The CRT: where strata disputes end up

Since 2016, the Civil Resolution Tribunal has been the default forum for strata property disputes in British Columbia: fines, repairs, records access, governance complaints, deductible chargebacks, significant unfairness claims. It is online, designed for self-represented parties (lawyers appear only in limited circumstances), and its published decisions are a running education in how stratas get governance wrong.

The stages

1. Solution Explorer. Free, anonymous, and worth doing: it explains the law on your issue and generates template letters. Many disputes end here.
2. Application and negotiation. A filed claim (modest fees, staged as the matter progresses) opens a negotiation window between the parties.
3. Facilitation. A tribunal facilitator works the parties toward settlement; most claims settle in this phase.
4. Adjudication. A tribunal member decides on the written record and issues a binding decision, enforceable through the courts if ignored.

The timeline runs months, not days, and everything happens in writing. That last fact is the strategic one.

Minutes are the evidence

Ask what a tribunal member actually reads in a strata dispute: the bylaws as filed, the correspondence, and above all the minutes. Was the repair reported and when? Do the minutes show council considered it? Was the section 135 procedure followed before the fine? Was the hearing held within four weeks? Did the three-quarter vote actually count three quarters? A strata with complete, dated, professional minutes walks in with its case largely written. A strata with gaps argues from memory against a documented complainant, and memory loses.

This is the practical answer to why record-keeping standards exist. The legal requirements guide covers what the record must contain, and the free compliance checker will score a set of your past minutes in seconds.

If your strata is on the receiving end

Respond inside the deadlines, assemble the record early (minutes, letters, photos, invoices), be candid about weak points, and settle the settleable. Tribunal members reward reasonableness and punish stonewalling. And treat every decision against a neighbouring strata as free consulting: the pattern across CRT strata decisions is remarkably consistent, and it is process, records, and communication.

Prevention costs less

Most CRT claims trace back to one of three roots: a repair handled slowly and silently, enforcement done without the section 135 steps, or records an owner could not get within two weeks. All three are cured by the same unglamorous habit: decide things properly, write them down, and distribute the minutes on time.

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

Bylaw Enforcement
Council Hearings
Records Retention
Legal Requirements