The strata depreciation report deadline was ten weeks ago — and most buyers still don’t ask

On 1 July 2026, every strata corporation in Metro Vancouver with five or more lots was required to hold a current strata depreciation report. That includes the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Lions Bay.

That date has passed. So when you look at a North Shore condo or townhouse today and the paperwork comes back without one, you are no longer looking at a gap in the file. You are looking at a strata that has missed a legal deadline.

Buyers almost never ask for the report by name, and hardly anybody knows they can demand it themselves for thirty-five dollars without the seller’s help. This page explains what the document is, what changed, and exactly how to get hold of one.

Before anything else: call them

Whatever you read here, phone or email the strata manager, the municipality and a licensed professional before you act on any of it. Rules, fees and deadlines change, and what applies depends on the specific building. Everything below was accurate when it was written and all of it is subject to change.

What a strata depreciation report actually contains

It is not a home inspection, and it is not an appraisal. A strata depreciation report is a thirty-year financial forecast of a building’s physical decay, and the regulation is specific about what goes into it.

An on-site visual inspection of the site and, where practicable, of the components themselves. Somebody has to actually walk the building.
Anticipated maintenance, repair and replacement costs projected across thirty years, with the interest and inflation assumptions stated.
At least three cash-flow funding models for the contingency reserve fund over those thirty years, combining reserve contributions, special levies and fee increases differently.
The current contingency reserve fund balance, minus money already approved but not yet spent.

Those three funding models deserve your attention first. They are, in effect, three versions of your future: one where fees rise gradually, one where they rise sharply, and one where a special levy lands on your unit. Whoever prepared the report has already worked out roughly what the building will cost you.

Who is allowed to write one

Since 1 July 2025, only six kinds of professional may prepare a strata depreciation report in British Columbia: professional engineers and licensee engineers, architects and architectural technologists, applied science technologists and certified technicians, Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute designates, certified reserve planners through the Real Estate Institute of Canada, and professional quantity surveyors.

Where a report predates that rule, it is still worth reading. Just check who signed it.

What changed in 2024, and why it matters now

Two things changed on 1 July 2024, and the second is the reason this page exists.

The renewal cycle moved from three years to five. On its own that would be a loosening.

But the escape hatch closed at the same time. Strata corporations may no longer hold an annual three-quarters vote to defer getting a depreciation report. For years, buildings that preferred not to know what their roof would cost simply voted every autumn not to find out. That option is gone.

Existing strata corporations were given a transition window to catch up:

Where	Deadline
Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Capital Regional District	1 July 2026
The rest of British Columbia	1 July 2027
Islands reachable only by boat or air, including Bowen Island	1 July 2027

North and West Vancouver sit in the first row. Bowen Island, despite belonging to Metro Vancouver, sits in the third, because it is reachable only by ferry. It has another year.

Which buildings are exempt

Strata corporations with four or fewer lots remain exempt and need not obtain a report at all. On the North Shore that covers a great many duplex and four-plex conversions, particularly around Lower Lonsdale and Ambleside. Buying into one of those, nobody is withholding anything from you. The obligation genuinely does not apply.

Newer buildings run on their own timetable. A strata created between 1 July 2024 and 1 July 2027 must obtain its first report within two years of its first annual general meeting. For a strata created on or after 1 July 2027 the window tightens to 18 months, and developer funding requirements apply on top.

You can request the strata depreciation report yourself, for $35

Here is the part almost nobody uses, and it is written into the Act.

A Form B Information Certificate may be requested by an owner, by a purchaser, or by a person either of them authorises. You do not have to own the unit. You do not need the seller to cooperate. The strata corporation must provide it within one week, and the most it may charge is $35 plus 25 cents per page of photocopying.

Certain documents must be attached to it. Among them:

The rules of the strata corporation
The current budget
The owner developer’s Rental Disclosure Statement, where one was filed
The most recent depreciation report, if any

That last line does the work. Ask for a Form B, and the strata depreciation report has to come with it. Thirty-five dollars, one week, no negotiation required.

Read the words if any carefully, though. Should the Form B arrive with nothing attached, the strata is telling you in writing that no report exists — and on the North Shore, after 1 July 2026, that is a missed obligation rather than a choice.

What owners can get that buyers cannot

Sections 35 and 36 of the Strata Property Act reach much further than the Form B, but they are aimed at a different person. An owner or a tenant — not a prospective purchaser — may demand the full record set.

Record	How long the strata must keep it
Minutes, financial statements, bank statements, contracts	6 years
Strata plan, bylaws, legal opinions, resolutions on common property	Permanently
Reports on major building components	Until replaced or disposed of
General correspondence	2 years

The strata has two weeks to comply with a records request, or one week where the request covers only bylaws and rules. Copies are capped at 25 cents per page.

In practice a buyer works through the seller, who is an owner and can demand the lot: six years of minutes and six years of financials. That is usually where the real story sits — not in the depreciation report at all, but in three years of council minutes arguing about the same balcony.

How to read a strata depreciation report without an engineering degree

You are not auditing the arithmetic. Four things matter.

The date it was written. A report from 2019 predates most of the construction cost inflation of recent years. Its numbers are optimistic through no fault of the author.
The gap between the three funding models. Where the difference between the gentle model and the harsh one is a few dollars a month, the building is in good shape. Where it is a five-figure special levy, that is your negotiation.
The big-ticket items in the first ten years. Roof, windows, building envelope, elevator, plumbing risers. Anything falling inside your likely ownership window is a cost you are buying, whether or not it has been voted on yet.
The reserve balance against what is coming. A healthy fund with a quiet decade ahead is a very different building from a healthy fund with a roof due in year three.

Then cross-read it against the minutes. A depreciation report says what should happen; the minutes say what the owners are actually willing to pay for. Frequently those are not the same document.

What I would actually do, in order

Request the Form B early, not on the last day of your subject period. The strata gets a week, and a week disappears quickly.
Check whether a strata depreciation report is attached. For a North Shore building of five or more lots, there should be one.
Ask the seller for two years of minutes and two years of financials. They can obtain six; two is usually enough to see the pattern.
Read the three funding models before you read anything else in the report.
Price the worst model into your offer, rather than hoping the council picks the gentle one.
Talk to your insurance broker and your lender about what the building’s condition means for you specifically, before you remove subjects.

None of this makes an older North Shore strata a bad buy. Buildings that have done the work and written it down are often better purchases than newer ones where nobody has looked. The problem is never the building with a thick depreciation report. It is the building where nobody asked for one.

Before you act on any of this, call them

Requirements, deadlines and fees change, and what applies depends on your specific strata corporation. Everything above was accurate when it was written and all of it is subject to change. Confirm with the strata manager, and with a lawyer or licensed professional, before you rely on it.

Province of BC — depreciation report requirements · BCFSA on the Form B · Condominium Home Owners Association of BC

Buying an older house instead? What actually breaks in an older North Shore house. And before you remove subjects on anything, it is worth knowing how to check a property’s permit history.