Fixing a mistake in the minutes without rewriting history

Minutes in BC go out fast by design: Standard Bylaw 19 requires owners to be informed of council meeting minutes within two weeks, approved or not. Speed means the occasional wrong date, misnamed contractor, or garbled motion will reach owners. That is normal, and the Act's record-keeping scheme handles it, as long as corrections are made in the open.

The one rule: correct forward, never backward

Once minutes have been distributed, they are part of the strata corporation's records under section 35. The correction happens in the next set of minutes, not by editing the old ones. At the next meeting, the approval motion carries the fix: "It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the meeting held June 3 as amended: item 6, the roofing contract amount should read $8,450 rather than $4,850. CARRIED." The June minutes stay as issued, the July minutes record the amendment, and anyone reading the file sees exactly what happened and when.

Why quiet edits backfire

Owners, buyers, and eventually tribunal members compare versions. A set of minutes that differs from the copy an owner saved in their inbox looks like tampering even when the change was innocent, and at the Civil Resolution Tribunal the credibility of the whole record is worth more than any single entry. If a distributed set contained something genuinely harmful, such as a named individual's private information, take advice before touching it and record openly that a redacted version was issued and why. Our privacy guide covers keeping those details out in the first place.

Substance disputes are not corrections

A correction fixes the record of what happened. An owner who disagrees with what council decided is not asking for a correction, and the minutes should not be reworded to soften a lawful decision somebody dislikes. The remedies for substance are a written request to council, a hearing under section 34.1, or ultimately a general meeting or tribunal claim. Councils that hold this line keep their minutes factual and their disputes procedural.

Draft discipline makes corrections rare

Mark unapproved minutes as draft when they are distributed, as our approval guide explains, and have a second council member read them before they go out. Most corrections trace back to minutes written a week after the meeting from memory. Write them the same day, or send your rough notes to a service like ours the evening of the meeting, and the record goes out right the first time.

This page is general information for BC strata councils, not legal advice. Always check your strata's registered bylaws. See section 35 of the Strata Property Act, Part 4 and Standard Bylaw 19 on BC Laws.

Related guides

Approving Minutes
Minutes as Evidence
Minutes and Privacy
Minute-Taking Guide