The annual budget: propose, vote, record

Once a year, the strata corporation decides what it will cost to run the place and how the cost lands on each lot. The mechanics are tightly scripted by the Strata Property Act: the budget travels with the AGM notice, the owners amend and approve it by majority vote, and the strata fees follow from it by unit entitlement.

The timeline

The AGM must be held within two months of the fiscal year end (section 40), and the notice package, sent at least two weeks ahead, includes the proposed budget and the financial statements. Council, with the manager or treasurer, prepares the proposal: last year's actuals, known contract changes, insurance renewal estimates, utilities, and the contingency reserve fund contribution, which has its own floor while the fund is below 25 percent of operating expenses.

At the meeting

Owners may amend the proposed budget by majority vote before approving it, and then approve it by majority vote. Line-item debates are normal; the chair's job is to convert each into a motion with a number in it. The minutes must record any amendments and the final approved figures, because the approved budget, not the mailed draft, is what sets the fees. State the resulting monthly fee change plainly in the minutes; it is the single fact most owners look for.

If the budget is defeated

Section 104 catches the corporation: until a new budget is approved, owners keep paying fees at the old budget's rates, and council must put a new budget to a general meeting promptly. A defeated budget is a message, usually about one line item; the fastest path is to fix that item and reconvene, not to wait months. The minutes of the failed vote matter here too: they tell the next meeting exactly what the objection was.

Surpluses and deficits

A year-end operating surplus is dealt with as the Act allows: commonly carried into the next budget, transferred to the CRF, or handled as owners resolve. A deficit must be eliminated in the next budget. Either way, the financial statements attached to the AGM notice are where owners see it, and the AGM minutes record what was decided about it.

The budget and everything else

The budget is where the strata's other documents converge: the depreciation report drives the CRF line, the CRF line drives whether the next roof is a contribution or a levy, and the approved totals drive each lot's fees. A council that walks into the AGM with those connections explained in the notice package gets budgets approved in twenty minutes.

This page is general information for BC strata councils, not legal advice. See the current text of the Strata Property Act and the Strata Property Regulation on BC Laws.

Related guides

AGM Minutes
Strata Fees
Reserve Fund (CRF)
Depreciation Reports