Can the Strata Enter Your Unit? Right of Entry Rules in BC

A notice goes under the door on Tuesday afternoon: plumbers will be in every unit Thursday morning to replace shut-off valves. One owner emails back that nobody is entering her home. The council is now trying to work out, quickly, whether it has a right or merely a request.

BC gives strata corporations a real right of entry to a strata lot. It is also a narrow one, and it is found in the bylaws rather than in the body of the Act — which is why so many councils and so many owners argue about it from memory.

This article is general information about the Strata Property Act and the Schedule of Standard Bylaws, not legal advice. Your strata's registered bylaws govern, and many stratas have amended the standard entry bylaw. Check yours, and get advice before forcing entry.

Where the right comes from

Under Standard Bylaw 7, an owner, tenant, occupant or visitor must allow a person authorised by the strata corporation to enter the strata lot:

• in an emergency, without notice, to ensure safety or prevent significant loss or damage; and
• at a reasonable time, on 48 hours' written notice, to inspect, repair or maintain common property, common assets, and those portions of a strata lot that are the strata corporation's responsibility to repair and maintain under the bylaws or to insure under section 149 of the Act.

The bylaw also specifies what the notice must contain: the date and approximate time of entry, and the reason for entry.

That is the entire authority. Everything else a council might want to enter for has to fit inside one of those two doors or it does not exist.

What the 48-hour route actually covers

Read the wording again, because the limiting words are doing the work. Entry on notice is to inspect, repair or maintain:

• common property — the pipes, wires, ducts and structural elements that run through units, the sprinkler system, the risers behind the drywall
• common assets
• portions of a strata lot the strata must repair and maintain under the bylaws — which in most buildings includes the structure, the exterior, windows and doors on the exterior, and balconies
• portions of a strata lot the strata must insure under section 149 — which is broader than most owners expect, and typically reaches fixtures built or installed as part of the original construction

If you are unsure which side of the line a given item falls on, that boundary question is the same one that decides who pays for the repair. Our guide to strata versus owner maintenance responsibility and to common property versus limited common property is the place to start, and the strata plan usually settles it.

Common lawful uses of the 48-hour route:

• Repiping, riser replacement, shut-off valve replacement
• In-suite sprinkler head inspection and testing
• Annual fire and life-safety inspections of equipment the strata is responsible for
• Building envelope investigation, window and balcony door work
• Leak investigation where the source is or may be common property
• Insurance-mandated inspections of elements the strata insures

What the right of entry does not cover

This is the more useful list, because this is where councils overreach.

• Investigating a bylaw complaint. Bylaw 7 is about inspection, repair and maintenance of the strata's own responsibilities. It is not a search warrant. If you suspect an unauthorised alteration, a prohibited pet or a short-term rental, the route is the bylaw enforcement process, not the front door.
• Checking on an owner's welfare. That is a call to police or emergency services.
• General "condition inspections" of the whole unit. Unless your registered bylaws provide for it and it relates to the strata's responsibilities, a landlord-style periodic inspection is not something the standard bylaw gives you.
• Showing the unit, or letting a realtor or appraiser in. Not the strata's call.
• Convenience. "The contractor is already in the building" is not a reason.

Councils that stretch the bylaw find out the hard way: an owner applies to the Civil Resolution Tribunal, and the strata ends up defending a trespass-flavoured complaint it could simply have avoided by writing a better notice.

What counts as an emergency

The bylaw allows entry without notice in an emergency to ensure safety or prevent significant loss or damage. That is the same language the Act uses for emergency spending, and the standard is genuinely about immediacy — reasonable grounds to believe that acting now, rather than in 48 hours, is necessary.

Clear cases: water actively running into the unit below, a smell of gas, a fire alarm, a burst line, smoke, a suspected electrical fault, a failed sprinkler head.

Not emergencies merely because they are urgent to the council: a scheduled shutdown, a contractor's tight window, an insurance deadline, an owner who has been unresponsive for a week about a non-urgent repair.

When you do enter on the emergency route:

1. 1.Document the grounds before you go in, not afterwards. A dated note and a photograph of the leak in the unit below is worth more than any recollection.
2. 2.Take two people. A council member or the manager plus the trade, never a contractor alone.
3. 3.Do only what the emergency requires. Stop the water; do not start the renovation.
4. 4.Leave written notice inside saying who entered, when, why and what was done, with a contact.
5. 5.Secure the unit and account for keys.
6. 6.Report it in the minutes.

Where entry required breaking a lock or a door, expect a dispute about who pays. Many stratas have a bylaw requiring owners to provide a key or fob and making the owner responsible for the cost of forced entry where they did not. If your building does not have that bylaw, this is a good argument for adding one — through the proper bylaw amendment process, before you need it.

Writing a notice that holds up

Most refusals are caused by a bad notice rather than a difficult owner.

• 48 hours means 48 hours, and how notice is validly given is set out in the Act. Note that mailed, faxed and emailed notices are deemed received four days after sending — if you rely on those methods, build the deemed-receipt period into your timeline rather than counting from when you hit send.
• Give a window, not a day. "Between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m." is respectful and reduces refusals. "Sometime Thursday" reads as an imposition.
• State the reason specifically. "Maintenance" is not a reason. "To replace the common property shut-off valve serving your kitchen sink" is.
• Name who will attend — the contractor's company, and whether a council member or the manager will accompany them.
• Give a contact and offer to reschedule once, within a stated window. Most objections evaporate here.
• Say what happens if nobody is home, including whether the strata will use a key or fob it holds.

Councils that do this consistently almost never have an entry fight. Councils that send a photocopied slip with a date on it have one every project.

If an owner refuses

Assuming your notice was valid and the purpose is within the bylaw, refusing entry is a bylaw contravention, and it is handled like any other one:

• Follow the notice-and-response process in the Act before imposing any fine — written particulars of the complaint, a real opportunity to answer, and a hearing if requested. The details are in our guide to bylaw enforcement and fines.
• Consider the remedy-the-contravention power, which lets a strata do work reasonably necessary to correct a contravention and charge the reasonable cost to the person responsible. Use it carefully and with advice where it involves entering a home.
• Apply to the Civil Resolution Tribunal for an order requiring the owner to permit entry. This is the clean route where the work is important and the relationship is poor, and tribunals are generally unsympathetic to owners obstructing legitimate building maintenance.

Before any of that, try the ordinary thing: phone the owner. A large share of refusals are about a person who works nights, has a nervous dog, or has been told nothing about what is happening in their home.

Tenants, landlords and a distinction that matters

If a strata lot is rented, two separate regimes operate and people conflate them constantly.

• The strata corporation's right to enter comes from the bylaws, which bind tenants and occupants as well as owners. Bylaw 7's 48-hour notice is the strata's rule.
• The landlord's right to enter their own rental unit comes from the Residential Tenancy Act, which has its own notice requirements and time-of-day limits.

A strata corporation is not a landlord and does not get the landlord's rights; a landlord is not the strata and cannot authorise the strata to enter on shorter notice. Where the strata needs access to a rented unit, serve the notice on the tenant as occupier and copy the owner. Investor-owners should make sure their tenant knows this in advance — see renting out your strata unit after Bill 44.

Frequently asked questions

How much notice must a BC strata give before entering my unit? Under the standard bylaw, at least 48 hours' written notice, stating the date, the approximate time and the reason for entry. In an emergency the strata may enter without notice to ensure safety or prevent significant loss or damage.

Can the strata enter my unit to investigate a bylaw complaint? Generally no. The standard entry bylaw covers inspection, repair and maintenance of common property and of the parts of a strata lot the strata must repair or insure. Bylaw allegations are dealt with through the enforcement process in the Act, not through entry.

What counts as an emergency for entry without notice? Circumstances where there are reasonable grounds to believe immediate entry is necessary to ensure safety or prevent significant loss or damage — an active leak, a gas smell, a fire alarm, a burst pipe. A contractor's schedule is not an emergency.

Can our strata require owners to give us a key? Only if a registered bylaw says so. Many stratas have one, usually paired with a provision making the owner responsible for the cost of forced entry where no key was provided. If yours does not, amend the bylaws before the next repiping project rather than during it.

What happens if I refuse to let the strata in? If the notice was valid and the purpose is within the bylaw, refusal is a bylaw contravention. The strata can follow the enforcement process and can apply to the Civil Resolution Tribunal for an order requiring you to permit entry.

Related reading

• Who's Responsible? Strata vs Owner Repairs and Maintenance in BC
• Common Property vs Limited Common Property in BC Stratas
• Strata Bylaw Enforcement & Fines in BC: How to Do It Right
• Water damage and the strata deductible, explained
• Your Rights as a Strata Owner in BC
• Strata Rules vs Bylaws in BC: What's the Difference?

Bylaw 7 sits in the Schedule of Standard Bylaws to the Strata Property Act.

Access notices are one of those small things that quietly decide whether a building's major projects run on time. Onehive handles scheduling, notice and owner communication for repiping, envelope and life-safety work as part of strata management — request a proposal.