Strata Records in BC: Keeping Council Files Safe Under the Strata Property Act

A strata corporation is a small organisation with a very long memory. It must keep minutes, bylaws, financial statements, insurance documents, engineering reports and correspondence for years, sometimes permanently, and it must hand them over to owners who ask. Yet the people who look after those records are volunteers who rotate every year or two. The Strata Property Act sets the expectations. Technology is how a council actually meets them. This guide is general information, not legal advice, and councils should confirm current requirements with their strata manager or a lawyer.

What the Act expects

The Strata Property Act requires strata corporations to prepare and retain specific records, and the Strata Property Regulation sets retention periods for different categories. Some records must be kept permanently, others for a stated number of years. Owners, and in some cases others, have rights to inspect and obtain copies.

Because the periods and categories are set out in the legislation and can be amended, confirm them against the current text. A records schedule prepared with your manager or lawyer should be the reference your council follows.

The records problem in practice

Council records are rarely stored in one place. Minutes live on the secretary's laptop, financial statements in the treasurer's email and engineering reports in a binder in the property manager's office. When roles change, files disappear. When an owner requests documents, someone has to assemble them from several places under time pressure.

The solution is not complicated. It is a single shared library with a clear structure, controlled access and a handover routine.

Building a records library

Use a shared system such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, owned by the strata corporation and not by an individual. Create top-level folders that mirror the Act's categories: governance and bylaws, meetings and minutes, finances, insurance, building and engineering, contracts, owner and tenant information, and correspondence.

Name files consistently, for example with date first, so they sort naturally. Keep a short index document that explains the structure and where to find the items owners ask for most.

Access, roles and personal information

Council members need different access from owners and from the manager. Give owners access to what they are entitled to see, council members to working files and the manager to operational folders. Avoid sharing the whole library with everyone.

Strata corporations are subject to BC's Personal Information Protection Act in their handling of owner and tenant information. Keep sensitive items, such as owner contact lists and correspondence on bylaw enforcement, in restricted folders, and use multi-factor authentication for every council account.

Responding to records requests

Owner requests should follow a documented procedure: log the request and date, identify the records that fall within the request, check what must be withheld, prepare the copies and record what was provided. A well-organised library turns a stressful scramble into an hour of work.

Keep a log of requests and responses. If a dispute arises about whether a request was met on time, the log is your evidence.

Council turnover and the handover pack

Prepare a handover pack that is updated every year: a list of accounts and who administers them, the location of the records library, key contract renewals, insurance expiry dates, depreciation report status and upcoming major projects. Store it in the library itself.

When a council member leaves, remove their access the same day and rotate shared passwords. Using named accounts rather than a shared mailbox password makes this much easier.

Backup, retention and disposal

The library should be backed up outside the platform it lives on, so that an account compromise or accidental deletion does not erase the history of the building. Test the restore at least once a year.

Apply the retention schedule. Records that have passed their period can be disposed of securely, and a disposal log shows you did it deliberately. Do not delete anything that might be relevant to a dispute, a claim or a legal hold.

Where this lands by property type

Strata & Condo Managers

Strata managers serve volunteer councils, answer to owners and keep records the law expects them to keep. The work is document-heavy, deadline-driven and full of personal information. Typical exposure: council records spread across personal email accounts.

Property Management Companies

A management company sells reliability to owners. Its own systems, from the ledger to the after-hours phone line, are the product, and every outage is seen by clients who pay for calm. Typical exposure: head office and site offices on different standards.

Building Owners

Small-portfolio owners run lean. A single failed controller, a camera system nobody understands or a lapsed carrier contract can occupy an owner for days. Typical exposure: no one responsible for building technology.

Services that address this topic

Guidance like this works best inside a coordinated programme, not as a one-off fix. These PropertyIT services cover the topic directly.

Next step: a building technology survey

PropertyIT is a sub-brand of SAZ.ca, led by Ali Sedighi, MBA, combining senior-partner strategy with hands-on IT delivery for property teams. If this article describes a situation in your buildings, book a free 30-minute consultation: call (604) 632-4959 or email [email protected]. We will give you a plain-language view of your options, and a fixed-price scope if you want one. No lock-in, no pressure and no obligation.