Strata Rental and Age Restrictions in BC: What a Buyer Needs to Check

If you are buying a condo or townhouse in British Columbia and the bylaws say no rentals, that bylaw no longer works. A strata corporation has not been allowed to restrict long-term rentals since November 24, 2022, and the words are in the Strata Property Act itself. Age restrictions survived, but only at one number: fifty-five.

The part that trips buyers up is that nobody had to go and delete the old bylaw. It is still sitting in the registered bylaw package you will be handed. This page explains which restrictions are dead, which still bite, what a Form B will and will not show you, and what the three North Shore municipalities add on top.

A strata cannot stop you renting your unit out long term

This is one sentence of statute, and it is worth reading in full. Section 141 of the Strata Property Act, under the heading “No restriction of rentals by strata corporation”, reads:

The strata corporation must not screen tenants, establish screening criteria, require the approval of tenants, require the insertion of terms in tenancy agreements or otherwise restrict the rental of a strata lot.

Notice how wide that is. It is not only a ban on rental caps. It also removes tenant screening, tenant approval and any power to dictate what goes into the tenancy agreement. A council that asks to interview your tenant, or to approve them, is asking for something the Act took away.

Most of the rest of Part 8 of the Act went with it. Sections 139 and 140 were repealed, and so were sections 142 to 145. The words “hardship” and “family member” no longer appear anywhere in that Part. If somebody tells you to apply to your council for a hardship exemption from a rental restriction, they are working from a version of the law that stopped existing in 2022.

Your building’s bylaws may still say “no rentals”. That bylaw stopped working

Nothing in the legislation required stratas to go to the Land Title Office and remove their old rental bylaws. So thousands of buildings in BC still hand buyers a bylaw package containing a restriction that cannot be enforced against anyone.

Two provisions do the work. Section 141 stops the strata restricting rentals at all. Section 121(1) then says a bylaw “is not enforceable to the extent that it” contravenes the Act, or “prohibits or restricts the right of an owner of a strata lot to freely sell, lease, mortgage or otherwise dispose of the strata lot”. There used to be a carve-out in section 121(2)(a) that protected rental bylaws from that second limb. It was repealed in 2022, and the Act now prints it as “[Repealed 2022-41-14.]”.

The Province’s own Changes to strata legislation page puts it in plainer words: “As of November 24, 2022, no strata corporation or section is allowed to have a residential rental-restriction bylaw. All strata rental-restriction bylaws are invalid.” And then, importantly for anyone reading an old bylaw package: “Note: no strata bylaw changes are required as provincial legislation changed.”

So a dead rental bylaw in the package is normal, not a red flag about the building. What it does tell you is how recently the strata has tidied its own paperwork, which is a fair thing to notice.

The one rental bylaw that still bites: short-term stays

A strata can still ban or limit short-term rentals, and the drafting is the reason it survives. The Strata Property Regulation describes this kind of bylaw, in section 7.1(1)(c), as one that “prohibits or limits use of all or part of a residential strata lot for remuneration as vacation, travel or temporary accommodation”.

Read that again: it is a bylaw about use for payment, not about renting. That is why it does not run into section 121(1)(c)’s protection of an owner’s right to lease. The Province makes the same point in a bracket on its short-term rental bylaws page: “(Technically short-term rentals are a license to occupy and a commercial use).”

The teeth are real. The Province says a strata “can still have strata bylaws that limit or ban short-term rentals and levy fines of up to $1,000 a day”, that such a bylaw is created “by a 3/4 vote of owners”, and that “a strata’s short-term rental bylaw must specify the maximum fine (which may not exceed $1,000 a day)”. Regulation 7.1(2)(b) is what allows the daily frequency, against the ordinary ceiling of once every seven days for other bylaws.

That fine ceiling is not new, and it did not arrive with the 2022 changes. The Province dates it to November 30, 2018, and the regulation’s own note agrees.

What a BC strata can and cannot restrict today

The restriction	Allowed?	Where it says so
Capping or banning long-term rentals	No	Act, s.141
Screening or approving your tenant	No	Act, s.141
Dictating terms in your tenancy agreement	No	Act, s.141
Banning or limiting short-term stays for payment	Yes, by a 3/4 vote	Act, s.119 and s.128; Regulation s.7.1(1)(c)
Fining daily for a short-term rental breach	Yes, up to $1,000 a day	Regulation s.7.1(1)(c) and s.7.1(2)(b)
Requiring residents to be 55 or older	Yes	Act, s.123.1(2)
Requiring residents to be 19, 25 or 40 and older	No	Act, s.123.1(1)
Excluding a qualifying resident’s child or spouse from a 55+ building	No	Act, s.123.2; Regulation s.7.01(2)

On the North Shore, the strata bylaw is only the first gate

If you are buying with short-term rental income in mind, clearing the strata bylaw is not the end of it. The Province’s Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act sets a principal-residence requirement, and each municipality licenses on top of that. The three North Shore municipalities do not do it the same way, and one of them does not even use the same definition of “short term”.

The Province defines a short-term rental as accommodation “for a period of less than 90 consecutive days”. The District of West Vancouver’s own pages and its application form both define it as a stay of less than 30 consecutive days. Those are different tests, and the stricter one is the one that will be enforced against you in West Vancouver.

Short-term rentals on the North Shore: three municipalities, three sets of paperwork

	City of North Vancouver	District of North Vancouver	District of West Vancouver
How short is “short term”	Follows the provincial Act	Bookings of less than 90 consecutive days, per the District’s own declaration form	Less than 30 consecutive days
Business licence needed	Yes	Yes	Yes
Written strata approval required for the licence	Yes	Not asked for on the owner declaration form	Yes, a strata corporation authorization form must be attached
Principal residence rule	Yes, defined as living there at least 183 days in each licensing period	Yes, declared by the owner	Yes, and the unit must have an approved secondary suite licence where one applies
Annual licence fee	$250 for short-term boarding; $550 for a whole self-contained residence	Not published on the pages I could open	$350 annual renewal
Who to ask	licence@cnv.org or 604-982-9675	604-990-2311 or infoweb@dnv.org	bylawdept@westvancouver.ca or 604-925-7152

Two things in that table matter more than the fees. First, in the City of North Vancouver and in West Vancouver the strata is effectively a gatekeeper on the municipal licence: the City’s own guidance says “You can operate an STR if you have written authorization from your Strata Corporation”, and West Vancouver’s application form requires you to declare whether the property is in a strata and to attach a strata authorization form. A strata that will not sign stops the licence, even where it has not passed a short-term rental bylaw at all.

Second, West Vancouver is explicit that it is not overriding the strata. Its page carries a heading “Strata Buildings” and one line underneath: “Strata corporations retain the right to prohibit STRs through their own bylaws.”

Municipal rules change, and licensing programs on the North Shore are only a couple of years old. Before you rely on any of this, call the city that governs the address. City of North Vancouver licensing: licence@cnv.org or 604-982-9675. District of North Vancouver: 604-990-2311. West Vancouver bylaw and licensing: bylawdept@westvancouver.ca or 604-925-7152.

Age restrictions: 55 is the only number left

Age bylaws were not abolished. They were narrowed to a single permitted form. Section 123.1 of the Act reads:

(1) Except as permitted by subsection (2), a bylaw must not restrict the age of persons who may reside in a strata lot.

(2) The strata corporation may pass a bylaw that requires one or more persons residing in a strata lot to have reached a specified age that is not less than 55 years.

Three things follow from the exact words, and all three get misreported.

• It is about residents, not owners. The bylaw restricts “persons who may reside in a strata lot”. The Province says the same: “Age-restriction bylaws apply to the residents of the strata lot, not the ownership.”
• Only one resident has to qualify. The wording is “one or more persons residing in a strata lot”, not all of them. A couple where one partner is 56 and the other is 48 can live in a 55+ building.
• No other number works. The floor is “not less than 55 years”. The Province is blunt about the rest: “As of November 24, 2022, strata corporations can no longer have bylaws which restrict residents to other ages, such as restricting strata residents to age 19+, 25+ or 40+.”

Who a 55+ bylaw cannot keep out

This is the part buyers are rarely told, and it is the part that decides whether a 55+ building actually suits your family. Section 123.2 of the Act and section 7.01(2) of the Regulation together exempt five groups. A 55+ bylaw simply does not apply to them.

The five people a 55+ bylaw cannot exclude

Who	The test in the words of the law	Where
A resident who was already there	Lived in the strata lot immediately before the bylaw was passed, was not breaching any age bylaw by doing so, and “continues to reside in the strata lot after the bylaw is passed”	Act, s.123.2(a)
A live-in caregiver	“a caregiver who resides in the strata lot for the purpose of providing care to another person who (i) resides in the strata lot, and (ii) is dependent on caregivers for continuing assistance or direction because of disability, illness or frailty”	Act, s.123.2(b)
A child	“a child, if one of the child’s caregivers is a specified resident”. A child means a person under the age of 19 years	Regulation, s.7.01(2)(a)
An adult who was that resident’s dependant	A person 19 or older who lives with a specified resident “who was one of the person’s caregivers before the person reached the age of 19 years”	Regulation, s.7.01(2)(b)
A spouse	“the spouse of a specified resident” — married, or “living with another person in a marriage-like relationship”. No age floor is set	Regulation, s.7.01(2)(c)

“Specified resident” is the hinge. The Regulation defines it as a resident who has reached the age in the bylaw, or who is grandfathered under section 123.2(a). The Province puts it in everyday terms: “A specified resident can be an owner, tenant or occupant who lives in the strata lot and who either meets the age requirement or has a legacy exemption.”

Read practically: in a 55+ building, a qualifying resident’s spouse of any age, their children, their adult children and their live-in caregiver all have a right to be there. The child and spouse exemptions were added later than the main change, effective May 1, 2023.

You can own in a 55+ building and still not be allowed to live in it

Because the bylaw restricts residence and not ownership, a 40-year-old can buy a unit in a 55+ strata. They may just not be able to move into it. The Province states this directly: “People younger than age 55 can own strata lots in an age 55+ restricted strata corporation but they may not be able to live in the strata lot.”

Put that beside section 141 and an unusual picture appears. A younger buyer in a 55+ building cannot live there, but the strata cannot stop them renting it out either, because the rental prohibition in section 141 applies regardless of the age bylaw. The tenant, of course, still has to satisfy the age bylaw. This is a narrow and awkward corner of the law, and it is exactly the kind of thing to put to a strata lawyer before you write an offer rather than after.

There is also a quiet piece of drafting worth knowing about. Section 121(1)(c) makes a bylaw unenforceable if it restricts an owner’s right to freely sell or lease. A 55+ bylaw plainly narrows the pool of buyers and tenants, so the legislature had to exempt it by name. Section 121(2)(c) does that, excluding “a bylaw under section 123.1 (2) that restricts the age of persons who may reside in a strata lot”.

Where human rights law actually comes in

Almost everything written about 55+ stratas waves at “human rights” without naming the provision. It is worth being precise, because the right section changes the answer.

The Human Rights Code has three candidates and only one fits. Section 10 is headed “Discrimination in tenancy premises” and is about occupying space “as a tenant” — not about an owner in their own strata lot. Section 9 covers the purchase of property, but its list of grounds does not include age or family status at all, so a 55+ bylaw cannot be challenged under it. The section that governs is section 8, “Discrimination in accommodation, service and facility”, whose grounds do include “family status” and “age”.

Then comes the provision that resolves it. Section 41(2) of the Code says:

Nothing in this Code prohibits a distinction on the basis of age if that distinction is permitted or required by any Act or regulation.

A 55+ bylaw is an age distinction permitted by an Act, so on the face of the text section 41(2) takes it outside the Code’s age prohibition. I should be honest about the limit of that: it is a reading of the words. I could not find a published decision applying section 41(2) to a strata 55+ bylaw, so treat it as a strong textual argument rather than a settled ruling.

One more detail that catches people out. The Code defines “age” as “an age of 19 years or more”. Children are therefore not protected by the Code’s age ground at all — a bylaw excluding children is a family status question under section 8, not an age one. And section 41(2) rescues age distinctions only, not family-status distinctions. In practice the legislature closed most of that gap itself through section 123.2 and Regulation 7.01, which is why the child, adult-child and spouse exemptions in the table above matter so much.

Where the Code does bite directly is through the Act itself. Section 121(1)(a) makes a bylaw unenforceable to the extent that it “contravenes this Act, the regulations, the Human Rights Code or any other enactment or law”. A Civil Resolution Tribunal decision in 2023 BCCRT 715 is a useful illustration. A strata fined owners because a woman’s under-55 grandson stayed overnight to care for her. The claims were dismissed, and the primary reason was procedural: the strata had not met the notice and hearing requirements in section 135 of the Act before imposing fines. The tribunal then added, as an alternative finding, that “under SPA section 121(1)(a), the strata’s age restriction bylaws are not enforceable against SL1 for the grandson’s overnight caregiving”. It is one tribunal decision, fact-specific and not binding, and today the caregiver point is answered more simply by section 123.2(b). The procedural lesson is the durable one: a strata that fines without following section 135 has a problem whatever its bylaw says.

Why an old 19+ bylaw is dead, and not merely unpassable

This is the piece I have not seen explained anywhere else, and it answers the obvious objection: if the law only stopped stratas passing age bylaws, what about the ones already registered?

When the 2022 amendments first created section 123.1, the subsection read: “The strata corporation must not pass a bylaw that restricts the age of persons who may reside in a strata lot except as permitted by subsection (2).” On its face that bound the act of passing a bylaw, and left an already-registered bylaw arguably untouched.

The legislature fixed it the following year. Section 11 of Bill 24 – 2023, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2023, repealed that subsection and substituted the wording that is in the Act today: “Except as permitted by subsection (2), a bylaw must not restrict the age of persons who may reside in a strata lot.” The prohibition now attaches to the bylaw itself, not to the act of passing one.

And it was backdated. The commencement table in section 46 of that Bill lists, as item 3, “Section 11” against the date “November 24, 2022” — the day the original changes took effect. The Bill was certified as passed Third Reading on April 25, 2023, and the fix reaches back to the start.

So an old 19+ or 40+ bylaw has not been merely unenforceable since 2022 by inference. The content prohibition itself has applied to it, by statute, since November 24, 2022. The Province says the same thing in six words: “These changes apply regardless of existing strata bylaws.”

What the Form B will and will not tell you

Most buyers assume the Form B Information Certificate is where they will read the bylaws. It is not. Section 59(4) of the Act lists what must be attached to it, and the list is short:

(4) Copies of all of the following must be attached to the certificate: (a) the rules of the strata corporation; (b) the current budget of the strata corporation; (c) [Repealed 2022-41-12.] (d) the most recent depreciation report, if any, obtained by the strata corporation under section 94.

Rules are not bylaws. The Act keeps them apart deliberately. Section 125(1) lets a strata make “rules governing the use, safety and condition of the common property and common assets” — common property only. Bylaws are far wider, and under section 125(5), “If a rule conflicts with a bylaw of the strata corporation, the bylaw prevails.” Section 35(2)(d) lists “the bylaws and rules” as two separate records. So the attachment in section 59(4)(a) gives you the lesser document.

The Form B also no longer says anything about rentals. The paragraph that used to require that disclosure, section 59(3)(l), now prints as “[Repealed 2022-41-12.]”, and so does the attachment at section 59(4)(c). That makes sense once rental restrictions stopped existing, but it means the Form B will not tell you how many units in the building are tenanted.

What the Form B does give you, and this is the part that protects you, is early warning of bylaw changes in flight. Section 59(3)(g) requires disclosure of “any amendments to the bylaws that are not yet filed in the land title office”, and section 59(3)(i) of “any notice that has been given for a resolution that has not been voted on, if the resolution requires a 3/4 vote, 80% vote or unanimous vote or deals with an amendment to the bylaws”. A short-term rental ban being voted on next month shows up there.

Where each document comes from, and what it is worth

Document	Who can demand it	Timing and cost	What it settles
Form B Information Certificate	An owner, a purchaser, or someone authorized by either — section 59(1)	Within one week of the request; $35 plus up to 25 cents a page	Pending and unfiled bylaw amendments, fees, levies, parking, insurance summary. Not the bylaws, and nothing about rentals
The rules	Attached to the Form B automatically — section 59(4)(a)	With the Form B	Use of common property only
The registered bylaws	Anyone, from the Land Title Office, filed against the strata plan — section 120(1)	Ordering fee; your conveyancer can pull them	The bylaws actually in force, including any age bylaw
The strata records	An owner or tenant, or a person authorized in writing by one — section 36(1)	On request	Minutes, correspondence, legal opinions, the full bylaw and rule set

How to get the bylaws before you commit

A purchaser has a direct statutory right to a Form B. Section 59(1) says the strata must provide one “Within one week of a request by an owner, a purchaser or a person authorized by an owner or purchaser”. A purchaser has no equivalent direct right to the records under section 36(1), which runs to “an owner”, an assigned tenant, or “a person authorized in writing” by one of them.

So the bylaws come three ways, and a careful buyer uses all three.

1. Order the filed bylaws from the Land Title Office. Section 120(1) says the bylaws are the Standard Bylaws “except to the extent that different bylaws are filed in the land title office”, so whatever is filed against that strata plan is the operative set. Your lawyer or notary pulls these.
2. Get the Form B. It catches what the Land Title Office cannot: amendments approved but not yet filed, and resolutions that have been noticed but not voted on.
3. Ask the seller to authorize you in writing under section 36(1)(c), which opens the rest of the strata records — minutes, correspondence, legal opinions.

One provision makes this sequence safe. Section 128(2) says that if a bylaw amendment is approved, the Amendment to Bylaws “must be filed in the land title office and, until that filing, the amendment has no effect”. A short-term rental ban passed at a general meeting but never filed is not yet a bylaw. Between the filed set and the Form B, you can see both what is in force and what is coming.

And section 59(5) gives the Form B a weight people underrate: the information in it “is binding on the strata corporation in its dealings with a person who relied on the certificate and acted reasonably in doing so”.

One trap: the Province’s own archived guide still describes the old exemptions

If you search for BC strata rental rules, you may land on a Province of British Columbia document called “Guide 15: Rentals Permitted within a Strata Corporation”. It is still served from gov.bc.ca. It still has sections headed “Rental to a Family Member” and “Exemption for Hardship”, written in the present tense, and it still cites sections of the Act numbered 139 to 144 — most of which were repealed in 2022.

In fairness to the Province, the guide does carry the word “Archived” and the line “The guides are now archived and were updated as per the date indicated in the footer below”, and its footer reads “Reviewed: July 4, 2012 Updated: June 14, 2010”. But that label is easy to miss, and the document reads as current law. It mentions nothing about 2022 and nothing about any repeal.

If anything you read about BC rental restrictions mentions applying for a hardship exemption, or renting to a family member as an exception, you are reading pre-2022 law. Check the date before you act on it.

What I could not confirm, and did not print

• What the repealed Form B rental paragraph used to require. The consolidated Act does not print repealed text, and the amending Bill simply says the paragraph is repealed. I can tell you it is gone; I cannot tell you its exact former wording, so I have not guessed.
• The former wording of the old rental exemptions in the Regulation. Part 8 of the Strata Property Regulation now reads “8.1-8.3 Repealed”. The old text is not printed anywhere I could reach.
• A published decision applying Human Rights Code section 41(2) to a strata 55+ bylaw. I looked and found none. The reading in this article is textual.
• The District of North Vancouver’s short-term rental licence fee. I could not find it on a District page I was able to open, so there is a blank in the table rather than a number I am unsure of.
• A King’s Printer record of Royal Assent for the 2022 Bill. The date of November 24, 2022 is established by the Province, by the regulator, by the Bill’s own commencement clause and by a later statute backdating an amendment to it. That is more than enough, but it is not an assent register.

Questions buyers ask

What are the recent changes to BC strata law on rentals?

Since November 24, 2022 a strata corporation cannot have a residential rental-restriction bylaw. Section 141 of the Act also removed tenant screening and tenant approval. Age bylaws were narrowed to a single permitted form, requiring one or more residents to be 55 or older.

Can a strata still ban Airbnb?

Yes. A short-term rental bylaw is treated as a restriction on commercial use rather than on renting, so it survives. It takes a 3/4 vote, and the Province says the fine may not exceed $1,000 a day.

Our bylaws still say no rentals. Do we have to remove the bylaw?

No. The Province’s position is that “no strata bylaw changes are required as provincial legislation changed”. Tidying it up is good housekeeping and avoids confusing buyers, but the bylaw is already unenforceable either way.

Can a strata evict my tenant in BC?

A strata corporation is not your tenant’s landlord and cannot end a residential tenancy. It can enforce bylaws against the tenant, and section 130(2) lets it fine a tenant directly. Ending a tenancy is a matter between you and your tenant under residential tenancy law.

Can I buy in a 55+ building if I am younger than 55?

You can buy it. The bylaw restricts who may reside there, not who may own. Whether you can live in it is the separate question, and the answer is usually no unless you fall within one of the exemptions in section 123.2 or Regulation 7.01.

Can a 55+ building stop my child or my younger spouse living with me?

No, if you are a specified resident. Regulation 7.01(2) prescribes a child of a specified resident, an adult who was that resident’s dependant before turning 19, and the spouse of a specified resident. Section 123.2(b) covers a live-in caregiver.

Read next

• What a Form B Information Certificate tells you, and what it leaves out
• Reading a strata depreciation report before you buy
• What the strata insurance deductible means for a buyer
• Buying a leasehold home in BC: what you own and what happens at the end
• How far you can rely on a Property Disclosure Statement
• All North Shore buying and selling guides

Persian / فارسی: محدودیت اجاره و محدودیت سنی در استراتاهای بریتیش کلمبیا

General information, not advice on a specific property. Strata bylaws differ from building to building, and the only bylaws that count for the home you are buying are the ones filed against that strata plan. Legislation, regulations, municipal licensing rules and fees change, and municipal rules in particular are subject to change at short notice — confirm the current position with the authority that owns it: the Province for the Strata Property Act and its regulations, the Land Title Office for filed bylaws, your strata corporation for its own bylaws and rules, and the City of North Vancouver (604-985-7761), the District of North Vancouver (604-990-2311) or the District of West Vancouver (604-925-7000) for licensing. Take legal advice from a lawyer or notary before committing money. Every figure and quotation here was verified at its primary source on October 13, 2026 and checked again in a separate pass; the Strata Property Act, its Regulation and the Human Rights Code were read in the consolidation current to October 6, 2026. Last reviewed: October 2026.

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