Buying a Bare Land Strata Lot in BC: What the Plan and the Title Tell You

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In a bare land strata, you own a surveyed piece of ground. The house standing on it is almost always yours alone, and the road, the water main and the storm drains outside your line belong to everybody. That one sentence explains most of what surprises buyers, and almost none of it is visible from the street.

You cannot tell a bare land strata by looking at it. Detached houses on separate driveways can be a bare land strata, an ordinary building strata, or plain fee simple lots. The only way to know is to read the deposited strata plan and the title. This page is about what to look for, where to find it, and what it costs.

What makes a strata “bare land”, and how to tell in one look

The Strata Property Act defines a bare land strata plan as a plan “on which the boundaries of the strata lots are defined on a horizontal plane by reference to survey markers and not by reference to the floors, walls or ceilings of a building”. Read the strata plan and that is exactly what you see: surveyed ground, with no houses drawn on it.

Two sections do the work. Section 68(4) says that for a bare land strata plan the boundaries “must be shown on the strata plan by reference to survey markers”. Section 244(1)(a) says a strata plan must show the boundaries of the land and, “except in the case of a strata lot in a bare land strata plan, show the location of the buildings”. So a bare land plan is the one plan that does not have to draw the buildings.

The Province’s own description of how to spot one is short and practical. Its guide to the different kinds of stratas says “The strata plan should be clearly labelled as a bare land”, and that the plan “will not usually show the outlines of houses located on individual strata lots, although it will show the outlines of buildings that are common property such as a club house”. Then the warning that matters: “If individual houses are shown, it may not be a bare land strata and the house exteriors may be common property for which the strata corporation is responsible.”

That is the single most expensive mistake available here, and it runs both ways. If the houses are drawn on the plan, the exteriors may be the strata’s problem and the strata’s insurance. If they are not, they are yours. Read the plan before you form a view.

A bare land plan also needed an extra approval that a condo plan did not. Section 243 says that “Before a person applies to deposit a bare land strata plan, the person must obtain the approval of an approving officer”, and that an approving officer “must not approve a bare land strata plan unless it complies with the regulations”. Those regulations are the Bare Land Strata Regulations, B.C. Reg. 75/78, filed on 17 February 1978 under Order in Council 418/78 and still in force under the Strata Property Act today. Nearly everything a bare land strata buyer cares about traces back to a decision that one approving officer made, once, before the plan was deposited.

Who is that officer? Under the Land Title Act, section 77, a municipal council “must appoint a person as an approving officer”, and that person must be the municipal engineer, the chief planning officer, another employee appointed by council, or someone under contract with the municipality. On the North Shore that means a District of North Vancouver, City of North Vancouver or West Vancouver official signed off on the road widths and the servicing, years ago, and no owner had standing in that decision.

Bare land strata and condo building, side by side

Question	Building strata (condo, townhouse)	Bare land strata
Where is your boundary?	Midway through the structural wall, floor or ceiling, unless the plan shows otherwise (s. 68(1))	Survey markers in the ground, with bearings shown on the plan (s. 68(4))
Does the plan draw the buildings?	Yes	No, except buildings that are common property (s. 244(1)(a))
Is the lot area on the plan?	Yes, in square metres	Yes, in square metres (s. 244(1)(d))
How is unit entitlement set?	Habitable area or total area in square metres, a uniform number, or a number approved by the Superintendent (s. 246(3))	A uniform whole number, or a number approved by the Superintendent. Lot area is not an option (s. 246(6))
Extra approval before deposit?	No approving officer approval needed	Approving officer approval required (s. 243)
Shelter easement between lots?	Yes (s. 69(1)(c), (2)(c))	No, switched off (s. 69(5))
Strata insures original developer fixtures in your unit?	Yes (s. 149(1)(d))	No, switched off (s. 149(3))
Can it be wound up without a court order?	No	Yes, if the plan has fewer than five strata lots (B.C. Reg. 556/82, s. 2(4))

The house is yours. The road, the water main and the drains are everybody’s.

“Common property” means the part of the land and buildings on the strata plan that is not part of a strata lot. In a bare land strata that is the internal road, the visitor parking, the entry gate, any clubhouse, the landscaped areas and the green space.

It is also, and this is the part people miss, the shared pipes and wires. The definition catches “pipes, wires, cables, chutes, ducts and other facilities” for water, sewage, drainage, gas, electricity and similar services where they are located “wholly or partially within a strata lot, if they are capable of being and intended to be used in connection with the enjoyment of another strata lot or the common property”. So a shared water line buried under your lawn is common property, not yours, even though it is under your lot.

B.C. Reg. 75/78 gives the road its own name. An “access route” is defined as “those portions of the common property in a bare land strata plan intended to provide vehicular access to the strata lots in the bare land strata plan”. Common property, by definition, in the regulation itself.

Section 72(1) of the Strata Property Act then says, in one sentence that pays for the whole strata fee: “the strata corporation must repair and maintain common property and common assets”.

The Province says the same thing in plainer language on its page on common property: “In a bare land strata corporation (“strata subdivision”) common roadways and in-ground services such as water and sanitation are often common property.” Note the word “often”. The Province does not assert it, which is precisely why the plan has to be read.

Nobody at city hall has to come and fix your road

This is the single biggest practical difference between a bare land strata lot and an ordinary fee simple lot on a public street, and most explanations of bare land strata never reach the reason for it.

The reason sits in the Local Government Act. Section 506(1) lets a local government pass a subdivision servicing bylaw regulating highways, sidewalks, street lighting, water distribution, fire hydrants, sewage collection and drainage. Then section 506(6) says: “A local government must not impose a requirement under subsection (1) (b) or (c) in respect of a subdivision under the Strata Property Act.”

Paragraphs (b) and (c) are the water, sewer, drainage, hydrant, highway, sidewalk and street lighting standards. So on a strata subdivision the municipality cannot impose those servicing requirements through its servicing bylaw, and the works end up belonging to the strata rather than to the city.

One precision point, because it is widely overstated: paragraph (a) is not excluded. A local government may still “regulate and prescribe minimum standards for the dimensions, locations, alignment and gradient of highways in connection with the development of land”. Road geometry standards survive. It is the servicing standards in (b) and (c) that do not apply.

The Province sets out the consequence on its subdivision servicing bylaws page: “A local government must not impose certain requirements for a strata subdivision. For example, in a bare land strata, the internal works and services are the property of the strata.” It then lists roads, sidewalks, street lighting or underground wiring, water distribution, fire hydrants, sewage collection and disposal systems, and drainage collection and disposal systems.

Two sentences on that page are worth reading twice. “Depending on the situation, a strata corporation’s internal works and services may or may not meet the same standards as the local government and it may or may not connect into adjacent local government or other systems.” And: “If a strata corporation chooses to terminate, a local government is not required to take over these services.”

That is not quite “no standards”, though. What the municipality could not demand through its servicing bylaw, the approving officer could, and did, require as a condition of approving the plan in the first place. B.C. Reg. 75/78 is a long list of those conditions.

Bare Land Strata Regulations, B.C. Reg. 75/78	What the approving officer had to be satisfied about
Section 6(1)(a)	That the access routes were wide enough “to meet police and fire protection requirements”
Section 6(1)(b)	That they gave “practical and reasonable access to the strata lots”
Section 6(1)(c)	That they were designed or buildable “in accordance with standards generally accepted as good engineering practice”
Section 7	That the necessary access routes “will not encroach on a strata lot”
Section 12	That the water, sewer and storm mains connecting the land to the municipal system were built to the bylaw standard, or that security was posted for them
Section 13	That a water, sewage and drainage system serving all the strata lots could be built to the standards in the codes or to good engineering practice
Section 15	That the developer agreed in writing to register easements letting the strata corporation enter affected strata lots to “install, repair, maintain or replace the pipes or lines”
Section 16	That, where the systems were not yet built, security had been posted for the cost of building them
Section 17	That enough parking was provided for “the normal parking requirements of the development”

Section 16 deserves a buyer’s attention. It let the approving officer approve the plan where the systems had not been built, as long as the developer posted security. So on a newer or phased bare land strata, the question “was it actually built, or was it bonded?” is a fair one to put to the strata council in writing.

What the strata must repair, and the bylaw that probably cannot shift it to you

Section 72 has three subsections and the order of them matters. Subsection (1) puts repair and maintenance of common property on the strata corporation. Subsection (2) lets the strata, by bylaw, make an owner responsible for “(a) limited common property that the owner has a right to use, or (b) common property other than limited common property only if identified in the regulations and subject to prescribed restrictions”. Subsection (3) lets the strata take on parts of a strata lot.

Limited common property is common property designated for the exclusive use of one or more strata lots. In a bare land strata that is often a driveway, a yard area or a parking pad. The strata can put the upkeep of that on you by bylaw, and frequently does.

Ordinary common property is different. Paragraph (b) only permits a bylaw where the thing is “identified in the regulations”. I read the whole of the Strata Property Regulation, B.C. Reg. 43/2000, in the current consolidation on 29 October 2026 and searched it for section 72. The string “72 (2)” does not appear anywhere in it. The only references to section 72 are to subsection (3), in two cost-sharing formulas that point the other way.

So the regulation that paragraph (b) needs has never been made. On the plain words, a bylaw purporting to make individual owners repair and maintain the internal road, where the road is ordinary common property and not designated limited common property, falls outside what section 72(2) allows.

I want to be careful here, because this is a reading and not a ruling. I could find no published tribunal or court decision confirming it, and the Province does not address it on its page on paying for repair and maintenance, which says only that strata corporations must maintain and repair common property and assets. What that page does say, plainly, is this: “The strata corporation’s common property and common assets cannot be made the responsibility of strata lot owners to repair and maintain even for short term exclusive use.”

The practical point for a buyer is simple. If the bylaws you are handed put road, drainage or water-main repair on individual owners, that is worth your lawyer’s or notary’s eye before you remove subjects, not after.

Thing	Who repairs and maintains it, as a starting point	Where that comes from
The house on your lot, if it is not drawn on the strata plan	You	It is inside your strata lot and is not common property
The internal road and visitor parking	The strata corporation	Common property; s. 72(1)
A shared water, sewer or drainage line, even where it runs under your lot	The strata corporation	Common property definition, paragraph (b)(ii); s. 72(1)
A service line that serves only your lot	You	Not capable of and intended for another lot’s enjoyment, so not common property
Your driveway or yard, where the plan designates it limited common property	The strata, unless a bylaw passes it to you	s. 72(2)(a)
A clubhouse, gate or street light on common property	The strata corporation	Common property; s. 72(1)
Part of your strata lot that the strata has taken on by bylaw	The strata corporation	s. 72(3)

What a tribunal actually decided about a bare land strata road

There is very little decided case material on bare land stratas that can be read publicly. I found one Civil Resolution Tribunal decision squarely on the road question, and it is usually described backwards.

In Dorn v. The Owners, Strata Plan EPS1433, 2021 BCCRT 1256, issued 30 November 2021, an owner in a 27-lot bare land strata wanted the strata ordered to build paved access to his lot. His only access was an unpaved common property emergency road. He lost. The order reads: “I dismiss Mr. Dorn’s claims and this dispute.”

But read what the tribunal actually said, because the two halves point in opposite directions. On creating access, the tribunal found that duty was never the strata’s: it “was not the strata’s legal duty to create access routes in the first place, but the owner developer’s”. It also found that under section 6 of the Bare Land Strata Regulations “the required access is to the edge of each strata lot, rather than to any building or building site located on the strata lots”. If your building site sits a long way inside your own lot, getting a vehicle to it is your problem.

On maintaining the existing road, the tribunal said the opposite of what the headline suggests. Paragraph 42 begins: “The strata is obligated to repair and maintain the emergency road.” It goes on to say that a claim to pave, change or upgrade it “would be assessed on the basis of whether the strata’s repair and maintenance of the emergency road was reasonable in the overall circumstances of the strata’s operation and finances”, citing Weir v. Owners, Strata Plan NW 17, 2010 BCSC 784.

One more detail that a buyer should take from it. The tribunal noted “there is nothing in the strata’s bylaws that make it responsible for access routes, or for driveways located on strata lots”. The result turned partly on that strata’s own bylaws. A different set of bylaws could produce a different answer, which is another reason to read the bylaws rather than the general rule.

So the honest summary is: the strata does not have to build you a road the developer never built, but it does have to keep the existing common property road in reasonable repair, judged against what the strata can actually afford.

I should say plainly what I could not find. I could find no decision I was able to open on a bare land strata water line, and none on unit entitlement in a bare land strata. The tribunal’s own search is not reachable from here, so “I could find none” is the accurate statement, not “there are none”.

Your strata fees probably ignore your lot size

Unit entitlement is the number that sets your share of the common expenses. For a building strata, section 246(3) offers habitable area or total area in square metres, a uniform whole number, or a number approved by the Superintendent of Real Estate.

A bare land strata lot is expressly carved out of that. Section 246(3) opens “The unit entitlement of a strata lot, other than a strata lot in a bare land strata plan, must be calculated as follows”. Section 246(6) then gives only two choices: “(a) a whole number that is the same for all of the strata lots in the strata plan, or (b) a number that is approved by the superintendent and that in the superintendent’s opinion allocates a fair portion of the common expenses to the owner of the strata lot”.

Lot area is not on that list. So unless the Superintendent approved something else, every lot in the strata carries the same unit entitlement, and therefore the same share of the road and the water main, whether the lot is small or large. The Condominium Home Owners Association of BC puts it the same way in its bulletin on bare land stratas: “With some exceptions common expenses in bare land strata corporations are all shared equally, even though the strata lots may vary in size.”

Here is the sharp part. Section 244(1)(d) still requires the plan to “show the area in square metres of each strata lot”. So the plan tells you exactly how unequal the lots are, while the Schedule of Unit Entitlement tells you that you are all paying the same. Put the two documents side by side and you can see in a minute whether you are the lot that is subsidising or the lot being subsidised.

Can it be fixed later? Probably not by the usual route. Section 246(7) lets an owner or the strata apply to the Supreme Court to amend a Schedule of Unit Entitlement, but only where the entitlement was calculated on habitable area under section 246(3)(a)(i), or on square footage under the former Condominium Act. A bare land entitlement set under section 246(6) is neither. Section 246 ends at subsection (8); there is no further route in it. Amending the schedule otherwise goes through section 261 of the Act, which needs a vote.

I looked for published guidance from the Superintendent on how a bare land schedule gets approved. The BC Financial Services Authority confirms that its approval is needed “if the unit entitlement is based on something other than the habitable area”, but I could find no published criteria or process specific to a bare land schedule. If the schedule for your strata is not uniform, ask for the approval document.

Insurance: the strata insures the road, not your house

Section 149(1) requires the strata corporation to insure “(a) common property, (b) common assets, (c) buildings shown on the strata plan, and (d) fixtures built or installed on a strata lot” by the developer as part of the original construction. Section 149(3) then switches paragraph (d) off: “Subsection (1) (d) does not apply to a bare land strata plan.”

Paragraph (c) is the one that usually goes quiet, because in a bare land strata the houses are not drawn on the plan. Paragraphs (a) and (b) do not go quiet at all. The road, the shared water and sewer infrastructure, the gates, the signage and any clubhouse all have to be insured, at full replacement value, against the perils listed in the regulation. Liability insurance is also required, and the regulation sets the floor: “the strata corporation must obtain and maintain liability insurance for a minimum amount of $2 000 000”.

The Province’s page on strata corporation insurance spells out the bare land case and ends with the sentence that matters: “However, common property such as a strata corporation clubhouse or sanitation and water must be insured.” Its wider point is that the individual homes in a bare land development are usually not shown on the strata plan and so are not inside the strata’s property insurance, unless the strata has taken on responsibility for all or part of the strata lots.

Which brings back the identification trap, this time from the owners’ side. The Vancouver Island Strata Owners Association puts it bluntly on its bare land strata page: “If the “houses” are shown on the strata plan, the strata corporation must insure them.” Its wider warning is worth quoting too: “When it comes to repairs it doesn’t matter whether the house is insured by the strata or the owner. What matters are the boundaries of the strata lot.”

Two practical consequences. You need your own homeowner policy on your house, because the strata’s policy almost certainly does not cover it. And the strata’s policy has to carry things nobody can see, which is exactly where bare land stratas get under-insured.

Depreciation and electrical planning reports: no bare-land exemption

There is a persistent belief that a strata with no buildings has nothing to depreciate. The regulation does not agree, and this is where a careless reading costs a buyer real money.

Section 94 of the Act requires a depreciation report, subject to the regulations. I searched the whole current consolidation of B.C. Reg. 43/2000 on 29 October 2026. The phrase “bare land” appears in exactly two places in it, and neither is in the depreciation or electrical reporting provisions. There is no bare-land exemption. The only exemption is a lot count.

What a bare land strata’s report actually contains is set out in regulation 6.2(2)(b), which lists, among other items, “(v) parking facilities and roadways”, “(vi) utilities, including water and sewage” and “(vii) landscaping, including paths, sidewalks, fencing and irrigation”. Those are the expensive items in a bare land strata, and most of them are buried.

The deadlines need reading carefully, because the two reports use different formulas and different exemption tests. Getting them mixed up is easy and the difference is real.

	Depreciation report	Electrical planning report
Act section	Section 94	Section 94.1
Regulation	B.C. Reg. 43/2000, ss. 6.2, 6.21, 6.22	B.C. Reg. 43/2000, ss. 5.7, 5.8
Deadline for an existing strata in a specified area	“before July 1, 2026”, but only for a strata established before 1 July 2024 that “has not obtained a depreciation report since December 31, 2020”	“on or before” 31 December 2026
Deadline outside a specified area	Before 1 July 2027, same condition	On or before 31 December 2028
Renewal cycle	“at least once every 5 years”	Not set on the same five-year cycle in these sections
Small-strata exemption	Does not apply “if and for so long as there are fewer than 5 strata lots” — a rolling test	Not required “if the strata plan has fewer than 5 strata lots on December 31, 2023” — frozen on that date
Phased strata plans	Covered by these sections	Section 5.8 “does not apply to a strata corporation if the strata plan is a phased strata plan”
Bare-land exemption	None	None

Three things follow from that table that are worth having in your head before you read a Form B.

• “Specified area” includes the Metro Vancouver Regional District, but the definition reads “other than an island that is accessible only by air or boat”. So an island bare land strata inside Metro Vancouver is outside the specified area and gets the later date. Bare land stratas are exactly the product type you find on those islands.
• The two small-strata tests are not the same. A strata that had four lots on 31 December 2023 and has six now is exempt from the electrical planning report, because that test is frozen on that date, and caught by the depreciation report, because that test is rolling.
• 31 December 2026 is close. If the strata is an existing Metro Vancouver strata of five or more lots and is not a phased plan, the electrical planning report is due on or before that date. Ask whether it has been obtained. We wrote about what the electrical planning report is and what it should contain separately.

One thing to be careful about if you go reading on this subject. The best-known industry bulletin on depreciation in bare land stratas is CHOA bulletin 800-015, and the date printed inside it is 23 February 2012. It predates the repeal of the old three-quarters-vote waiver and the whole current deadline scheme, so it is useful for the idea that buried services belong in a depreciation report and useless for any date or exemption.

And one consequence of section 59(4)(d): the most recent depreciation report must be attached to the Form B Information Certificate. A Form B that arrives with no depreciation report attached is itself a piece of evidence.

The easement question that only bites older bare land stratas

This is the most commonly garbled point in anything written about bare land stratas, and there are three separate things going on, not one.

Section 69 of the Act creates automatic easements that exist without any registration: support easements in subsections (1)(a) and (2)(a), service easements for pipes and wires in (1)(b) and (2)(b), and shelter easements in (1)(c) and (2)(c). Those service easements include “a right of entry to inspect, maintain, repair and replace” the services.

Section 69(5) then says: “The easements referred to in subsections (1) (c) and (2) (c) do not apply to strata lots in a bare land strata plan.” That is the shelter easement only, and it makes obvious sense where there is no shared building to shelter anything. Support and services are untouched by section 69(5).

The provision almost nobody mentions is regulation 17.6 of B.C. Reg. 43/2000, headed “Bare land strata plan easements”. It reads: “The easements referred to in section 69 (1) (b) and (2) (b) of the Act do not apply to a strata lot in a bare land strata plan deposited under the Condominium Act unless (a) the existence of the pipes, wires, cables, chutes, ducts or other facilities was disclosed to the purchaser of the strata lot by the owner developer in the prospectus or disclosure statement required under the Real Estate Act, or (b) the owner of the strata lot burdened by the easement has consented to the easement in writing.”

So for a bare land strata plan deposited under the former Condominium Act, the automatic service easement is switched off as well, unless the developer disclosed the pipes in the prospectus or disclosure statement, or the burdened owner consented in writing.

Automatic easement	Where it comes from	Bare land strata under the current Act	Bare land plan deposited under the former Condominium Act
Support, vertical and sideways	s. 69(1)(a), (2)(a)	Applies	Applies
Services: water, sewage, drainage, electricity and similar, with a right of entry to repair	s. 69(1)(b), (2)(b)	Applies	Does not apply, unless the facilities were disclosed in the prospectus or disclosure statement, or the burdened owner consented in writing (reg. 17.6)
Shelter by a building	s. 69(1)(c), (2)(c)	Does not apply (s. 69(5))	Does not apply (s. 69(5))

Before anyone panics: “no automatic easement” is not the same as “no easement”. Three things usually fill the gap, and a buyer should check all three rather than assume any of them.

• Registered easements. Section 15 of B.C. Reg. 75/78 stopped the approving officer from approving the plan unless the developer agreed in writing to register easements “sufficient to ensure that the strata corporation will have the right to enter on the strata lots affected and to install, repair, maintain or replace the pipes or lines”. That regulation was in force from February 1978, so it covered the whole Condominium Act era. Whether registration actually happened is a question for the title, not for the regulation.
• The common property definition. A shared line under your lot is common property anyway, and section 72(1) still obliges the strata to repair and maintain it.
• Standard Bylaw 7. It requires an owner, tenant, occupant or visitor to let someone authorised by the strata enter the strata lot in an emergency without notice, and otherwise “at a reasonable time, on 48 hours’ written notice, to inspect, repair or maintain common property”. Unless your strata has replaced the Standard Bylaws, that is the practical access route, and it does not depend on section 69 at all.

The narrow case where it genuinely bites is the one worth asking about: your own service line, serving only your lot, crossing a neighbour’s strata lot on an older plan. Section 15 produced easements in favour of the strata corporation, not in favour of an individual owner. If that is your situation, you want a registered easement, and your lawyer or notary is the person to ask.

How do you know which Act your plan was deposited under? The deposit date is printed on the deposited strata plan. Order the plan and ask whoever is doing your conveyance to tell you which Act applied.

A building scheme can decide what you are allowed to build

Bare land stratas are often sold as lots, with the buyer building the house afterwards. Developers who did that frequently registered a building scheme to keep the development consistent, and a building scheme is a far stickier thing than most buyers expect.

Section 220 of the Land Title Act is the mechanism. An owner intending to sell “2 or more parcels and to impose restrictions consistent with a general scheme of development” may register a Declaration of Creation of Building Scheme as a charge against the land.

Three features matter to a buyer.

• It binds you. From the date of the registrar’s endorsement the restrictions “run with and bind all the land affected and every part of it without further registration”, and section 220(3) expressly reaches “each successor in title, future purchaser, lessee and sublessee of the land”.
• It does not expire. Section 220 sets no end date. The restrictions run until they are modified or discharged. Treat anyone who tells you building schemes lapse with suspicion unless the declaration itself says so.
• Getting out of one is hard. Section 220(4) allows a modification or discharge by the consent of the owners of the land defined in the declaration, which in a 27-lot development means 27 signatures, and section 220(6) adds chargeholder consent where the land is charged. The alternative is court: section 220(9) says “Section 35 of the Property Law Act applies”, and that section lets “a person interested in land” apply to the Supreme Court to modify or cancel, among other things, “(d) a statutory building or statutory letting scheme”. The grounds include obsolescence “because of changes in the character of the land, the neighbourhood or other circumstances the court considers material” and that “the reasonable use of the land will be impeded, without practical benefit to others”. An order under that section “binds all persons, whether or not parties to the proceedings or served with notice.”

Worth knowing in both directions: section 35 of the Property Law Act also reaches “(a) an easement” and “(c) a statutory right of way”. The same court route that could free you from a building scheme could, in someone else’s hands, be aimed at the service easements your strata relies on.

Practically: a building scheme shows up as a charge on the title. Order the instrument itself and read it. Do not rely on the one-line charge description, because section 220(3)’s “without further registration” means the scheme can reach land whose charge history you have not traced.

A small bare land strata can be wound up without going to court

This is the bare-land rule I have seen nowhere else, and for a buyer looking at a three or four lot bare land strata it is the most consequential one on this page.

Section 286 of the Act says that Part 16, which deals with cancelling strata plans and winding up, “applies to bare land strata plans except to the extent set out in the regulations”. The regulation it means is not the main one. It is the Bare Land Strata Plan Cancellation Regulation, B.C. Reg. 556/82, made under Order in Council 2238/82 and current to 20 October 2026.

Its section 2(4) is the payload: “Despite section 274 of the Act, an application to cancel a bare land strata plan need not be accompanied by a court order under section 273.1 or the written consent referred to in section 274 (c) (i) if (a) the bare land strata plan has fewer than 5 strata lots, and (b) the registrar considers that the interests of holders of registered charges” against the land “will not be affected by the cancellation”.

A condo building of any size needs the BC Supreme Court to confirm its winding-up resolution. A bare land strata of fewer than five lots does not. It can be cancelled on an application to the registrar.

There is a price for the shortcut, and it is a notice a building strata never has to give. Section 2.1(1) says an application “may not be made in relation to a bare land strata plan unless written notice is given, at least 90 days before the date of the application”, to the local government where the land is inside one, or otherwise to the approving officer. That notice goes in Form BL-A, titled “Notice of Intent to Wind Up a Strata Corporation and Cancel a Bare Land Strata Plan”, and it has to say whether the owners intend to subdivide and list any common property or common assets they propose to hand to a local government or the Province.

Which closes the loop with the Province’s sentence from earlier in this page. The owners may propose handing the roads and services over. Nobody has to accept them.

Winding up and cancelling the plan	Condo or townhouse strata	Bare land strata, fewer than five lots
Court order confirming the winding-up resolution	Required	Not required, if the registrar is satisfied registered charges are unaffected
Written consent under s. 274(c)(i)	Required	Not required, on the same condition
Advance notice to the local government	Not required by this regulation	At least 90 days, in Form BL-A
Debts and taxes	Must be dealt with	Debts extinguished and “all taxes, assessments and charges levied on the owners of land within the plan have been paid” (s. 3(1))
Outcome at the land title office	Plan cancelled, corporation dissolved	Registrar cancels the plan, issues new title and “declare[s] the strata corporation dissolved” (s. 4(1))

Garbage, recycling and snow on a private strata road, on the North Shore

Here is the ordinary, weekly consequence of owning on a private road, and the answer is different in each of the three North Shore municipalities. I read each municipality’s own solid waste bylaw for this on 29 October 2026.

Start with the honest headline: none of the three bylaws mentions private roads or strata roads at all. Each of them turns instead on whether your property is serviceable from a public road, or on an official’s discretion. That is why “the city collects, doesn’t it?” is a question to put in writing rather than assume.

Municipality	The bylaw	What decides it	Who to ask
West Vancouver	Solid Waste Utility Bylaw No. 4740, 2012, consolidated to Amendment Bylaw No. 5348, 2024	Section 6.1.1 provides curbside collection to “detached single family, duplex dwelling units, and detached secondary suites directly serviceable from a public highway”, and section 4.1 defines “public highway” as “a roadway or laneway under municipal ownership and navigable by collection vehicles”. Section 7.1: “The Municipality does not provide solid waste collection services to multifamily dwelling units.”	District of West Vancouver, 604-925-7000, Municipal Hall, 750 17th Street, V7V 3T3
District of North Vancouver	Solid Waste Management Bylaw 8436, 2021	Discretionary. Section 14 provides curbside collection to properties “approved to receive curbside collection service by the General Manager of Engineering”, and section 27 lets a multi-family property receive it “where approved by the General Manager of Engineering”. Section 17(d) also allows the approval of “a centralized collection location”	District of North Vancouver, 604-990-2311, infoweb@dnv.org, District Hall, 355 West Queens Road, V7N 4N5
City of North Vancouver	Solid Waste Management Service Bylaw, 1997, No. 6920, consolidated for convenience 15 June 2026	Also discretionary, with a size line. Section 501.2 provides garbage collection “for properties with nine units or less”, adds that “At the discretion of the Solid Waste Management Delegate, service may or may not be provided within this requirement due to operational reasons”, and lets the Delegate serve larger properties where “deemed to be operationally feasible and cost effective”	City of North Vancouver, 604-985-7761, 141 West 14th Street, V7M 1H9

A note on the City of North Vancouver, because I went looking for a plainer answer and did not find one. The City’s multi-family collection page is about recycling in apartments, stratas and townhomes, and explains that Recycle BC is responsible for that collection. It does not address collection on a private strata road. So for a bare land strata on a private road in the City, the bylaw’s discretion is the real answer, and a phone call is the way to get it.

Snow is simpler and less comforting. Both the City of North Vancouver and West Vancouver publish priority orders for clearing: arterials and transit routes first, then collectors and school routes, then local streets. Neither publication mentions private or strata roads, and West Vancouver’s own winter material states plainly that lanes are never plowed. On a private strata road, clearing it is the strata’s job, out of the strata’s budget. Ask what the strata spends on snow, and whether it has a contract or calls someone each time.

Fire access is worth one sentence too, because it is settled much earlier than most buyers realise. The width of the access routes was tested against “police and fire protection requirements” by the approving officer before the plan was deposited, and the officer could rely on “reports from local fire protection and police authorities”. Nothing I could find published by any North Shore municipality addresses fire access on an existing private strata road.

The documents to ask for, and what they cost

A bare land strata lot is a strata lot, so you get all the usual documents. The Act’s section 59 requires the strata to give an Information Certificate, the Form B, within one week of a request by an owner, a purchaser, or someone authorised by either. Nothing in section 59 varies for bare land.

Two features of section 59 earn their keep during subject removal. Subsection (4)(d) requires the most recent depreciation report to be attached. And subsection (5) makes the disclosures binding: the information “is binding on the strata corporation in its dealings with a person who relied on the certificate and acted reasonably in doing so”, with one exception, in subsection (5.1), for the summary of insurance coverage where that came from the insurer or the insurance agent.

One document most buyers never order is the one I would order first in a bare land strata: the strata plan’s own common property record. The Land Title and Survey Authority explains on its page on finding strata property information that “The strata plan common property record registers any charges and legal notations affecting the common property.” The charges that matter in a bare land strata — the service easements, the municipal covenants, the rights of way over the road — sit there, not on your own title.

What to get	Where from	Cost
Form B Information Certificate, with the rules, the current budget and the most recent depreciation report attached	The strata corporation, within one week of your request (s. 59)	Maximum “$35 plus the cost of photocopying, or other means of reproduction, up to 25 cents per page”
Form F Certificate of Payment, which your conveyancer needs before the transfer can be registered (s. 256)	The strata corporation, within one week (s. 115). Current for 60 days from issue	Maximum $15
Title search on your strata lot	Land Title and Survey Authority	$11.06, plus a $3.55 standard electronic transaction fee
The deposited strata plan, and the charge instruments named on title	Land Title and Survey Authority, ordered by document or plan number	$17.78 per document or plan order, plus the $3.55 transaction fee
The strata plan common property record	Land Title and Survey Authority, searched by strata plan number	Free to search with an account; fees apply to order documents
Tax certificate, City of North Vancouver	Land Title and Survey Authority	$116.50
Tax certificate, District of North Vancouver	Land Title and Survey Authority	$137.26
Tax certificate, District of West Vancouver	Land Title and Survey Authority	$120.26

What I would do, in order

1. Get the deposited strata plan and look at it. Is it labelled a bare land strata plan? Are the houses drawn on it, or only surveyed lots? Where does your boundary actually run, and what is your lot’s area in square metres?
2. Get the Schedule of Unit Entitlement and compare it against the lot areas on the plan. If it is uniform, you now know how your fees are split. If it is not, ask for the Superintendent’s approval.
3. Search the title and the common property record, and order the actual instruments: service easements, municipal covenants, rights of way, and any building scheme.
4. Read the registered bylaws, specifically for anything putting the road, the drainage or the water main onto individual owners, and anything designating your driveway or yard as limited common property.
5. Ask for the depreciation report, and look for the roadway, utility and landscaping items. If there is no report, ask why, and check the deadline rules above against this strata’s lot count and location.
6. Ask whether the electrical planning report has been obtained, and if not, when.
7. Ask what the strata insures, and arrange your own homeowner policy on the house on the assumption that the strata’s policy does not cover it.
8. Ask the municipality, in writing, about garbage and recycling collection at that address, and ask the strata what it spends on snow clearing and road repair.
9. Ask the strata council two written questions: were the internal water, sewer and drainage systems built before the plan was deposited, or was security posted instead; and has any part of the internal system been replaced since.
10. Put the plan, the title, the bylaws and the depreciation report in front of your lawyer or notary before subjects come off.

The Condominium Home Owners Association’s own summary of bare land stratas is the right note to end on: “Don’t be mislead into thinking a bare land strata means it’s not really a strata, because all other conventions of strata living apply.” Rental and pet bylaws, age restrictions, the Standard Bylaws, special levies, the lot of it. “Whether it is a bare land of 2 units or 250 units it is still a strata.”

Read next

• The Form B Information Certificate: what it tells a buyer, and what it leaves out
• Strata depreciation reports: what to look for before you buy
• The strata electrical planning report and its deadline
• A covenant on title: what it means for a buyer
• What the strata insurance deductible means for a buyer
• All North Shore buying and selling guides

General information, not advice on a specific property. This page explains how the Strata Property Act, the Bare Land Strata Regulations, the Bare Land Strata Plan Cancellation Regulation, the Land Title Act, the Property Law Act, the Local Government Act and three North Shore solid waste bylaws read at the time of writing. Every strata is governed by its own deposited plan, its own registered bylaws and the charges on its own title, and those can change what is written here. Numbers, fees, deadlines and rules change. Confirm the current position with the authority that owns it: the Land Title and Survey Authority for titles, plans and charges, the strata corporation for its own documents, BC Assessment for assessments, and the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver or the District of West Vancouver for anything municipal, including garbage collection, snow clearing and road standards. Take legal advice from a lawyer or notary, and insurance advice from an insurance broker, before committing money. Every figure was verified at its primary source on 29 October 2026 and checked again in a separate pass. Last reviewed: October 2026.

Written by Tom Jahed, licensed REALTOR®, Vanak Realty, North Vancouver.