Sections and types: two tools that solve different problems
Mixed buildings need ways to treat different owners differently. Sections create separate governments with separate records. Types just split certain bills.
When townhouses share a strata with a highrise, or shops sit under apartments, one budget and one council can fit everyone badly. The Strata Property Act offers two mechanisms, and they are constantly confused with each other. The difference matters most in the paperwork: one of them creates a second set of minutes.
Sections: separate mini-governments
Sections, under Part 11 of the Act, divide a strata corporation into groups that can govern their own exclusive matters, most commonly residential and non-residential, or apartment and townhouse. A section has its own executive elected by the section's owners, holds its own meetings, can have its own budget and expenses for section matters, and can make bylaws in relation to matters that affect only that section. Creating or cancelling sections is a serious constitutional step involving three quarter votes and registered bylaw amendments, so take advice before going near it.
Types: a cost-allocation label
Types are far lighter. A bylaw can identify different types of strata lots and allocate certain operating expenses, ones that relate to and benefit only those lots, to the owners of that type. The classic example is a bylaw making townhouse owners alone fund townhouse roof maintenance. A type has no executive, no meetings, and no minutes. It is arithmetic in the budget, not a government. Our strata fees guide covers how allocated expenses flow into fees.
The records consequence
A section is, for its own matters, run like a small strata corporation: executive meetings should be minuted, section general meetings need notice and minutes, and the section's records are subject to the same retention and access expectations as the corporation's. In practice this means a sectioned strata maintains parallel record sets, and a buyer in a sectioned building may need documents from both the corporation and the section. If your building has sections and only one set of minutes has ever existed, that is a gap worth closing now rather than during a sale. The corporation's own duties, including council minutes under section 35 and the two week rule, continue unchanged alongside.
Which one do you actually have
Read your registered bylaws. Sections exist only if bylaws created them, and many buildings that talk about their "townhouse section" have, legally, a type or nothing at all. The label in conversation means little; the bylaw wording controls. If the bylaws allocate an expense to certain lots, that is a type arrangement. If they establish an executive and meetings for a group of lots, those are sections, with all the record-keeping that follows. When the bylaws are ambiguous, legal advice is cheaper than restructuring after a dispute at the Civil Resolution Tribunal.
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 Part 11 of the Strata Property Act on BC Laws. Sections and types raise legal questions this page cannot settle; get advice before restructuring.