Unit Entitlement in BC: How Your Strata Fee and Your Vote Are Decided
Unit entitlement is the number that sets your monthly strata fee and the weight of your vote — and almost nobody is told what theirs is or where it came from.
Ask most strata owners why their monthly fee is what it is and you'll get a shrug and a guess about square footage. The real answer is a number recorded on the strata plan called unit entitlement, and it quietly governs two of the most important things about owning in a strata: what you pay and how much your vote counts.
What unit entitlement actually is
Unit entitlement is a figure assigned to each strata lot when the strata plan is deposited in the Land Title Office. It expresses your lot's share of the whole. Add every lot's unit entitlement together and you get the total for the strata corporation; your lot's share of that total is your share of almost everything financial.
It is usually — but not always — derived from habitable area. For residential strata lots the Strata Property Act and its regulations set out how it is calculated, most commonly from the habitable area of the lot in square metres, rounded. For non-residential lots a different basis can be used. The important point is that it was fixed once, by the developer's surveyor, at the moment the plan was registered, and it has not been recalculated since.
That is why it so often surprises people. Two units that feel identical can carry different entitlements because one has a slightly larger footprint on the plan, or because a balcony, a garage or a storage area was or wasn't counted the way you'd assume.
What it decides
Your strata fees. The annual budget is approved as a total, then divided among the lots in proportion to unit entitlement. Your monthly fee is that share divided by twelve. This is why fees rarely change relative to one another — a budget increase raises everyone's fee by the same percentage, because the proportions are fixed.
Your share of a special levy. When a special levy is approved, it is allocated the same way unless the resolution provides otherwise on a permitted basis. A $600,000 roof project doesn't cost each owner $600,000 divided by the number of units; it costs each owner their entitlement share. For more on how levies are structured, see what is a special levy in BC.
Your vote on a value-based vote. Most strata votes are one vote per strata lot. But certain decisions — and any vote where a person calls for a precision vote — are counted by unit entitlement rather than by head. In a building with a mix of large penthouses and small studios, that changes outcomes.
Your share of the assets. If a strata corporation is ever wound up, the proceeds are distributed by unit entitlement (or by a court-approved alternative). See how to wind up a strata in BC.
Where to find yours
Unit entitlement appears on the Schedule of Unit Entitlement, which forms part of the registered strata plan. You can get it from your strata manager or council, from a title search, or from the documents provided during a purchase. It also appears on a Form B Information Certificate, which is why the Form B is worth reading closely rather than skimming.
If you want to sanity-check your fee, the arithmetic is straightforward: your unit entitlement divided by the total unit entitlement for the corporation, multiplied by the approved annual budget, divided by twelve. If that doesn't match what you're paying, ask — the difference is usually a separate charge such as a section levy, a parking or storage fee, or a limited-common-property expense.
Can it be changed?
Rarely, and not easily. Unit entitlement is part of the registered strata plan, and amending it requires a resolution passed by a unanimous vote of the strata corporation, followed by registration at the Land Title Office. Unanimous means every eligible voter — which in practice means it changes only where every owner agrees they are all better off, or under a court order.
That can feel unfair when an entitlement looks wrong. But the alternative — a corporation that periodically re-litigates who pays what — would be considerably worse, and courts have been reluctant to interfere absent a genuine error in the original calculation. If you believe yours is wrong, that is a conversation for a strata lawyer with the plan in front of them, not a council motion.
Why it matters when you're buying
Two units of the same size in the same building can carry meaningfully different monthly costs and different exposure to a future levy. A buyer comparing two listings on price and square footage alone is missing a variable that will follow them for as long as they own. Check the entitlement, run the arithmetic against the current budget, and check what the depreciation report says is coming — the combination tells you a great deal more than the fee on the listing sheet.
More on that in what to look for when buying a strata in BC.
Frequently asked questions
Is unit entitlement the same as square footage? No, though for residential lots it is usually derived from habitable area. Balconies, patios, parking and storage may or may not be included depending on how the plan was drawn, so the two numbers often differ.
Why do two identical-looking units pay different strata fees? Because their unit entitlements differ on the strata plan. Units that feel the same can be measured differently, and the figure was set once at registration and never revisited.
Can our strata change unit entitlement to make fees fairer? Only by unanimous vote of the strata corporation followed by registration at the Land Title Office, or by court order. In practice this is very rare.
This article is general information for BC strata owners and councils — not legal advice. For your specific situation, consult a strata lawyer.
Written by
Onehive Property Management manages strata corporations and rental properties across British Columbia. Our guides are written by the people who do the work — council meetings, budgets, insurance renewals and all — and reviewed against the Strata Property Act before publishing.