Strata insurance in BC broke in 2019-20. Premiums rose roughly 40% in a single year, deductibles jumped by up to triple digits, and councils opened renewal packages they could not budget for. The province answered with Bill 14 and a set of disclosure rules that still govern every renewal today. This post covers what actually changed, what was promised but never arrived, and the three line items your council should check before signing this year’s renewal.
Key takeaways
- Crisis scale: BCFSA’s June 2020 interim report found premiums up roughly 40% province-wide year-over-year, with deductibles up by as much as triple digits.
- Referral-fee ban: insurers and brokers have been barred from paying referral fees to strata managers since September 10, 2020.
- Disclosure rights: since November 1, 2020, insurance agents must disclose their commission to the strata, and insurers must give 30 days’ notice of non-renewal or material changes.
- Deductibles stayed high: the province’s current guidance puts strata deductibles at $100,000 to $750,000 or higher, so owners need deductible coverage on their own policies.
- Market today: premiums are falling for parts of the market; FirstService Residential reported a 19% average decrease across its BC renewals in the year to August 2025.
The reforms didn’t cut premiums. They cut the ways a council could be charged without knowing it.
The 2019-20 crisis, in numbers
The numbers came from the regulator, not from anecdote. The province reported that BCFSA’s interim report, released June 16, 2020, found strata premiums up approximately 40% province-wide year-over-year, with deductibles seeing up to triple-digit increases. Metro Vancouver, in fact, ran hotter still, averaging 50%. For the more than 1.5 million British Columbians in strata housing, this was not a niche problem.
The distribution mattered as much as the average. Most buildings got bruised; a minority got crushed.
| Year-over-year premium increase | Share of strata properties |
|---|---|
| Under 30% | 54% |
| 30-50% | 31% |
| 50-100% | 9% |
| Over 100% | 6% |
The deductible side hurt more than the premium side. VISOA’s May 2020 bulletin warned that deductibles of $500,000 or higher had the potential to create unrecoverable losses and cause financial ruin. BCFSA’s final report, Strengthening Foundations, records part of the cause: some stratas had been treating the insurance policy as a de facto maintenance strategy, because filing claims was cheaper than funding repairs. Insurers responded to spreading water losses in denser buildings by raising water-damage and sewer-backup deductibles. For example, a building paying $60,000 in premium in 2019 that landed in the 30-50% band was budgeting $78,000 to $90,000 a year later, with nothing new insured. Councils that missed the renewal letter found out at special-levy time.
What Bill 14 actually changed
What changed with BC strata insurance in 2020?
Four changes on four dates: new disclosure duties for strata corporations in August 2020, a referral-fee ban in September 2020, commission disclosure plus a 30-day notice rule in November 2020, and the end of best-terms pricing on January 1, 2021.
Bill 14 is the Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2020, which amended both the Strata Property Act and the Financial Institutions Act. Councils, however, routinely collapse its dates into one.
| In force | Change | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| August 14, 2020 | Section 154 duties (annual review, AGM report, material-change notice to owners), plus operating-fund or CRF use for sudden premium increases without owner approval | Bill 14, at Royal Assent |
| September 10, 2020 | Referral fees from insurers or brokers to strata managers prohibited | The province’s September 13 bulletin called the ban effective immediately |
| November 1, 2020 | Agents must disclose their commission, or a reasonable estimate; insurers must give 30 days’ notice of non-renewal or material changes, delivered directly to the strata | Commission disclosure via the Financial Products Disclosure Regulation |
| January 1, 2021 | Best-terms pricing ended | Industry agreement under BCFSA pressure, not statute |
The referral-fee ban is the reform most often misdated. The province’s September 13, 2020 bulletin declared it effective immediately; BCFSA’s final report records September 10, 2020. November 1, meanwhile, covered the other pair, with penalties for non-disclosure of up to $25,000 for an individual or $50,000 for a corporation.
Best-terms pricing was a subscription-policy practice in which every insurer taking a share of a strata policy got paid at the price set by the highest bid. In fact, BCFSA’s final report shows what that cost. In its worked example, a 175-unit strata with $60 million in total insured value drew five bids ranging from 16 to 23 basis points. At own-bid prices the premium would have been about $104,700, but under best-terms pricing every insurer got the 23-point price and the strata paid $138,000.
$33,280 extra — what best-terms pricing cost one 175-unit strata in BCFSA’s worked example.
In BCFSA’s one-month sample of 527 properties, approximately 94% were affected, and about 13% paid 50% more because of the practice. Insurers agreed to end it in BC by January 1, 2021. Notably, BCFSA warned that its elimination would not, on its own, cut premiums.
The June 2020 announcement also promised a cap on liability for individual owners held responsible for damage, and guidance on when full replacement value coverage would not be required. From our analysis of the current Act, neither has surfaced: Section 158 has no owner-liability cap, and Section 149(4) still reads “except in prescribed circumstances, if any”; we found none prescribed. Treat those protections as announced, not law.
What your renewal disclosure now includes
Form B, the Information Certificate, is the disclosure document a strata must produce for owners and prospective buyers. In particular, Section 59(3)(l.2) requires it to include a summary of the strata corporation’s insurance coverage, so a buyer can see the deductible picture before making an offer.
Section 154, as amended, gives the strata corporation three standing duties. All three, notably, took effect August 14, 2020, earlier than the November insurance-industry changes:
- Review the adequacy of the strata’s insurance every year.
- Report on the insurance coverage at each AGM.
- Inform owners and tenants as soon as feasible of any material change in coverage, including any increase in a deductible.
The third duty is the one councils miss. For instance, a deductible increase lands mid-term, the broker’s letter goes into a folder, and owners who would have added deductible coverage to their own policies find out only after a loss.
Deductibles, and the owner side of the policy
Who is responsible for the insurance deductible?
The strata corporation pays the deductible as a common expense, and it can recover the money from an owner only when that owner is responsible for the loss.
That is the structure of Section 158:
- Subsection (1) makes the deductible a common expense.
- Subsection (2) preserves the right to sue the responsible owner for the money.
- Subsection (3) lets the council fund it by special levy or from the CRF without an owner vote.
The scale of that exposure is the post-2020 story. The province’s current guidance, for example, puts strata deductibles at $100,000 to $750,000 or higher, with earthquake deductibles pegged at 10-20% of full replacement value. From our research, no honest before-and-after series exists for individual deductible lines; the fair framing is triple-digit increases through 2020, and a six-figure range as the norm today.
Recovery from an owner is not automatic, and the leading illustration predates the reforms. In The Owners, Strata Plan BCS 1589 v. Nacht, 2019 BCSC 1785, for example, a water leak from the Nachts’ apartment caused $87,000 in damage. The strata’s insurer covered the repair, the strata paid its $25,000 deductible, and the council sued the owners to recover it. However, the strata’s own bylaw required an owner’s “act, omission, negligence, or carelessness,” so the tribunal demanded proof of negligence, found none, and the BC Supreme Court upheld the result.
The strata’s own bylaw required negligence, so a $25,000 chargeback failed without proof of it.
The lesson runs both directions. A council cannot budget on chargebacks without reading its bylaws first; conversely, an owner cannot count on innocence, because provincial guidance confirms owners can be deemed responsible even when not at fault or negligent. A burst dishwasher hose is the government’s own example.
Deductible coverage on an owner’s policy refers to the endorsement that pays some or all of a strata deductible charged back to that owner. VISOA notes owner insurance is not required by law in BC, but recommends it, because the strata’s policy covers none of this: not contents, not personal liability, not living expenses after a loss, and not the deductible.
Where the market sits in 2025-26
The market has softened, unevenly. FirstService Residential told Business in Vancouver in August 2025 that it had seen a 19% average premium decrease across its BC renewals over the past year, roughly 24% against 2024 once adjusted for rising building values. That is one firm’s portfolio, however, not a market statistic. BFL Canada noted the last downward rate movement before this was 2018. Meanwhile, HUB International’s winter 2024/25 outlook reported significant rate reductions over 2023 and new carrier capacity, with caveats: frame construction still prices above concrete highrise, and loss history, building age, geography, and maintenance still decide individual renewals.
Even in a softening market, insurance is the second-heaviest line on a BC strata budget, after repairs and maintenance. Eli Report’s analysis of roughly 8,000 community budgets places BC strata insurance at an average of $105 per unit per month, about 22% of the $470 average operating budget. Management fees, in contrast, average $35 per unit per month, or 7.4%. A 50-unit building at the average, for example, spends about $63,000 a year on insurance against $21,000 on management.
$105 per unit per month — the BC average for strata insurance, about 22% of the operating budget.
Consequently, a council negotiating hard on its management contract while waving through the renewal has its attention on the wrong line. If you’re rebalancing a budget, benchmark your management fee alongside the insurance line; it takes two minutes.
The receipt: the renewal-review table
Bring this to the meeting where the renewal gets approved. Three line items, in order.
| Line item | What to check | Your legal hook |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Premium | Compare against last year and the $105/unit/month BC average. Ask the broker to confirm each insurer quoted its own bid price | Best-terms pricing ended January 1, 2021, by industry agreement |
| 2. Deductible schedule | Water-damage deductible first. The province’s stated range is $100,000 to $750,000 or higher; earthquake runs 10-20% of replacement value | Section 154 requires owners be told of any deductible increase; Form B must summarize coverage under s.59(3)(l.2) |
| 3. Broker compensation | A written commission amount, or a reasonable estimate. If it is not in the renewal package, request it | Mandatory since November 1, 2020, with penalties up to $25,000 (individual) or $50,000 (corporation) |
Two follow-ups close the loop. Confirm the insurer delivered its 30-day notice of any material change directly to the strata, and put the insurance report on the next AGM agenda, because Section 154 requires it there anyway. CHOA’s bulletin library goes deeper on each item: 300-899 on broker fees, 200-215 on owners reimbursing deductibles, and 400-039, a full insurance checklist.
Related reading for your council
- Strata council duties in BC — the Section 154 insurance duties alongside everything else the Act assigns to council.
- The BC depreciation report guide — the maintenance-funding half of this story; funded buildings stop using claims as a maintenance plan.
- Metro Vancouver management fee benchmarks — where the management line should sit on the same budget.
Frequently asked questions
- What changed with BC strata insurance in 2020?
- Bill 14, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2020, amended the Strata Property Act and the Financial Institutions Act. Referral fees from insurers to strata managers were banned in September 2020. From November 1, 2020, insurance agents must disclose their commission, and insurers must give strata corporations 30 days notice of non-renewal or material policy changes. Best-terms pricing ended January 1, 2021, by industry agreement under BCFSA pressure, not by statute.
- Who is responsible for the insurance deductible?
- Under Section 158(1) of the Strata Property Act, the deductible on the strata corporation's policy is a common expense paid through strata fees. Section 158(2) lets the strata sue an owner to recover the deductible if that owner is responsible for the loss. A strata's own bylaws can narrow that recovery right, as The Owners, Strata Plan BCS 1589 v. Nacht, 2019 BCSC 1785 showed.
- Can a strata charge an owner the insurance deductible if they weren't negligent?
- Sometimes. BC government guidance confirms owners can be deemed responsible and charged the strata's deductible even when they were not at fault or negligent, depending on how the strata's bylaws are written. In the Nacht case, the strata's bylaw required negligence, so recovery failed without proof of it. The exact bylaw wording decides the outcome either way.
- Do strata owners need their own insurance in BC?
- Owner insurance is not required by law in BC, but VISOA recommends it, and BC government guidance explains why owners are exposed without it. The strata corporation's policy does not cover an owner's contents, personal liability, additional living expenses after a loss, or a deductible chargeback. Owner policies can include coverage for some or all of the strata's deductible.
- What does strata insurance cover in BC?
- Section 149 of the Strata Property Act requires the strata corporation to insure buildings and common property on the basis of full replacement value, except in prescribed circumstances. Section 150 requires liability insurance, with a $2 million regulation minimum. An owner's belongings, personal liability, living expenses after a loss, and any deductible charged back to them fall to the owner's own policy.
