BC Strata Councils Must Claim Before It Expires

A new strata building comes with a warranty on its common property that is worth far more than most first councils realise — and the clock on the most useful part of it runs out roughly fifteen months after the first person moves in. Not fifteen months after your first AGM. Not fifteen months after the developer hands over the records. Fifteen months after occupancy or first title transfer, whichever came first, which in a large building may have been long before your council existed.

This is the single most expensive thing a brand-new strata council can get wrong, because the deficiencies that show up in year one are exactly the ones the warranty was designed to pay for.

This article is general information about BC's home warranty framework, not legal advice. Warranty policies differ between providers and the wording of your policy governs. Confirm your building's dates and coverage with your warranty provider, and get legal advice before a deadline passes.

What "2-5-10" actually means

Most new homes built in BC must be covered by third-party home warranty insurance, administered under the Province's homeowner protection framework and delivered by private insurers licensed to write it. BC Housing's Licensing and Consumer Services branch oversees the scheme and maintains the public registry.

The shorthand describes three coverage periods:

• 2 years on labour and materials
• 5 years on the building envelope, including water penetration
• 10 years on structural defects

The two-year period is not one flat period. It is subdivided, and the subdivisions are where new stratas get caught:

• 12 months on defects in materials and labour for a detached home, and for the non-common parts of a strata unit
• 15 months on defects in materials and labour in the common property of a multi-unit strata building
• 24 months on defects in the delivery and distribution systems — plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning — on the exterior cladding, caulking, windows and doors, and on any defect that makes the home unfit to live in

So the roof over your parkade ramp, the lobby, the corridors, the amenity room, the elevator lobby finishes, the landscaping and the exterior common areas are all sitting on the 15-month clock for materials-and-labour defects, even though the envelope and structural coverage runs for years afterwards.

When the clock starts — and why it is earlier than you think

For common property in a strata building, coverage generally begins on the earlier of:

• the date the first unit in the building is occupied, or
• the date legal title to the first strata lot in the building transfers to a purchaser

Both of those events typically happen before the first annual general meeting. In a phased or large development, occupancy may have begun many months before the council that inherits the warranty was elected. There is no rule that says the clock waits for you.

Your first job as a new council is therefore administrative, not technical: find out the exact date. Ask the developer, ask the warranty provider directly, and check the policy documents in the records the owner developer is required to hand over. Write the date on the front page of your council binder.

What is typically covered, and what is not

Coverage is defined by the policy, and policies vary. Broadly, warranty insurance responds to defects — work that does not meet the applicable building code or accepted standards of workmanship — rather than to wear, damage or neglect.

Commonly excluded or limited:

• Normal wear and tear, and damage caused by the owners or the strata
• Failure to perform normal maintenance, including maintenance the manufacturer or builder specified
• Damage caused by the strata's own alterations
• Landscaping settlement, and in many policies, some site-work items
• Consequential losses beyond what the policy specifies
• Anything the strata knew about and did not report before the relevant deadline

Coverage limits also apply. For strata common property, policies commonly cap coverage at a per-unit amount subject to an overall per-building maximum — read your own policy for the figures that apply to your building rather than relying on a number you read somewhere.

The first-council playbook

If you are on the council of a building less than two years old, work through this in order.

1. 1.Establish your warranty dates. Get the policy, the certificate, and written confirmation of the coverage start date for common property from the provider.
2. 2.Get the developer's records. The owner developer must hand over the strata corporation's records, including warranty documents, plans, and manuals. If they have not, ask in writing and escalate.
3. 3.Commission a common property warranty review. Engage a building envelope consultant or qualified building inspector to walk the common property and produce a written deficiency list keyed to the warranty periods. Do this early in the 15-month window, not at month 14.
4. 4.Report deficiencies in writing, to the provider, before the deadline. Notice to the builder is not the same as a claim to the insurer. Follow the claims procedure in your policy, in writing, with photographs and dates.
5. 5.Re-inspect before each subsequent milestone. Diarise month 22 for the two-year items, year four for the envelope, and year nine for structural. Put these dates in the strata's calendar so they survive council turnover.
6. 6.Keep the maintenance records. Warranty claims are routinely resisted on the basis that required maintenance was not performed. Your maintenance log is part of your claim file.

The trap: "the developer said they'd fix it"

Builders often will fix things, and a cooperative developer is genuinely worth working with. The problem is that a friendly email thread is not a claim, and time spent waiting for a promised repair is time coming off your window.

Run both tracks at once. Keep working with the builder, and file the formal claim with the warranty provider before the deadline anyway. A claim you did not need costs you nothing. A deadline you missed costs the owners a special levy.

The same logic applies to the very common situation where the first council is still largely appointed or influenced by the developer. That is precisely when an independent consultant's report is worth its fee, and precisely when council members with any tie to the developer should be disclosing it and stepping out of the vote.

Warranty and your depreciation report are not the same document

A depreciation report tells you what your building's components will cost to replace over thirty years. It says nothing about whether those components were built correctly in the first place.

New stratas sometimes assume the depreciation report has covered them. It has not. A depreciation report is a funding forecast; a warranty review is a defect hunt against a legal deadline. You want both, and in year one the warranty review is the urgent one.

Similarly, be sceptical of the developer's first-year budget — it is a marketing document as much as a financial one, and warranty consulting fees are rarely in it. Budget for the review anyway.

What if the deadline has already passed?

Do not assume everything is lost. The 15-month window applies to materials-and-labour defects in common property. The two-year systems and cladding coverage, the five-year envelope coverage and the ten-year structural coverage all run from the same start date and may still be live. Many of the most expensive problems in new BC buildings — water ingress, failed windows, balcony membranes — sit squarely in the five-year envelope band.

There may also be claims outside the warranty entirely, against the developer or the trades. Those are governed by limitation periods of their own and by contract, and that is a conversation for a construction lawyer with your documents in front of them, not a council motion.

Frequently asked questions

When does the 2-5-10 warranty on strata common property start? Generally on the earlier of the date the first unit in the building is occupied or the date legal title to the first strata lot transfers. That is usually before the first AGM, so a new council should confirm the exact date with the warranty provider rather than assume it starts at handover.

How long does a BC strata have to claim common property defects? Defects in materials and labour in common property are typically covered for 15 months from the coverage start date. Systems, cladding, windows and doors run to 24 months, the building envelope to 5 years, and structural defects to 10 years. Report in writing to the warranty provider before each deadline.

Is telling the developer the same as making a warranty claim? No. A warranty claim goes to the insurer, in the form the policy requires. Continue working with the builder if they are cooperative, but file the formal claim before the deadline regardless.

Do we need a consultant, or can council inspect the common property ourselves? Council can and should walk the property, but a written report from a building envelope consultant or qualified inspector carries far more weight with an insurer, catches what an untrained eye misses, and gives you a dated record. It is usually the cheapest money a new strata spends.

Does the warranty cover our individual units too? Yes, but on different timelines and generally claimed by the owner rather than the strata. The non-common parts of a strata lot typically carry 12 months of materials-and-labour coverage, with the same 24-month, 5-year and 10-year periods above it.

Related reading

• Beware the Developer's First-Year Strata Budget in BC
• BC Strata Depreciation Reports: The 2026 Deadline Explained
• Strata Council Roles & Responsibilities in BC
• Who's Responsible? Strata vs Owner Repairs and Maintenance in BC
• What to Look for When Buying a Strata Property in BC

BC Housing publishes plain-language guidance on the scheme at its home warranty insurance page, including a public registry you can use to confirm who insured your building.

Getting a brand-new strata through its first two years without leaving money on the table is specialist work. Onehive handles new-strata turnover and strata management for communities across Metro Vancouver — request a proposal.