Strata insurance deductibles in BC: what a buyer should check

Most people buying a condo or townhouse in British Columbia are told the building has insurance, and they stop thinking about it. The strata does have insurance. That is not the part that costs people money.

The part that costs money is the deductible — the amount the strata has to pay before its insurer pays anything. On a BC strata policy that figure is not a few hundred dollars. The Province’s own pages describe deductibles in the tens, and in places the hundreds, of thousands of dollars.

And there are three separate ways that number can reach you: through your monthly strata fees, through a special levy with no owner vote, or as a personal bill if the damage started in your unit. The last one is the one that surprises people, because you do not have to be at fault. This page explains all three, what the law actually says, and what to read before you remove your subjects.

What a strata insurance deductible actually is

A deductible is the money the insured party pays towards a loss before the insurer pays the rest. The Province puts it this way on its page on insurance for strata corporations: “A deductible is the amount of money that the insured party is responsible for paying towards the insured loss before the insurance company pays”.

Here the insured party is the strata corporation, not you. So when a pipe fails and the claim goes in, the strata has to find the deductible first. Where that money comes from is the whole subject of this page.

Two things the law requires every BC strata to carry are worth knowing before you go further. Under section 149 of the Strata Property Act the strata must maintain property insurance on common property, common assets and the buildings shown on the strata plan, on a full replacement value basis, against “major perils”. Under section 150 it must also carry liability insurance, and the Strata Property Regulation sets that minimum at $2 million.

The three ways a deductible reaches you

There are exactly three, and they come from one section of the Act. Section 158 is titled “Insurance deductible” and it has three subsections — one for each route.

Route	What the Act says	What it means for you	Does it need an owner vote?
1. Your strata fees s.158(1)	“Subject to the regulations, the payment of an insurance deductible in respect of a claim on the strata corporation’s insurance is a common expense to be contributed to by means of strata fees”	The default. Everyone pays a share, in proportion to unit entitlement. You may never see it as a separate line.	No — it is already budgeted as a common expense
2. A special levy or the reserve fund s.158(3)	“strata corporation approval is not required for a special levy or for an expenditure from the contingency reserve fund to cover an insurance deductible required to be paid by the strata corporation to repair or replace damaged property”	A one-off bill to every owner, or a withdrawal that empties the reserve. This is the route that catches new owners.	No. The usual 3/4 vote does not apply
3. You, personally s.158(2)	“Subsection (1) does not limit the capacity of the strata corporation to sue an owner in order to recover the deductible portion of an insurance claim if the owner is responsible for the loss or damage that gave rise to the claim”	If the loss started in your unit, the strata may come after you for the whole deductible.	Not applicable

Two details on the second route that matter and are usually left out. The dispensation applies to a deductible “required to be paid by the strata corporation to repair or replace damaged property” — so it is tied to an actual repair. And it falls away “unless the strata corporation has decided not to repair or replace under section 159”. It is not a blanket power to levy without a vote for anything insurance-related.

One more point of accuracy on the third route, because it is widely overstated. Section 158(2) does not create a right to sue. It says subsection (1) does not limit the strata’s existing capacity to sue. And it says “sue” — it does not, on its own wording, authorise a strata to simply debit the deductible to your account. More on that below.

Can you be charged when you were not at fault?

Under the Act alone, yes. This is the single most important thing on this page, and it is the Province’s own position, not an interpretation of mine.

On its page on insurance for strata corporations (publication date July 23, 2025) the Province writes: “A strata corporation can recover the strata corporation’s insurance deductible from an owner, if the owner is responsible for the loss or damage that gave rise to the claim. The owner does not have to be deemed negligent in order to be held responsible.“

Its companion page on strata insurance for owners and renters (April 22, 2024) gives the worked example, and it is a mundane one: “For example, a dishwasher overflows in a strata unit and causes water damage to common property and other strata lots. The strata owner is responsible and the strata corporation can sue the strata owner for the cost of the strata corporation’s insurance deductible even if the strata owner was not ‘at fault.'”

The same page adds that this comes from the courts, not from a change in the legislation: “Recent court cases have determined that responsibility for an insurance claim does not mean that the strata owner must be at fault in order to be responsible for paying the corporation’s insurance deductible.”

Read that dishwasher example again and notice what is missing from it. No neglected maintenance. No ignored warning. A supply hose let go while nobody was doing anything wrong. That is the scenario the Province chose to illustrate the rule.

Why your building’s bylaws decide the answer

The Act sets a floor, but your building can set a stricter test for itself — and if it has, the strata has to meet that stricter test. This is where cases are actually won and lost, and it is why “can they charge me?” has no general answer.

Deductible disputes in BC go to the Civil Resolution Tribunal. Four of its published decisions show the pattern clearly. I have cited them by their neutral citations so you can read them yourself.

Decision	What happened	Standard the bylaws set	Outcome
2022 BCCRT 323 March 23, 2022	A toilet supply line connector failed in the owner’s unit	Bylaws did not modify the Act, so plain “responsible” applied	Owner ordered to pay $75,498.70, including a $75,000 deductible
2021 BCCRT 1290 December 8, 2021	A leak originating in the owner’s unit	The operative bylaw required negligence, and the bylaws were inconsistent with each other	Strata’s claim for its $25,000 deductible dismissed — negligence not proved
2021 BCCRT 752 July 9, 2021	A visitor struck a sprinkler head	Bylaw wording “act, omission, negligence or carelessness” was read as importing a negligence standard	Negligence was proved. Owner ordered to pay $30,345.25
2024 BCCRT 645 July 5, 2024	A fire that clearly originated in the owner’s lot	Bylaw deemed an owner responsible where the cause originated in their lot	Two respondents jointly and severally liable for $26,500.45

The 2022 decision states the principle in one sentence: “unless the strata modified the standard by its bylaws, it does not need to establish negligence under SPA section 158(2) to claim the deductible”.

The 2021 dismissal is the mirror image, and worth reading if you are buying: “when a strata corporation adopts a stricter negligence standard, the strata corporation must prove negligence and not simply ‘responsibility’ when charging an owner with an insurance deductible under section 158(2)”. The strata lost a $25,000 claim on that point.

Do not read that as good news in general. In the 2021 sprinkler case the bylaws also imported a negligence standard — and the strata proved negligence and collected $30,345.25. A negligence bylaw is not a shield; it is a different test.

So the practical advice is narrow and firm: you cannot know your exposure until you have read that building’s bylaws, specifically the ones on damage, responsibility and indemnity. A general answer from anyone — including me — is worth less than the actual bylaw.

One genuine gap in the law, which I would rather flag than paper over. Section 158(2) speaks of suing. Tribunal decisions sometimes use “charge back” language. I could not find a primary source that squarely settles whether a strata may debit a deductible to an owner’s account without an enabling bylaw and without suing. If a strata has charged your account directly, that is a question for a lawyer on your facts, not something I can answer here.

How big are these deductibles?

Large enough to matter, and the Province’s own two pages do not agree on the range. I am going to show you both rather than pick one, because the disagreement is itself the honest answer.

Government page	Date on the page	What it says, verbatim
Insurance for strata corporations	July 23, 2025	“Deductibles for a strata corporation insurance policy can range from $100,000 to $750,000 and higher depending on the number of units and the strata corporation’s claims history.”
Insurance for strata owners and renters	April 22, 2024	“This could be a significant expense as deductibles of $25,000 are common and can range up to $100,000 or more.”

What you should take from this is not a number. It is that a strata deductible is a five or six figure sum, that it varies with the building’s size and claims history, and that the only figure that matters to you is the one in that building’s own policy. Which is why the document section below is the practical heart of this page.

Earthquake coverage works differently again, and both government pages agree on the important part: an earthquake deductible is normally expressed as a percentage of the insured value of the building, not as a percentage of the loss. The July 2025 page puts the range at “10% to 20%”. The April 2024 page says 5% to 20%. Treat the percentage as building-specific and ask the question directly.

On why deductibles climbed in the first place, the clearest BC source remains the BC Financial Services Authority’s report Strengthening Foundations, from December 2020. It records that insurers “have been incurring losses mostly from frequently occurring lower-cost claims (particularly those resulting from water damage)” and that “One of the steps they have taken to reduce the losses is to increase water damage and sewer backup deductibles.”

What the strata’s policy does not cover

Three gaps catch buyers, and all three are defined in the regulation rather than left to the insurer’s discretion.

The gap	Where it comes from	What it means when you move in
Earthquake and flood are not compulsory	Regulation s.9.1(2) defines “major perils” as a closed list: “fire, lightning, smoke, windstorm, hail, explosion, water escape, strikes, riots or civil commotion, impact by aircraft and vehicles, vandalism and malicious acts”. Earthquake and flood are not in it.	“Water escape” — a burst pipe — is covered. An earthquake or an overland flood is only covered if the strata chose to buy that cover. Ask whether it did.
Your removable appliances	Regulation s.9.1(1) defines “fixtures” to include floor and wall coverings and electrical and plumbing fixtures, “but does not include, if they can be removed without damage to the building, refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, microwaves, washers, dryers or other items”.	The strata’s policy is not there for your fridge or your washing machine. Note the condition: the exclusion applies to appliances that come out without damaging the building.
Improvements, including the last owner’s	The Province lists, among things an owner’s own policy covers, “improvements (‘betterments’) to the strata lot made by the current and previous owners, up to a stated limit”.	If the unit you are buying has been renovated, those improvements are an owner-policy question. The renovation you are paying for is not automatically the strata’s to insure.

Your own policy is also how the deductible problem gets solved. The Province states on both pages that an owner’s policy can be built to cover the strata’s deductible: “Strata owner and tenant insurance can include coverage to pay for the strata corporation’s insurance deductible.”

And here is the sentence that should settle it for any buyer. BCFSA, in that December 2020 report: “While the strata insurance legislation requires strata corporations to obtain strata insurance, there is no requirement for strata owners to obtain insurance to cover their share of the deductible.“

Nobody will make you buy it. Nobody will check. Take the strata’s deductible figure to your own insurance broker and ask to be covered for it, in writing, before you complete.

What to read before you remove subjects

You have a statutory right to some of this and no direct right to the rest, and the difference is worth understanding because it changes who has to ask.

Document	Who has the right to it	How fast	Maximum fee
Form B Information Certificate (includes a summary of the strata’s insurance, and has the most recent depreciation report attached)	An owner, a purchaser, or a person authorised by either — s.59(1) names a purchaser expressly	“Within one week of a request”	$35 plus copying, up to 25 cents per page (Regulation s.4.4)
Bylaws and rules	An owner, an assigned tenant, a former owner or tenant, or a person authorised in writing by one of them	One week	25 cents per page; inspection is free
Minutes and the other records in s.35	The same list — not a purchaser in their own right	Two weeks	25 cents per page; inspection free
Depreciation report	Comes attached to the Form B under s.59(4)(d)	With the Form B	Included in the Form B fee

That third row is the one competitors get wrong. Section 36 gives the right to inspect and copy records to an owner, to an assigned tenant, to a former owner or tenant, and to “a person authorized in writing by an owner or tenant”. A purchaser is not on that list. Section 59, for the Form B, does name a purchaser.

In practice this is not a wall, it is a procedure: the minutes reach you because the seller authorises it, or because your contract requires it. But you should know that it is the seller’s right being exercised and not yours, because that is what you are relying on when you set a subject-removal date.

On the depreciation report, the cycle is set by Regulation s.6.21(2): “Subject to subsections (3) to (5), a strata corporation must obtain a new depreciation report at least once every 5 years.” A strata with fewer than 5 strata lots is exempt from the requirement altogether under s.6.22.

There is also a deadline that has now passed, which is useful to you as a buyer. Under s.6.21(3), a strata established before July 1, 2024 that had not obtained a depreciation report since December 31, 2020 had to obtain one “before July 1, 2026” if it is wholly or partly in a specified area — and the Metro Vancouver Regional District is a specified area, so North Vancouver and West Vancouver are inside it. Note both conditions: it bites only on stratas formed before July 1, 2024 that had let their report lapse. Outside the specified areas the date is July 1, 2027.

The buyer’s question that follows is simple. If this building should have had a report by then, is there one, and is it current?

The Form B gap most buyers never hear about

The Form B is binding on the strata corporation — except, on one specific item, it is not. That item is the insurance summary, which is the very thing you are reading the Form B for.

Section 59(3)(l.2) requires the certificate to disclose “a summary of the strata corporation’s insurance coverage”. Section 59(5) then makes the s.59(3) information “binding on the strata corporation in its dealings with a person who relied on the certificate and acted reasonably in doing so”.

Then comes s.59(5.1): “Despite subsection (5), information in subsection (3) (l.2) disclosed in a certificate is not binding on the strata corporation if the disclosed information is obtained from the strata corporation’s insurer, as defined in section 1 (1) of the Financial Institutions Act, or insurance agent, as defined in section 168 of that Act”.

Be precise about how far that goes, because it is narrower than it first sounds. It carves out only the insurance summary, and only where that summary came from the insurer or the insurance agent. A summary the strata or its manager wrote is still caught by s.59(5) and still binding.

But the practical consequence stands, and it is the most useful thing on this page: do not rely on the insurance line in the Form B on its own. Ask for the certificate of insurance or the policy summary itself, find the deductible schedule in it — including the separate water damage, sewer backup and earthquake deductibles — and have your own broker read it before your subjects come off.

Two further rights help you keep an eye on it after you own the place. Section 154 requires the strata to review its insurance annually, report on it at every annual general meeting, and “inform owners and tenants as soon as feasible of any material change in the strata corporation’s insurance coverage, including any increase in an insurance deductible”. And under s.155, owners and occupants are named insureds on the strata’s policy whatever the policy itself says.

Mistakes that cost money

• Assuming the strata’s insurance is your insurance. It covers the building and the original fixtures. Your appliances, your improvements and your liability are yours.
• Buying an owner’s policy without naming a figure. “Contents and liability” is not deductible coverage. Give your broker the strata’s actual deductible and ask to be covered to that amount.
• Reading the Form B insurance line and stopping there. See the section above — that is the one line the strata is not bound by if it came from the insurer or agent.
• Not reading the damage and indemnity bylaws. They decide whether fault matters in your building. Nothing else does.
• Treating a healthy contingency reserve fund as protection. Section 158(3) lets the strata take a deductible straight out of it with no owner vote. A reserve can be drained between your offer and your completion.
• Ignoring the minutes because the Form B looks clean. Approved future special levies appear on the Form B under s.59(3)(d), but the discussion that leads to one appears in the minutes first.
• Assuming earthquake cover is in place. It is not a major peril. On this coast that is worth one direct question.

What I could not confirm, and did not print

Everything above was checked at its primary source and then checked again in a second pass that tried to disprove it. Some things did not survive that, so they are not on this page. You should know what they were.

• “Water damage is the number one home insurance claim in Canada.” This is widely repeated and attributed to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. I could not find it on an Insurance Bureau of Canada page, so I have not printed it.
• Current BC deductible and water-damage statistics. BCFSA’s strata insurance reporting dates from 2020. I have not found updated deductible or water-damage data published by BCFSA since then, so the two quotations above carry their December 2020 date and I have left its individual statistics out as too old to put in front of a buyer in 2026.
• A single authoritative deductible range. The Province’s two pages disagree, so I have shown both with their dates instead of averaging them into a number that appears on neither.
• Whether a strata can charge your account without suing. Genuinely unresolved on the sources I could open. Flagged above rather than guessed at.
• North Shore specific deductible figures. No primary source publishes deductible data for North Vancouver or West Vancouver. Anyone quoting you a local average is estimating.

Questions buyers ask

If a pipe in my wall bursts, am I paying the deductible?

Possibly, and possibly all of it. If the loss originated in your strata lot, s.158(2) preserves the strata’s capacity to sue you for the deductible, and the Province’s position is that you need not have been negligent. Whether your building must prove negligence depends on its bylaws.

Can my own insurance cover the strata’s deductible?

Yes. The Province says owner and tenant policies “can include coverage to pay for the strata corporation’s insurance deductible”. It is not automatic and it is not required by law, so ask for it specifically and confirm the amount.

Where do I find the deductible before I buy?

Request the Form B, which must include a summary of the insurance coverage and arrives within one week for a maximum of $35 plus copying. Then ask for the certificate of insurance or policy summary itself, because the Form B insurance line is not binding on the strata if it came from the insurer or agent.

Can the strata levy me for a deductible without a vote?

For a deductible payable to repair or replace damaged property, yes — s.158(3) removes the usual approval requirement for a special levy or a contingency reserve fund expenditure. The exception is where the strata has decided under s.159 not to repair.

Does the strata have to tell me when the deductible goes up?

Once you are an owner, yes. Section 154 requires the strata to inform owners and tenants as soon as feasible of any material change in its insurance, “including any increase in an insurance deductible”, and to report on coverage at each annual general meeting.

Am I entitled to the minutes as a buyer?

Not in your own right. Section 36 gives that right to owners, assigned tenants, former owners and tenants, and anyone authorised in writing by them. You get the minutes through the seller’s authorisation or through your contract. The Form B is different — s.59(1) names a purchaser expressly.

Where does a deductible dispute get decided?

At the Civil Resolution Tribunal, which handles strata claims. Its published decisions include deductible claims well into the tens of thousands of dollars — the four in the table above range from a dismissed $25,000 claim to an award of $75,498.70.

Is any of this different for a bare land strata?

Yes, in one respect worth noting: s.149(3) provides that the requirement to insure owner-developer fixtures in a strata lot does not apply to a bare land strata plan, and s.161(2) lets an owner in a bare land strata insure buildings and fixtures on their own lot. If you are buying in a bare land strata, treat the insurance question as a separate conversation.

Read next

• What it costs to own a condo in North Vancouver
• Condo, townhouse or house in North Vancouver: which one fits you?
• Strata depreciation reports: what to look for before you buy
• First-time buyer in North Vancouver: what completion day really costs
• Buying a presale on the North Shore, and what an assignment really costs
• What a home inspection misses on the North Shore
• What to check before buying an older house on the North Shore
• All North Shore guides
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Before you rely on any of this

This page is general information about British Columbia strata insurance law. It is not advice about a specific property, a specific strata corporation or a specific insurance policy, and it is not legal advice. Every building’s bylaws and every insurance policy are different, and the bylaws are what decide the question this page is about.

Legislation, regulations, fees and government guidance change. The Strata Property Act text quoted here was read in a consolidation current to September 22, 2026, and the Strata Property Regulation in one current to September 29, 2026. Confirm the current position with the authority that owns it: the Province of British Columbia for the legislation and its strata housing guidance, the Civil Resolution Tribunal for dispute procedure, and the strata corporation and its insurer or insurance agent for anything about a particular policy or deductible. Take professional legal and insurance advice before you commit money.

All facts on this page were verified at their primary source and then verified again in a separate pass on October 4, 2026. Last reviewed: October 2026.

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