Easements and Statutory Rights of Way on BC Strata Land

A townhouse strata spends $28,000 landscaping the green strip along its eastern boundary. Eighteen months later a utility crew arrives, removes the new hedge and half the irrigation, digs a trench, repairs a service, backfills, and leaves. The strata asks who is paying to put it back. The answer, in most cases, is the strata.

That strip was a statutory right of way, and it was registered on title before the first owner moved in. Nothing on your strata plan is decorative, and the hatched areas nobody asks about are usually the ones that cost money.

This article is general information about the Land Title Act and the Strata Property Act and is not legal advice. Charges on title are specific documents with specific wording — read yours, or have a lawyer read them, before a project.

Easement or statutory right of way?

They get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing.

An easement is a right for one parcel of land to use part of another. It needs two parcels: the one benefiting and the one burdened. Shared driveways between neighbouring developments, mutual access arrangements, and rights to run a service across a neighbour's land are typically easements.

A statutory right of way is a creature of the Land Title Act and does not need a benefiting parcel. It is granted in favour of a body — BC Hydro, FortisBC, a telecommunications carrier, a municipality, a regional district — so that it can install, access and maintain infrastructure. Most of what people in BC stratas call "the utility easement" is actually an SRW.

Both run with the land. Neither expires because the council has changed, nobody remembers agreeing to it, or the original developer is long gone. When your strata was created, it took the land subject to whatever was already registered against it.

You will also encounter covenants restricting what can be built or done, encroachment agreements where a structure crosses a boundary, and party wall agreements in attached construction. Different instruments, same practical lesson.

Where to actually find them

Two documents, and most councils have only ever looked at one.

The strata plan shows the geometry — the SRW and easement areas are drawn on it, usually hatched or shaded with a reference letter or plan number. This tells you where, and very little else. If the plan's notation conventions are unfamiliar, how to read a BC strata plan covers them.

The title search on the common property is the document that matters, and it is the one that gets skipped. Charges registered against the strata's common property appear here with their registration numbers, and each registration number can be ordered as an actual document. That document — the SRW agreement itself — sets out what the grantee may do, what the strata may not do, who restores what after works, and whether anything is payable.

Order both, read the charge documents, and keep copies permanently in the strata's records. This is a one-time exercise costing very little, and it answers a category of question that otherwise recurs forever.

What you can and cannot do in the area

The specific terms govern, but the pattern is consistent.

Generally not permitted: permanent structures — sheds, decks, retaining walls, fences, playground equipment, carports; deep-rooted trees and large shrubs; changing grade materially by cutting or filling; paving or building over access chambers, valves and vaults; anything that obstructs vehicular access for maintenance equipment.

Usually permitted: lawn, low planting, walkways and surface parking, as long as access is preserved.

The restoration term is the one to read. Many SRWs require the grantee to reinstate the surface to a defined standard — often bare ground or grass — and expressly not to replace landscaping, irrigation, decorative surfaces or structures the owner installed. That is how a strata ends up paying twice for the same hedge.

The corollary is that a strata should not spend meaningfully on improvements inside an SRW area without first reading the restoration clause and deciding, with open eyes, that it is worth the risk.

Notice is the other term worth checking. Some rights of way require the holder to give the owner advance notice except in an emergency; others do not. Where notice is required, ask for it in writing and make sure the request reaches your manager rather than a mailbox nobody empties — a crew arriving unannounced on a Monday is far more disruptive than the same crew arriving on a Monday you knew about, and residents direct their annoyance at council either way.

Compensation is rarer than owners expect. An SRW granted at subdivision was usually paid for once, decades ago, in the land deal that created the development. There is generally nothing further owing, and a council pursuing a utility for the cost of replacement shrubs is usually spending legal fees to confirm that.

The situations that actually come up

EV charging. Trenching a new electrical run across an SRW to reach a parkade or a townhouse row needs the grantee's written consent, and consent takes time. Start the conversation before the project reaches the budget stage, not after owners have voted. EV charging in BC stratas covers the wider planning sequence.

An owner wants a fence or patio. Where the proposed location sits inside an SRW, the answer is not council's to give. Check the charge, and if consent is required, the owner obtains it as a condition of approval.

Landscaping renewal. Before spending on the perimeter, overlay the SRW areas on the landscape plan. Choose plantings you can afford to lose.

A neighbouring development wants access. Shared driveway and access easements between adjacent stratas produce long-running arguments about maintenance cost-sharing, snow clearing and repaving. The easement document usually says who pays; if it is silent, that is a negotiation to have in writing and register, not one to leave to custom.

Drainage and sewer works. Municipal SRWs for storm and sanitary services are common in townhouse complexes, and access chambers must remain reachable. Paving over one is a problem discovered at the worst possible moment.

Equipment pads and kiosks. Transformers, gas regulators and telecom cabinets sit in SRW areas and cannot simply be relocated because owners dislike the look. Relocation is possible, at the strata's cost, with the grantee's agreement.

Any excavation at all. Before digging anywhere on common property — fence posts, tree planting, irrigation, footings — have underground infrastructure located. BC 1 Call is free and takes minutes. A struck gas line is a genuinely dangerous and expensive mistake.

Sections, air space parcels and bare land stratas

Three variations worth knowing.

In a bare land strata, owners hold the land parcel itself, so SRWs may burden individual strata lots rather than common property. An owner's title search matters as much as the corporation's. See what is a bare land strata in BC.

In a mixed-use tower built as air space parcels, the relationship between the residential parcel, the commercial parcel and the parkade is governed by registered easements and cost-sharing agreements. Councils frequently discover these only when a shared system fails. Sectioned stratas in BC covers the related governance structure.

Where a strata grants a new right — allowing a carrier to install equipment, or a neighbour to cross the property — that is a disposition affecting common property and needs the appropriate owner approval, not a council decision alone. Get legal advice before signing anything a utility or carrier presents as routine; telecom and fibre right-of-entry agreements covers the most common version of that request.

What council should do, once

• Order a title search on the common property and obtain every registered charge document
• Map the SRW and easement areas onto a copy of the site plan and keep it with the records
• Note the restoration standard for each, so landscaping decisions are informed
• Check before any excavation, planting or structure on common property
• Give the map to landscapers and contractors rather than assuming they will ask
• Raise it at handover so the knowledge survives a change of council

Once done, it stays done. The buildings that get caught are the ones where nobody has ever looked.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an easement and a statutory right of way in BC? An easement benefits another parcel of land and burdens yours. A statutory right of way is granted under the Land Title Act in favour of a body such as a utility or municipality and needs no benefiting parcel. Most utility corridors across strata land are statutory rights of way.

How do I find out if my strata has an easement or right of way? Look at the strata plan for hatched or shaded corridors, then order a title search on the common property. The charges listed there include easements, statutory rights of way and covenants, and each registration number can be ordered as the full document setting out the terms.

Can a strata build a fence or shed on a statutory right of way? Usually not without the grantee's written consent. Most rights of way prohibit permanent structures, deep-rooted planting and anything obstructing access, because the holder must be able to reach and maintain its infrastructure.

Who pays to replace landscaping a utility removes from a right of way? Frequently the strata. Many rights of way require the holder only to reinstate the surface to a basic standard and expressly exclude landscaping, irrigation and structures installed by the owner. Read the restoration clause before spending on those areas.

Can a strata refuse a utility access to a right of way? No. The right is registered against title and runs with the land regardless of who sits on council. A strata can require reasonable notice and coordination, and should ask for it in writing, but it cannot withhold access.

Related reading

• How to Read a BC Strata Plan (and Why It Settles Most Repair Arguments)
• Common Property vs Limited Common Property in BC Stratas
• What Is a Bare Land Strata in BC?
• EV Charging in BC Stratas: Planning Infrastructure the Right Way
• What to Look for When Buying a Strata Property in BC

Statutory rights of way are created under the Land Title Act, title searches and charge documents are ordered through BC Land Title and Survey, and underground locates are free through BC 1 Call.

Knowing what is under the lawn is a records problem, and records are what we do. Onehive provides strata management across Metro Vancouver — request a proposal.