Strata Management vs Property Management in BC: What's Actually Different

You buy a condo in Burnaby. Your dishwasher floods the kitchen and the water reaches the unit below. The lobby noticeboard tells you to contact the "strata manager." Your friend, who owns a rental unit two floors up, keeps talking about her "property manager." You call one of them and are told it is not their file.

Both people are licensed. Both are paid to manage property. They have different clients, answer to different legislation, and are not interchangeable. Getting the distinction straight saves you a week of forwarded emails.

The short version

A strata manager is hired by the strata corporation — that is, by all the owners collectively, acting through an elected council — to run the shared parts of the building and the corporation's affairs.

A rental property manager is hired by one individual landlord to look after that landlord's unit and that landlord's tenant.

One serves a community and is accountable to a council. The other serves a private owner and is accountable to that owner. In a rented condo both exist at once, and neither works for the other.

What a strata manager is actually hired to do

The strata corporation is a legal entity created when the strata plan is deposited. It owns nothing you live in, but it is responsible for the common property — roof, envelope, hallways, parkade, elevators, plumbing stacks, amenity rooms — and for the corporation's money and records. Our plain-English guide to what a strata is covers the structure.

The manager's work, in practice:

• Money. Collecting strata fees, paying invoices, maintaining the operating fund and contingency reserve fund, preparing the draft budget, producing monthly financial statements, chasing arrears.
• Meetings and governance. Preparing and distributing notice, running the AGM mechanics, taking and circulating minutes, tracking council decisions.
• Maintenance of common property. Sourcing contractors, scheduling work, coordinating access, managing recurring service contracts.
• Compliance and records. Keeping the records the Strata Property Act requires, issuing Form B and Form F on sale, filing bylaw amendments, managing insurance renewal and claims.
• Correspondence. Bylaw enforcement letters, owner enquiries, notices.

What the manager does not do is decide. The council exercises the powers and duties of the strata corporation; the manager executes what council instructs and advises on how to do it properly. A manager making decisions on your behalf is a manager exceeding their authority. What a strata manager actually does and does not do goes further into that line.

What a rental property manager is actually hired to do

Here the client is one person: the owner of a rental unit. The governing law is the Residential Tenancy Act, not the Strata Property Act, and the work is a completely different shape:

• Finding and screening tenants, showing the unit, checking references and income
• Preparing the tenancy agreement, collecting and holding the security and pet damage deposits
• Condition inspections at move-in and move-out, with the reports the Act requires
• Collecting rent, remitting to the owner, issuing statements
• Handling repairs inside the unit — the appliances, the flooring, the fixtures the owner owns
• Notices, rent increases and, where it comes to it, ending the tenancy on the grounds the Act allows

None of that touches the roof, the budget, or the AGM. Our guides to choosing a rental property manager and what property managers charge in BC deal with that side.

The five differences that actually matter

1. Who the client is. A strata manager's client is the corporation — every owner, collectively. They cannot take instructions from one owner, however loudly that owner asks. A rental manager's client is one landlord, and takes instructions from exactly that person.

2. Which statute governs. Strata Property Act and your registered bylaws on one side. Residential Tenancy Act and the Residential Tenancy Branch on the other. Different deadlines, different forms, different dispute forums.

3. Where the money comes from and where it goes. Strata fees are contributions to a shared fund, allocated by unit entitlement and held for the corporation. Rent is income belonging to a private landlord. Both are held in trust by a licensed brokerage, but the accounting is unrelated.

4. How a decision gets made. A strata manager waits for a council vote, and for larger matters a 3/4 vote of owners at a general meeting. A rental manager phones the landlord. This is the single biggest source of frustration for owners who expect strata work to move at rental-management speed — it structurally cannot.

5. Who can end the engagement. Terminating a strata management agreement is a decision of the owners, normally taken by vote at a general meeting with written notice under the Act. A landlord ends a rental management agreement by giving contractual notice. See how to change or terminate your strata management company for the strata process.

The overlap: a rented unit inside a strata building

Most of the confusion in Metro Vancouver comes from the case where both exist at once.

You own a unit in a 40-unit building and rent it out. The strata corporation, through its manager, is responsible for the common property and for the corporation's finances. You, through your rental manager, are responsible for the tenancy. Your tenant lives under both your tenancy agreement and the strata's bylaws.

Concretely:

• Strata fees remain your obligation as owner, whatever your lease says about who reimburses whom. Who pays strata fees when you rent out your unit covers the arrangement and the tax treatment.
• You must give your tenant the strata's bylaws and rules, and notify the strata of the tenancy. Since Bill 44 a strata can no longer ban or cap long-term rentals — see renting out your strata unit after Bill 44.
• A bylaw fine for your tenant's conduct lands on your account, because the strata's relationship is with you, not with your tenant.
• A leak from your dishwasher is your business and your insurer's. A leak from the stack inside the wall is the corporation's. The dividing line is the strata plan, not who noticed it first.

When something goes wrong, the useful question is not "who do I call" but "whose property failed" — then call the manager who serves that side.

Both are licensed, and one exemption trips councils up

In British Columbia both activities are licensed real estate services under the Real Estate Services Act, regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority. Strata management and rental property management are separate licence categories. Many brokerages, Onehive included, hold both.

That licensing brings real protection: client money must be held in a trust account, brokerages carry mandatory errors-and-omissions insurance, licensees owe statutory duties to their clients, and there is a complaints and discipline process behind it all.

The exemption worth knowing is that very small strata corporations can be managed without a licence. Below the statutory threshold, a person providing strata management services to a small corporation is not required to be licensed. That is entirely legal, and for a four-unit building it is often sensible. It also means the trust-accounting rules, the insurance requirement and the regulator's complaints process do not automatically apply — so ask directly whether the person quoting you is licensed, and confirm it on the BCFSA register rather than taking it on trust.

Which one do you need?

You need strata management if you sit on a council, or your self-managed building has outgrown the volunteers running it. Where the gap is bookkeeping and reporting rather than everything, financial-only strata management is a middle option that leaves day-to-day decisions with council. On price, what strata management actually costs per unit sets expectations.

You need rental property management if you own a unit you rent out and would rather not screen tenants, chase rent, or learn the notice periods.

You need both if you are a landlord who also sits on council. They are two engagements, two agreements, and — even where one brokerage provides both — two separate files.

Questions worth asking before you sign either agreement

The two engagements fail in different ways, so the questions differ.

For a strata management proposal, ask who the named manager is and how many buildings they carry, how many owners each manager supports, what is included in the base fee versus billed separately, how quickly council can expect a response and to what standard, and what the handover looks like if you leave. A firm that will not put portfolio size in writing is telling you something.

For a rental management proposal, ask what the tenant-placement fee is and what it buys, who holds the deposits, how repairs are authorised and at what spend limit, what happens if the unit sits vacant, and who attends a Residential Tenancy Branch hearing if it comes to that.

For both from one brokerage, ask the awkward question directly: if your tenant and the strata end up in conflict, whose side does the firm take? The correct answer is that the two files are walled off, the strata engagement serves the corporation, the rental engagement serves you, and any conflict is disclosed rather than quietly managed.

Frequently asked questions

Is strata management the same as property management in BC? No. Strata management serves the strata corporation and every owner collectively under the Strata Property Act. Rental property management serves one individual landlord under the Residential Tenancy Act. They are separate licence categories under the Real Estate Services Act.

Can one company do both strata and rental management? Yes. Many BC brokerages hold both licence categories and provide both services. They remain separate engagements with separate agreements, separate clients and separate trust accounting — your rental manager cannot instruct the strata on your behalf.

Does my strata manager handle my tenant? No. Your tenancy is between you and your tenant. The strata's relationship is with you as owner, which is why a bylaw fine caused by your tenant is charged to your account rather than theirs.

Who fixes a leak in a rented condo, the strata or my property manager? It depends on what failed, not on who is renting. If the failure is in common property such as a plumbing stack or the building envelope, it is the strata's responsibility. If it is your dishwasher, your flooring or your fixtures, it is yours.

Do strata managers have to be licensed in BC? Generally yes, under the Real Estate Services Act, regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority. There is an exemption for sufficiently small strata corporations, so confirm licensing directly and check the BCFSA register before signing anything.

Related reading

• What Does a Strata Manager Actually Do (and Not Do) in BC?
• How to Choose a Strata Management Company in BC (Beyond Price)
• How to Choose a Rental Property Manager in Metro Vancouver
• Who Pays Strata Fees When You Rent Out Your Unit in BC? (+ Tax)
• Financial-Only Strata Management for Self-Managed BC Stratas

Licensing categories and their exemptions sit in the Real Estate Services Act and its regulation; the two operating statutes are the Strata Property Act and the Residential Tenancy Act.

Onehive provides both strata management and rental management across Metro Vancouver, so a landlord who also sits on council deals with one firm and two clearly separated files — request a proposal.