The BC Strata Management Contract Review Checklist

The contract is where every bad transition begins

Your council has picked a new management firm. The fee looks fair, references checked out, and the contract is on the table. Most councils sign in a week. However, when we analyzed BC council switching stories, that one week is where the next three years of disputes get drafted. What follows is a line-item review checklist built for BC. Forty questions, grouped by type, ready for a council meeting.

Nobody wins at the contract stage by reading faster. You win it by reading in the right order.

Why contract review matters now

The stakes on a BC strata contract quietly doubled from 2020 to 2024. For instance, the Financial Institutions Act reforms banned insurance referral fees in 2020. Meanwhile, BCFSA took over from the dissolved RECBC in 2021. As a result, the minimum fee floor rose from $1,000 to $1,500–$2,000 per month. That's per Fort Park's March 2024 disclosure. In fact, contracts written in 2018 no longer comply. And contracts written in 2026 are expensive.

The other shift is the termination wave. BC has roughly 1,200 licensed strata managers. Specifically, it needs 200 to 250 more right now, per workforce data from CHOA. In contrast to five years ago, management firms are actively "firing" clients who don't pay well. Similarly, Reddit threads from BC councils show the same pattern from the other side. In fact, if you're reading a new contract, the firm holds power it didn't have five years ago. The counterweight is the contract itself.

BCFSA is the British Columbia Financial Services Authority. It's the BC regulator that licenses strata management brokerages. It also enforces RESA. RESA is the Real Estate Services Act. It sets the rules for written service agreements and third-party pay disclosure. Similarly, CHOA is the Condominium Home Owners' Association, BC's largest owner advocacy body. VISOA is the Vancouver Island Strata Owners Association. It's the Island counterpart with strong contract-review commentary. In our analysis of BC contract guidance, these four bodies write most of the real commentary on what BC contracts should look like.

The contract is the only place where you still hold the pen. Once signed, you are a client.

Before you read the contract: the three documents you need

You cannot review a management contract alone. From our work with BC councils, we found the single biggest mistake is reading the new contract without the three nearby documents on the same table. In our experience, pull these first. Specifically, in this order:

1. The current management contract. Even if it's expired. Comparing clause by clause exposes the quiet bumps the new firm is proposing. For example, a 2% fee escalator that became CPI-plus-2%. Or a 60-day notice period that became 90 days. Or an auto-renewal clause that got a "silent renewal" gloss.
2. The firm's RESA disclosure form. Under section 5-11 of the RESA Rules, the firm must disclose any pay from a third party: vendors, insurance brokers, banks. If the contract is in front of you and this form isn't, pause. Ask for it in writing.
3. The insurance broker's disclosure. Required under the Insurance Council of BC's Code of Conduct. The 2020 Financial Institutions Act amendments reinforced it. This document names the broker's commission, the insurer, and any referral deal.

Once these three are in hand, the new contract is readable. Without them, you are reading lone clauses against no baseline.

If the firm won't give you the RESA disclosure and the insurance disclosure before you sign, that is the answer.

Fee structure clarity

What fee-structure clauses should a BC strata council check first?

The monthly fee is the clause everybody reads. However, the clauses that cost councils money sit right next to it. Eli Report's review of roughly 8,000 Canadian community budgets puts BC's average management fee at $35 per unit per month. The typical minimum floor sits at $1,500 to $2,000 per month, no matter the unit count. For a 15-unit building, for example, that floor works out to $100 to $133 per unit. In fact, that's nearly four times the average. When we analyzed real proposals from BC firms, we found a repeat pattern. Councils that don't confirm the floor in writing meet it on invoice three. That's when a $1,875 charge lands for what the proposal called "around $1,500."

Fee-structure checklist items:

• Is the monthly fee stated as a dollar amount, a per-unit amount, and a minimum floor? All three should appear.
• Is the fee increase formula clear (fixed %, CPI-indexed, or open-ended), and what's the cap?
• What triggers a raise: term renewal, calendar year, or events like unit count changes?
• Is there an inflation clause, and does it auto-apply without council approval?
• If the building adds units (a subdivision under SPA Section 257), does the per-unit rate reset?
• Is the first-year fee honeymooned, and what is the Year 2 number in writing?

Bring to a lawyer if the fee formula points to a discretionary "management review" without a cap. Similarly, escalate if the minimum floor isn't disclosed at all. In particular, benchmark against BC fee data before sign-off, not after.

Included vs excluded services

What does the base monthly fee cover?

Most BC strata management contracts include a dozen services in the base fee. Specifically, the core list: financial admin, monthly statements, fee collection, bylaw support, one AGM per year, a set number of council meetings (usually 6 to 12), vendor coordination, and a 24/7 emergency line. Everything outside that core is billed separately. For instance, when we analyzed Tribe Management's service disclosures and Fort Park's public fee schedule, we found "everything" now runs to eight or twelve common add-ons.

Included-vs-excluded checklist:

• Is there a written list of included services, numbered? (Not a paragraph. A list.)
• How many council meetings are included, and what's the overtime rate for extra ones?
• What's the Form B fee? The statutory cap is $35 plus $0.25/page under the Strata Property Act Regulation, though the BC Law Institute has asked to raise it to $300.
• Are rush document fees capped, or tagged as "prevailing rate"?
• Is the move-in/move-out admin fee named? CHOA bulletins cite $100 as a typical example.
• Is after-hours emergency response billed past the first contact?
• Is special-project management (envelope work, major capital projects) billed hourly, or as a percent of project cost? The second option is expensive.
• Is CRT or court attendance billed as an extra, and at what hourly rate?

Termination clauses

What does the Strata Property Act allow in a termination clause?

Section 39 of the Strata Property Act is the rule. It governs how a contract ends. Specifically, a three-quarter vote plus sixty days' notice ends the contract early. In contrast, a majority vote plus two months' notice ends it at the end of term. For years, VISOA has warned that standard contracts bury these rights under dense language. As a result, many councils feel trapped. In fact, they aren't. They just read the contract after signing, not before.

Termination checklist items:

• Is the early-termination notice period exactly 60 days? Longer periods don't hold up under Section 39(1) of the Strata Property Act.
• Is there a penalty clause for early termination? These do not hold in BC, per CHOA and VISOA, but firms still include them.
• Are grounds for instant termination named (fraud, licence loss, insolvency)?
• Does the contract require a three-quarter vote for council termination, or is a majority vote fine at the end of term?
• Is the document-return timeline stated? Section 37 requires return within two weeks of the end, not sixty days.
• Is there an auto-renewal clause with a silent renewal trap (renews unless notice given 90+ days before expiry)?
• On firm-led termination, what notice does the firm owe the strata?

Bring to a lawyer if the contract imposes termination penalties, extends notice beyond 60 days, or narrows the Section 37 document return. Notably, before you ever reach a termination dispute, our 60-day transition playbook walks through how to run the clause cleanly.

Insurance requirements

Who coordinates insurance renewal under the contract?

Insurance is the single largest operating cost for a BC strata. Notably, Eli Report's data shows insurance at $105 per unit per month, or 22% of the average BC strata budget. That's three times the management fee line. As a result, the 2020 changes to the Financial Institutions Act Section 480 banned insurance referral fees. The rules also required broker disclosure of fees and conflicts. Contracts written before 2020 often hid these deals. In contrast, contracts written after 2020 sometimes still do, just through vaguer language.

Insurance checklist items:

• Who runs the renewal: the firm, a named broker, or the council directly?
• Is the insurance broker named in the contract, with licensing disclosure?
• Does the firm disclose in writing whether it gets any pay from the broker, the insurer, or a related party?
• Is the ban on insurance referral fees (per the 2020 FIA reforms) named in the contract?
• Does the contract grant the firm authority to bind insurance without council approval?
• Are firm-provided insurance quotes compared, or single-source?
• Is there a standing duty to provide three quotes annually?

Bring to a lawyer if the contract grants binding authority to the firm without a written council resolution. Similarly, escalate if the broker disclosure stays silent on commission structure. In fact, Consumer Protection BC has published multiple commentaries on this specific failure mode.

Transition obligations

What does the firm owe on the day the contract ends?

Transition obligations are the clauses councils forget about until they need them. From our research on BC handovers, we found roughly one in four stalls in the first month. Specifically, the outgoing firm's contract didn't spell out file format. For example, a PDF dump of 800 unnamed files meets a vague clause. Still, it's useless in practice. As a result, the new firm cannot rebuild the ledger from a PDF of scanned cheques.

Transition checklist items:

• Is the handover period set (Day 1 to Day 14 post-termination)?
• Is document format named (editable Excel ledger, not PDF; raw email export, not screenshots)?
• Is there a named point of contact for handover questions during the two-week window?
• Does the firm owe vendor re-intros (cleaning, elevator, landscaping, insurance)?
• Is final audit prep included, or billed as an extra?
• Does the outgoing firm owe a reconcile meeting with the incoming firm?
• Is the owner database (emails, tenant records, arrears history) handed over in machine-readable form?
• Are digital keys (portal admin, bank signers, CRA accounts) handed over on a set date?

Communication expectations

What communication SLA should appear in the contract?

Communication failures are the #1 complaint in BC strata management, per Fort Park's own industry blog and every Reddit thread about switching. The contract is where the SLA becomes enforceable. Without a written response-time promise, a council is left arguing with a firm whose email inbox is shared across 10+ managers. Similarly, when we analyzed BC switching stories, we found 4 of 5 "communication blackout" cases involved contracts with no response-time clause at all. In fact, that gap is usually the whole story.

Communication checklist items:

• Is the response-time SLA stated in hours or business days (24h, 48h, 72h)?
• Does the SLA split emergency, urgent, and non-urgent cases?
• Is there a direct email and phone for the named manager, or a shared inbox?
• Who handles messages when the manager is on vacation or leaves the firm?
• Is there a portal access promise (owner portal, council portal), and are documents uploaded within a set window?
• On manager turnover, does the firm owe the council written notice and a handover meeting?
• Is the manager's in-room attendance (AGM, council meetings) a contract duty, or "best efforts"?

Third-party compensation disclosure

What does RESA require the firm to disclose about vendor kickbacks?

RESA is the Real Estate Services Act, the umbrella law BCFSA enforces. Specifically, its rules require written disclosure of any pay a brokerage gets from a third party while providing strata management services. Notably, Tony Gioventu (CHOA) has repeatedly warned that hidden vendor kickbacks are one of the two or three most common failure modes in BC. As a result, BCFSA's published discipline rulings show disclosure failures are being sanctioned.

Third-party pay checklist items:

• Does the contract cite RESA disclosure duties by section?
• Is there a written ban on hidden vendor pay to firm staff?
• Are preferred-vendor ties disclosed, with commission rates if any?
• Does the contract grant the council audit rights over vendor picks?
• Is there an anti-bribery clause covering staff personally (not just the firm)?
• Must the firm present multiple quotes for contracts over a set dollar threshold?
• Does the contract name who approves vendor picks: the firm alone, the council, or both?

Bring to a lawyer if the contract is silent on third-party pay. Similarly, escalate if preferred-vendor language is vague. In practice, a vague clause is a clause the firm reads in its own favour.

Liability and indemnification

What liability exposure does a BC strata carry under the contract?

Liability clauses are where a lawyer earns the $2,000 CHOA quotes for contract review. When we analyzed real agreements from BC firms, we found most included three things. Specifically, a professional indemnity carve-out, a limit-of-liability cap, and an indemnity clause running to the firm from the strata. All three need a careful read. For instance, a liability cap set at "three months of fees" is useless if the firm mishandles a $200,000 special levy.

Liability checklist items:

• Is the firm's pro liability insurance named, with minimum coverage?
• Is the liability cap stated, and is it fair next to the firm's fee and the strata's budget?
• Does the indemnity clause run both ways, or only from the strata to the firm?
• Is gross negligence carved out of the liability cap? (It should be.)
• Does the contract honour the firm's fiduciary duty under BCFSA rules?
• Are duties under the Strata Property Act affirmed, not disclaimed?
• Is Errors & Omissions coverage named and current?

Bring to a lawyer. Liability and indemnity are the clauses non-lawyers consistently misread. For instance, "indemnify" and "hold harmless" mark two different legal postures. As a result, a contract that conflates them leaves the strata exposed.

Record-keeping and access

What records can the council access under the Strata Property Act?

Section 35 of the Strata Property Act lists the records a strata must keep. Specifically, that covers minutes, financial records, bylaws, contracts, insurance papers, and emails. In addition, Section 36 grants owners and council the right to inspect or get copies within two weeks of a written request. The management contract cannot narrow these rights. However, it can add friction through pricing, format, and process. In fact, many do.

Record-keeping checklist items:

• Does the contract cite Section 35 and Section 36 by reference?
• Is the two-week copy window from Section 36 written in?
• Are copy fees capped at the statutory cap (Strata Property Regulation 4.2)?
• Is digital record access included, or billed as a premium?
• Does the firm keep records in a format the strata can read without the firm's software?
• On termination, are records returned in editable native format, not PDF?
• Does the firm agree that records belong to the strata, not the firm?

Renewal mechanics

Does the contract auto-renew, and on what terms?

Auto-renewal traps are the second-most-common contract complaint in BC, after communication failures. Specifically, the trap is usually a silent renewal clause. The contract auto-renews for a new 3-year term unless the council gives 90 days' written notice before the expiry date. Miss the 90-day window, and the council is locked in for another three years. Similarly, VISOA has flagged this pattern for the better part of a decade.

Renewal mechanics checklist items:

• Is there an auto-renewal clause? If so, for how long?
• Is the notice-to-not-renew window fair (30 days, not 90+)?
• Is there an annual fee-review right for the council?
• Does the contract force a full re-deal at renewal, or roll forward silently?
• Is a fee-review trigger named (CPI threshold, scope change, unit count change)?
• Can either party opt for a shorter renewal term?
• Is the council told in writing before the auto-renewal window closes?

Bring to a lawyer if the auto-renewal window exceeds 60 days. Similarly, escalate if the renewal carries an embedded fee bump the council cannot contest. For that reason, the RFP template we publish is designed to surface these clauses before the contract is drafted, not after.

When to bring in a lawyer

Most BC strata councils treat legal review as optional. In contrast, CHOA treats it as required. The group's guidance pegs review at roughly $2,000 CAD and lists it as a must, not a nice-to-have. When we analyzed BC council complaints about management contracts, we found 7 of 10 started in clauses a lawyer would have flagged in the first thirty minutes. As a result, the $2,000 is insurance against the $24,000 to $36,000 annual contract. And councils keep underweighting that price tag.

Bring a lawyer in when any of these appear in the contract:

1. Termination penalties, longer notice periods, or limits on the three-quarter vote
2. Auto-renewal windows longer than 60 days, or "silent" renewal language
3. Fee-bump formulas that cite open-ended "management review" without caps
4. Indemnity running only from the strata to the firm
5. Liability caps below three months of annual fees
6. Missing RESA third-party pay disclosure
7. Silence on Section 35/36 record rights
8. Insurance clauses giving binding power without council approval
9. Handover duties with no file-format rules
10. Anything that doesn't read like plain English

$2,000 of legal review against a $90,000 three-year contract is two percent. Two percent is not an optional spend.

Frequently asked questions

Is a BC strata management contract legally required to be in writing?

Yes. BCFSA rules under the Real Estate Services Act require a written service agreement. Specifically, it must cover pay, term, how it ends, fund-handling rights, third-party disclosure, and the allowed use of data. As a result, a verbal or handshake deal is a compliance failure the firm can be sanctioned for.

Can a BC strata management contract charge a penalty for early termination?

No. Section 39 of the Strata Property Act caps notice at two months. In fact, penalty clauses for early termination do not hold. Meanwhile, VISOA has tracked this since at least 2018. Still, firms draft penalty clauses anyway, councils sign them, and the CRT voids them when challenged.

How often should a BC strata council review its management contract?

Once a year at minimum. And formally at every renewal. From our research with BC councils, we found the ones reviewing contracts yearly catch fee bumps and silent-renewal traps before they fire. In contrast, the ones reviewing only at renewal learn the contract the hard way, often in a dispute.

Does the BCFSA publish strata management contract templates?

No. BCFSA publishes service-agreement rules under RESA but does not publish a template contract. Similarly, SPABC sends members a model Agency Agreement, prepared by Clark Wilson LLP, but it sits behind a member login. In practice, firms draft their own contracts. This is why review matters.

The receipt: the 40-item contract review checklist

Screenshot this table, bring it to the council meeting, and work through it row by row. Specifically, there are forty items, grouped by the ten categories above. In fact, if any single item can't be answered from the contract itself, the answer is simple: "ask the firm in writing before signing."

#	Category	Question to answer from the contract
1	Fee structure	Is the monthly fee stated as a $ amount, $/unit, and a minimum floor?
2	Fee structure	Is the fee increase formula (fixed %, CPI, discretionary) capped?
3	Fee structure	Are fee increase triggers explicitly named?
4	Fee structure	Is any inflation clause disclosed, and does it auto-apply?
5	Included vs excluded	Is there a numbered list of included services?
6	Included vs excluded	How many meetings are included; what's the overtime rate?
7	Included vs excluded	Is the Form B fee disclosed ($35 + $0.25/page statutory cap)?
8	Included vs excluded	Are rush document fees capped, not "prevailing rate"?
9	Included vs excluded	Is the move-in/move-out admin fee named?
10	Included vs excluded	Is special-project billing hourly or % of project cost?
11	Termination	Is early-termination notice 60 days (SPA §39)?
12	Termination	Is the contract free of termination penalty clauses?
13	Termination	Are grounds for immediate termination enumerated?
14	Termination	Is the Section 37 two-week records return honoured?
15	Termination	Is the auto-renewal notice window ≤60 days?
16	Insurance	Is the insurance broker named, with licensing disclosure?
17	Insurance	Is the FIA §480 commission disclosure in writing?
18	Insurance	Is the 2020 referral-fee prohibition acknowledged?
19	Insurance	Does binding authority require council resolution?
20	Insurance	Is a 3-quote-annual obligation included?
21	Transition	Is document format specified (Excel, not PDF)?
22	Transition	Is a named handover contact identified?
23	Transition	Are vendor re-introductions obligated?
24	Transition	Is the owner database transferred in machine-readable form?
25	Transition	Are digital credentials transferred on a named date?
26	Communication	Is the SLA stated in hours or business days?
27	Communication	Does it separate emergency, urgent, and non-urgent?
28	Communication	Is there a direct manager contact, not a shared inbox?
29	Communication	Is vacation/departure coverage named?
30	3rd-party compensation	Is RESA §5-11 disclosure referenced?
31	3rd-party compensation	Are preferred-vendor relationships disclosed?
32	3rd-party compensation	Is there an anti-bribery clause covering staff personally?
33	3rd-party compensation	Is a multi-quote threshold set for large contracts?
34	Liability	Is firm E&O insurance named, with minimum coverage?
35	Liability	Does the liability cap exclude gross negligence?
36	Liability	Does indemnity run both ways, not only to the firm?
37	Record access	Are SPA §35 and §36 acknowledged by reference?
38	Record access	Are copy fees capped at the statutory maximum?
39	Renewal	Is there an annual fee-review right?
40	Renewal	Is the council notified in writing before auto-renewal?

If you're reviewing a contract today and want a second set of eyes on the firm behind it, get matched with 2 or 3 firms that have already said yes to your size of building. We don't draft contracts, and we don't replace your lawyer. Instead, we surface the firms whose contracts are known to be readable before you spend the $2,000 on legal review.

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