The financial statement owners are owed every year
Before owners vote on a budget, the law puts last year's money in front of them. The statement has required contents, a deadline, and a place in the AGM package.
Every strata corporation accounts to its owners once a year, in writing, before the annual general meeting. The financial statement is not an optional courtesy from the treasurer; the regulation prescribes its contents and timing, and section 45 of the Act requires it to accompany the AGM notice along with the proposed budget.
What the statement must show
Under the regulation, the financial statement covers the fiscal year and must set out the opening and current balances of the operating fund and the contingency reserve fund, income from all sources other than special levies, expenditures from the operating fund and from the CRF, and, where a special levy is in play, the levy's income and expenditures accounted for separately. In plain terms: where each fund started, what came in, what went out, and where each fund stands now, with levy money never blended into the general pot. Our special levy guide explains why that separation is guarded so carefully.
The eight week deadline
The statement must be prepared within eight weeks after fiscal year end. That timing is not arbitrary: the AGM itself is due no later than two months after year end under section 40, and the notice package, statement and budget included, must reach owners at least two weeks before the meeting, plus four days for deemed receipt. A treasurer who starts the statement the week the year closes has slack; one who starts when the notice is due has none. The full season timeline is in our AGM checklist.
At the meeting and in the minutes
Owners receive the statement with the notice, so the meeting itself needs only questions and the vote. The minutes record the motion: "MOTION: to approve the financial statements for the fiscal year ending March 31 as distributed. CARRIED." If owners raise questions the treasurer takes away, minute them as actions with names and dates. Arrears deserve a total figure, never a list of names; the statement and minutes both travel to every owner and to buyers, and our privacy guide covers what stays out.
Audited or not
The Act's baseline is the prescribed statement, not an audit. Some stratas' bylaws require review or audit, and owners can resolve to commission one; larger corporations often do periodically as a check on process. If your strata is self-managed and the books live in a spreadsheet, the discipline of the prescribed statement, two funds, income, expenditures, levies separate, is itself a decent annual audit of habits. Our budget guide covers the other half of the money package.
Let us handle the minutes themselves
StrataMinutes turns your council's rough notes into complete, professionally formatted minutes that meet the requirements of the Strata Property Act, usually within minutes. Every document comes with a compliance checklist.
No payment details needed for your first council meeting.
This page is general information for BC strata councils, not legal advice. Always check your strata's registered bylaws. See section 45 of the Strata Property Act, Part 4 and section 6.6 of the Strata Property Regulation on BC Laws.
Related guides
Annual Budget
Reserve Fund (CRF)
AGM Checklist
Special Levies