Requesting Strata Records in BC: The Two-Week Rule and the 25-Cent Fee Cap

An owner asks for three years of council minutes and the roofing contract. The council debates it for a month, decides the contract is "confidential," and sends the minutes with the interesting parts removed. Six weeks later the strata is answering a Civil Resolution Tribunal claim it was always going to lose.

Records requests are among the easiest things in BC strata law to get right and among the most commonly botched. The rules are short, the deadlines are fixed, and the fee cap is a specific number. Here is the whole framework.

This article is general information about the Strata Property Act and Regulation, not legal advice. Records disputes turn on specifics — if you are dealing with privilege, litigation or a personal-information question, get advice from a strata lawyer.

What records the strata must keep

Section 35 of the Strata Property Act sets out what a strata corporation has to prepare and retain. It is a long list, and its length is the point: almost everything a strata does on paper is a record.

It includes, among other things:

• Minutes of annual and special general meetings and of council meetings, including the results of votes
• The list of council members, and lists of owners, tenants and mortgagees the Act requires
• Books of account showing money received and spent and the reason for each
• The registered strata plan, the registered bylaws, and rules
• Resolutions dealing with common property, limited common property and common assets
• Contracts the strata corporation is a party to
• Correspondence sent and received by the strata corporation and council
• Budgets, financial statements and income tax returns
• Bank statements, cancelled cheques and certificates of deposit
• Reports obtained respecting repair or maintenance of major items, including depreciation reports
• Copies of Information Certificates and Certificates of Payment issued
• Insurance policies
• Documentation about electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and electrical planning reports

The regulation sets minimum retention periods. Several categories — the strata plan, the registered bylaws, and electrical planning reports among them — are kept permanently; financial records and contracts carry multi-year minimums. When in doubt, keep it. Storage is cheap and a missing record is a liability.

Who can ask, and for what

Under section 36, the strata corporation must make its records available to:

• an owner
• a tenant who has been assigned the landlord's rights, and a tenant more generally in respect of bylaws and rules
• a person authorised in writing by an owner or tenant — which is how a lawyer, a realtor, a family member or a prospective buyer's agent gets access
• a person who has an agreement to purchase a strata lot

Two things follow that councils routinely miss. First, an owner does not have to explain why they want a record. The Act does not condition access on the request being reasonable, polite, or convenient. Second, an authorised representative stands in the owner's shoes — you cannot insist on dealing only with the owner directly.

The two-week rule (and the one-week exception)

This is the part to write on the whiteboard.

• The strata corporation must comply with a records request within two weeks.
• If the request is for bylaws or rules, it must comply within one week.
• A Form B Information Certificate must be provided within one week of the request under a separate section.

The clock runs from the request, not from the next council meeting. "We meet monthly" is not an answer. If assembling a large request genuinely takes longer, say so in writing before the deadline, produce what you have, and explain when the rest will follow — a documented good-faith partial response is a far better position than silence.

What you may charge

The regulation is specific, and it is not much:

• Copies: a maximum of 25 cents per page. That is the ceiling, not a suggested rate, and it applies whether you photocopy, scan or email.
• Inspection: free. A strata corporation may not charge an owner to come in and look at the records.
• Form B Information Certificate: a maximum of $35, plus copying at up to 25 cents per page for the attachments.
• Form F Certificate of Payment: a maximum of $15.

There is no administration fee, no "research time" charge and no per-request minimum unless the Act or regulation provides for one. A strata may refuse to hand over copies until the permitted fee is paid, but it cannot invent the fee. If you are unsure which certificate a request actually needs, our comparison of Form B and Form F sorts it out.

What can legitimately be withheld

Less than most councils think.

The Act's list of records is broad and does not contain a general "confidential" or "sensitive" exception. What is genuinely off-limits tends to be narrow:

• Privileged legal advice. Communications between the strata corporation and its lawyer for the purpose of legal advice are generally protected by solicitor-client privilege. That protects the advice, not every document that happens to have been forwarded to a lawyer.
• Records that are not the strata's records. A council member's personal notes are not a corporate record simply because they were made at a meeting.
• Third-party personal information that does not form part of a record the Act requires to be disclosed.

Councils commonly handle bylaw enforcement, arrears and personnel matters in a separate part of a council meeting and keep the identifying detail out of the general minutes. That practice is widespread and defensible. Where councils get into trouble is using it as cover for keeping spending decisions, contract awards and policy choices out of the record. Those belong in the minutes. Our guide to what must be in strata council minutes sets out the line.

Redacting broadly on a general privacy theory is the single most common losing move. If you feel the need to redact heavily, that is the moment to ask a lawyer, not the moment to be creative.

How to make a request that actually works

If you are an owner, the quality of your request has a large effect on the quality of the response.

1. 1.Put it in writing and date it. Email is fine unless your bylaws say otherwise.
2. 2.Ask by category and date range, not by adjective. "Council meeting minutes for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years" works. "Everything about the roof" invites a fight.
3. 3.Cite section 36 and state the applicable deadline. It is not aggressive; it is clarifying.
4. 4.Say whether you want to inspect or receive copies. Inspection is free and often faster.
5. 5.Offer to pay the permitted copying fee up front. It removes the only lawful reason to delay.
6. 6.Ask for electronic delivery where possible. It is cheaper for everyone and there is no per-page cost to argue about.

Keep the tone flat. A records request is a routine administrative step, and the moment it reads as an accusation, you have handed the council a reason to be defensive.

What a council should do

The efficient answer is to stop treating records requests as events.

• Maintain a standing electronic archive organised by the section 35 categories. Most requests then take minutes.
• Acknowledge every request in writing on the day it arrives, with the deadline stated back.
• Delegate fulfilment to your manager or a single council member. Committee deliberation is what blows the deadline.
• Log what was sent, to whom, on what date. If a dispute follows, that log is your defence.
• Never editorialise in the covering email. Send the records.

If the strata refuses or misses the deadline

The remedy is the Civil Resolution Tribunal, which handles most strata disputes in BC and is designed to be used without a lawyer. An owner can ask for an order that the strata comply with section 36, and the tribunal can order the records produced.

These claims are cheap to bring and very hard for a strata to defend when the deadline was simply blown. Practically speaking, the cost of losing one is not the order itself but the message it sends to every other owner in the building.

If the underlying problem is broader than one request, our guides to your rights as a strata owner and dealing with a difficult council cover the escalation path.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a BC strata have to respond to a records request? Two weeks for most records, and one week if the request is for bylaws or rules. A Form B Information Certificate must be provided within one week under a separate section of the Act.

How much can a strata charge for copies of records? A maximum of 25 cents per page. Inspecting records in person is free. A Form B Information Certificate is capped at $35 plus copying, and a Form F Certificate of Payment at $15.

Do I have to say why I want the records? No. The Act gives owners a right of access and does not require a reason. A strata corporation cannot refuse because it dislikes the purpose of the request.

Can our council keep a contract confidential? Generally no. Contracts the strata corporation is a party to are records under section 35 and are accessible under section 36. Genuine solicitor-client privileged advice is different, but a supplier contract is not privileged simply because the council would rather owners did not see it.

What can I do if the strata ignores my request? Apply to the Civil Resolution Tribunal for an order that the strata comply. Keep your dated written request and any response — a missed statutory deadline is difficult for a strata to justify.

Related reading

• What Must Be Included in Strata Council Meeting Minutes in BC
• Your Rights as a Strata Owner in BC
• Form B vs Form F in BC: Which Document Do You Need?
• Reading Strata Minutes Before You Buy: The Red Flags Most Buyers Miss
• Dealing With a Difficult or Bullying Strata Council in BC

The sections themselves are short and worth reading once: sections 35 and 36 of the Strata Property Act, and the fee and retention rules in Part 4 of the Strata Property Regulation.

Well-kept records make almost every other strata problem smaller. Onehive's strata management keeps a complete, searchable record set for every community we manage — request a proposal.