Our strata missed the depreciation report deadline. What happens now?

If you sit on a strata council in Metro Vancouver or the Fraser Valley and your corporation does not have a depreciation report in hand, the deadline has passed. July 1, 2026 was the catch-up date for stratas in these regions, and missing it leaves the council out of compliance with a legal duty under the Strata Property Act. The good news is that no fine schedule is published on the province's public pages, and the fix is straightforward. Get the report done with a qualified provider, because the real consequences of staying without one are practical and expensive.

## What is a depreciation report, exactly?

A depreciation report is a long-range planning document that every qualifying strata corporation in BC must obtain. It inventories the common property and common assets, assesses their condition, projects the cost of maintaining, repairing, and replacing them over the next 30 years, and lays out at least three funding models so the council can plan the contingency reserve fund (CRF) contributions needed to cover those costs.

In plain terms, it is the 30-year roadmap that tells owners when the roof, the plumbing, the elevators, and the electrical systems will need money, and how much to save each year so nobody gets blindsided by a special levy.

**What it means for you:** Without a depreciation report, your council sets budgets and strata fees on guesswork. With one, every owner can see what is coming and what their share costs.

## Which stratas are required to get one?

Every strata corporation in BC with 5 or more strata lots must obtain a depreciation report, and must renew it on a 5-year cycle. Stratas with 4 or fewer strata lots are exempt. This comes from section 94 of the Strata Property Act and its regulations.

That 5-year cycle matters. The report is not a one-time project you do and forget. Once you have one, the next one is due five years later, and the cycle keeps running whether you are ready or not.

## Can we still defer it with an owner vote?

No. Until recently, a strata council could defer getting a depreciation report with a three-quarter vote of owners at each annual general meeting. Since July 1, 2024, that deferral option no longer exists. The obligation is fixed, and owners cannot vote their way out of it.

**What it means for you:** If your council skipped the report in past years by deferring it at AGMs, that path is closed. The requirement now stands on its own, and a vote at the next AGM will not buy more time.

## What was the catch-up deadline, and did we miss it?

When the province removed the deferral option, it set catch-up deadlines for stratas that had no depreciation report, or whose most recent report was received before December 31, 2020:

- Stratas in Metro Vancouver (excluding islands accessible only by boat or air), the Fraser Valley, and the Capital Regional District (excluding boat or air-only islands) had until **July 1, 2026**.

- Stratas everywhere else in BC have until **July 1, 2027**.

For councils in the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, that first deadline has now passed. October 2026 is not "almost there." If your strata was in the catch-up group and has no report dated after December 31, 2020, the report is overdue.

## What happens now that the deadline has passed?

This is the question every overdue council asks, so here is precisely what is known, with nothing invented:

- **There is no published fine schedule.** The province's public pages set out the obligation in the Act and the regulations, but they do not list a dollar penalty for missing the date. Be skeptical of anyone who quotes you a fine amount without a source.

- **The corporation is out of compliance with a statutory duty.** The law says qualifying stratas must obtain the report. Missing the deadline means the council is not meeting that duty, and waiting does not change that.

- **Buyers, lenders, and insurers can see it.** The most recent depreciation report must be attached to the Form B Information Certificate, the document every buyer receives before completing a purchase. A missing or outdated report is disclosed right there on the Form B. Buyers walk away, lenders ask questions, and insurers notice.

- **The council budgets blind.** Without the 30-year projection and the funding models, strata fee increases and special levies are guesswork. Major costs like a roof replacement or a full electrical system upgrade land as sudden special levies, which is exactly the shock depreciation reports exist to prevent.

- **The 5-year cycle keeps running.** Missing this deadline does not push the next one back. The obligation renews every five years, so delay just compresses the timeline and makes the next deadline arrive sooner.

**What it means for you:** The cost of delay is not a fine. It is everything else: legal exposure, harder unit sales, nervous lenders, and budget surprises that land on owners as special levies.

## Who is allowed to prepare the report?

Not just anyone. Effective July 1, 2025, only six designated professional groups may prepare depreciation reports in BC:

1. Professional engineers and licensees (Engineers and Geoscientists BC)

2. Architects and architectural technologists (Architectural Institute of BC)

3. Applied science technologists and certified technicians (ASTTBC)

4. Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute members (Appraisal Institute of Canada)

5. Certified reserve planners (Real Estate Institute of Canada)

6. Professional Quantity Surveyors (Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors)

If someone offers to do your report and does not belong to one of these groups, the report does not satisfy the requirement. Check the credential before you sign anything.

## What does the report actually contain?

The regulations are specific about what goes into a compliant report:

- An on-site visual inspection of the property

- A physical inventory of components, including "the building systems, including the electrical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, fire protection and security systems"

- A 30-year projection of maintenance, repair, and replacement costs

- At least three cash-flow funding models for the contingency reserve fund

- An executive summary and the current CRF balance

Note the electrical line item. Every depreciation report inventories the building's electrical systems: panels and distribution, fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, and increasingly, the building's readiness for EV charging. This is where the report stops being a paperwork exercise and becomes a capital plan your council will actually spend money on.

## What should our council do this week?

Do not wait for the next AGM. A council that moves now shows owners it is handling the problem. Here is the sequence:

1. **Confirm your status.** Pull your records. Do you have a depreciation report? When was it received? If it was received before December 31, 2020, you were in the catch-up group and the July 1, 2026 deadline applied to you.

2. **Engage a qualified provider now.** The designated professional groups are in demand, especially in the Lower Mainland after the July deadline passed. Provider backlogs are real, so get quotes, check credentials against the six groups above, and book.

3. **Review your reserve funding.** Since November 1, 2023, strata corporations must contribute a minimum of 10% of the annual operating fund budget to the contingency reserve fund each year. Your provider's three funding models will show whether 10% actually covers your building's 30-year costs, so treat that minimum as a floor, not a target.

4. **Assess your electrical systems.** The report will flag electrical components and their remaining life, but the inventory is only as good as the information behind it. An electrical assessment of your panels, distribution, fire alarm, and emergency lighting gives the report author real condition data, and it tells the council which electrical capital projects are actually coming.

5. **Tell the owners.** Transparency calms people. Tell them the deadline was missed, the council is fixing it, and here is the timeline. Owners would far rather hear a plan than discover the gap on a Form B during a sale.

**What it means for you:** The councils that get through this cleanly are the ones that treat it as urgent, because it is. The report takes time to prepare, and the qualified providers are busy.

## How can an electrician help with the electrical side?

To be clear about where we fit: an electrical contractor cannot prepare your depreciation report. Only the six designated professional groups listed above can do that. But a report is only as good as the data behind it, and that is where an electrician earns a place.

Depreciation reports flag electrical capital work all the time: aging panels, distribution nearing end of life, fire alarm upgrades, emergency lighting replacements, and EV charging infrastructure that owners increasingly expect. A licensed electrical contractor can:

- **Assess the condition and remaining life** of your building's electrical components, giving the report author solid data and the council a realistic capital timeline.

- **Perform the capital electrical work** the report identifies: panel replacements, distribution upgrades, fire alarm and emergency lighting work, and EV charging installations.

- **Plan EV charging readiness** so the building is not caught flat-footed when owners start asking, because they will.

Our team does this work for strata corporations across the Lower Mainland, and every job carries our 2-year warranty on all labour. If your council is working through a depreciation report, or catching up on an overdue one, talk to us about a strata electrical systems assessment at https://electrician2go.ca or call (778) 805-7074. We will give you a straight answer on what your building's electrical systems need and when.

## The bottom line for your council

The July 1, 2026 deadline has passed for Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley stratas, and there is no way to vote around the requirement anymore. The report is overdue, the 5-year cycle keeps running, and the longer the council waits, the more it budgets blind. Book a qualified provider, get your electrical systems assessed so the report has real data, and tell your owners the plan. The councils that act now are the ones that avoid the special levy surprises later.

If you want help with the electrical side of your depreciation report, get in touch with Reisinger Electric at https://electrician2go.ca. We work with strata councils across the Lower Mainland, and we will tell you plainly what your building needs.