What Actually Happens in Your First 90 Days With a New Strata Manager

Signing with a new strata management company feels like the end of a long process. For your building it is the beginning of one. The first ninety days decide whether the switch actually fixed anything, and most of what determines that happens in the first three weeks — while the outgoing firm still holds your records and the incoming one is still guessing about your building.

This is what a competent transition looks like from the council's side, so you can tell early whether the new firm is on top of it.

Weeks one to three: the handover

Almost every transition that goes badly goes badly here. Your outgoing manager has no incentive to be helpful and your new one does not yet know what is missing.

A firm that has done this before will, in the first fortnight:

• Take custody of the money properly. New trust account arrangements, signing authorities updated, and a reconciliation against the closing balance the previous firm hands over. If that reconciliation does not balance, you want to know in week two, not at your next AGM.
• Chase the records list in writing. Financials, minutes, bylaws, insurance, contracts, the owner roll, the depreciation report. A firm that waits for the outgoing manager to volunteer these is a firm that will be missing half of them in six months.
• Take over the vendor relationships. Landscapers, elevator maintenance, fire safety, janitorial. Each needs to know who authorises work now and where to send invoices.
• Write to the owners. Every owner needs the new contact details, the payment arrangements, and confirmation that their pre-authorised debit will not break. Missed fee payments during a transition create arrears files that take months to unwind.

What the council should do: nominate one person as the single point of contact for the handover. Transitions fail when four council members each assume someone else asked for the insurance policy.

Weeks three to six: learning the building

By now the paperwork should be moving and the new manager should be forming an actual opinion about your building.

Expect a site visit — a real one, walking the property with someone from the council who knows its history. Expect questions that suggest they have read the minutes: why the roof work stopped in 2023, what happened with the parkade drain, why there is a standing dispute with unit 304.

This is also when the first honest assessment arrives, and it is often uncomfortable. A new manager coming into a building that has been poorly served usually finds things: deferred maintenance nobody logged, a reserve fund thinner than the depreciation report assumed, bylaws that have not been updated since the plan was filed, arrears that were never properly pursued.

That discomfort is the point. A firm that arrives, changes nothing, and tells you everything looks fine in month two is not paying attention.

Weeks six to twelve: the first real test

Two things happen in this window that tell you what you have bought.

The first full financial cycle. You should receive a complete monthly financial package — statements, a reconciliation, a budget-to-actual comparison — for a month they were responsible for start to finish. Read it properly. Is it on time? Can you understand it without a phone call? Does the reserve balance match what you were told at handover? If you cannot see what your strata fees are paying for in that package, say so now while the relationship is new.

The first genuine problem. Something will break, or an owner will escalate something, or a vendor will let you down. How the new firm handles that one incident tells you more than the entire sales process did.

What "on track" looks like at ninety days

• Records are complete, or the gaps are documented with a plan to close them
• Financials have arrived on schedule twice, and reconcile
• Every owner is paying through the new arrangements with no arrears created by the switch
• The manager has walked the building and can talk about it specifically
• You have a named contact who answers, and a backup when they are away
• There is a written list of what needs attention this year, in priority order

Frequently asked questions

How long does a strata management transition take in BC? The formal notice period is usually two months, but a complete handover — records, banking, vendors, owner payment arrangements — realistically takes closer to ninety days. Budget for a full quarter before the new arrangement feels settled.

What if the outgoing manager will not hand over our records? Your records belong to the strata corporation, not to the management firm. Put the request in writing, be specific about what is outstanding, and set a deadline. If it is still not resolved, this becomes a matter for a strata lawyer — and it is worth pursuing, because the missing years tend to be the ones you need later.

Should we switch managers right before our AGM? Usually not. A manager who arrives weeks before the AGM has to build a budget for a building they have not learned. Immediately after an AGM gives them most of a year to understand the property before they have to price it. The exception is anything involving trust accounting, insurance or a compliance deadline — do not schedule around those.

Will our fees go up with a new manager? The management fee itself is a small share of your budget, so a change of firm rarely moves fees much on its own. What does move them is an incoming manager discovering that the reserve was underfunded or maintenance was deferred. That is a correction that was owed, not a new cost.

Related reading

• Signs It's Time to Switch Your Strata Management Company in BC
• How to Change or Terminate Your Strata Management Company in BC
• How to Choose a Strata Management Company in BC (Beyond Price)
• How to Measure the Value of Your Strata Management Company
• What Must Be Included in Strata Council Meeting Minutes in BC

This article is general information, not legal advice. Notice periods, voting thresholds and records obligations depend on the Strata Property Act, your bylaws and your specific contract — read your own agreement and consult a strata lawyer before acting.

Changing managers this year? See our strata management services — Onehive takes on small and mid-sized communities across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and we will tell you what we find in your records rather than that everything looks fine. Request a proposal.