Strata GovernanceJuly 9, 2026 · 6 min read

Sectioned Stratas in BC: How Sections Work and What They Cost

In a sectioned BC strata, groups of owners fund and govern their own areas while sharing the rest. Here's how sections split fees — and whether they cost more.

If your strata has commercial units on the ground floor and homes above, or a cluster of townhouses sharing a lot with an apartment tower, you may already be living in a sectioned strata — or wondering whether becoming one would be fairer. In BC, "sections" are a formal tool under the Strata Property Act that let distinct groups of owners run and pay for the parts of a building that only affect them, while still belonging to one strata corporation. For small buildings across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, sections can solve a real fairness problem — but they also add moving parts. Here's how they work, and what they mean for your budget and your management costs.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Sections are one of the more technical corners of BC strata law — confirm anything specific with a strata lawyer before you act.

What a strata section actually is

Think of a section as a mini-strata inside your strata. The overall strata corporation still exists, still owns the common property, and still carries the master insurance policy. But a section gives a defined group of owners the legal power to make decisions and control spending on the things that relate only to them.

The classic reason is fairness. Why should the owners of a row of townhouses help pay to service an elevator they never use? Why should a residential owner subsidize the commercial unit's storefront signage, or the other way around? Sections let each group fund its own world while everyone still shares the truly common costs.

Under the Strata Property Act, sections can generally be created to represent the different interests of residential owners versus non-residential (commercial) owners, or of different types of residential owners — for example apartment-style units versus townhouse-style units. The exact eligibility rules are specific, so this is one to check with a lawyer rather than assume.

How sections split the budget and your strata fees

This is where sections have the most day-to-day impact, because a sectioned strata effectively runs more than one budget.

Shared (strata-wide) expenses — things that benefit everyone, like the master insurance premium, the building envelope, or shared landscaping — are paid by all owners through the strata corporation, usually by unit entitlement.
Section expenses — costs that relate only to one section, like an amenity, a roof, or servicing that only that section uses — are budgeted and paid by that section's owners alone.

So your monthly bill can have two layers: your share of the strata-wide costs, plus your share of your own section's costs. Because of that split, two owners in the same building can pay quite different fees — which is often exactly the point. If you've ever wondered why some owners pay less, our piece on why townhouses pay lower strata fees than condos covers the same fairness logic sections are built to formalize. For a broader primer, what strata fees actually cover in BC is a good companion read.

Sections can also hold their own money. A section may run its own operating fund and, in many cases, its own contingency reserve for section-specific components. That matters for planning, because contingency-fund expectations then apply at the section level too, not just to the whole building.

How sections change governance

A section isn't just an accounting line — it's a governance body. Each section elects its own section executive, which functions like a smaller council with authority over that section's affairs. The section can hold its own general meetings, pass its own budget, and make decisions on matters within its scope.

Above the sections, the strata corporation still has its own council and still handles anything that affects the whole building. So a sectioned strata has more meetings, more elected volunteers, and more sets of minutes than a comparable single-council building. Owners often serve on their section executive and, potentially, the main council too — which is a lot to ask of a small volunteer pool. If recruiting is already hard for you, our notes on strata council roles and responsibilities apply doubly once sections are in play.

Voting also gets more layered. Some decisions belong to the section alone; others still need the whole ownership. Getting that boundary wrong is a common source of disputes, so clear bylaws — and careful minutes — matter more here than in a simple strata.

Creating (or cancelling) a section

Sections don't appear on their own. A strata usually creates them by amending its bylaws, and creating or cancelling a section generally requires strong support — typically a 3/4 vote, and in many cases approval from both the whole strata and the proposed section members. Because the thresholds and process are precise, and because badly drafted section bylaws cause years of confusion, this is genuinely lawyer territory. Get the bylaws professionally drafted so the split of powers and costs is unambiguous.

It's also worth knowing that sections aren't the only tool. The Act allows some stratas to treat different "types" of strata lots differently for certain cost-sharing purposes without going all the way to full sections. That lighter-weight route can achieve some of the same fairness with less overhead — another reason to get advice before committing to formal sections.

Does a sectioned building cost more to manage?

Usually, yes — and here's the honest reason. From a manager's chair, a sectioned strata isn't one building; it's several small stratas stacked together. Each section means another budget to prepare, another set of financial statements to produce and reconcile, another general meeting to notice and run, another executive to support between meetings, and the ongoing work of correctly splitting every invoice between "shared" and "section" buckets.

That extra work is real, so most managers price a sectioned building above an equivalent single-budget one. Whether it shows up as a higher base fee or as add-ons depends on the company — which is why, when you compare quotes, you want the section workload spelled out. Our guide to what strata management actually costs in BC explains the per-unit ranges to benchmark against, and it's worth reading before you assume a low headline number covers a sectioned building.

For a small building, the trade-off is worth thinking through. Sections buy fairness and autonomy, but they also multiply the administrative load on a small owner group and their manager. Sometimes that's absolutely the right call. Sometimes a simpler cost-sharing arrangement gets you most of the fairness for a fraction of the complexity. The right answer depends on your building — and it's exactly the kind of thing a boutique manager who works only with buildings under 150 units can help you weigh.

Frequently asked questions

Is a strata section the same as a separate strata corporation? No. A section lives inside the one strata corporation — the corporation still owns the common property and carries the master insurance. A section gets its own executive, budget, and decision-making power over its own affairs, but it isn't a standalone legal entity.

Do owners in a sectioned strata pay two sets of fees? Effectively, yes — in two layers. You pay your share of the strata-wide costs everyone shares, plus your share of your own section's costs. That's by design: it stops one group from subsidizing expenses they don't benefit from.

Can our strata create a section to deal with just one problem? Sometimes, but sections are a big, permanent-feeling tool for what might be a narrow issue. Creating one typically needs a high vote threshold and careful bylaws. A lighter cost-sharing approach may solve a single fairness problem with far less ongoing overhead — worth exploring with a lawyer first.

Does a sectioned strata need more than one AGM? Generally each section holds its own general meeting in addition to the strata corporation's AGM, though they're often scheduled together for convenience. That extra layer is part of why sectioned buildings carry more governance and administrative load.