A duplex owner took this question to the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT), BC’s online tribunal for strata disputes, in a 2020 case filed as 2020 BCCRT 1283. The duplex had never been run as a strata. The owner had a home insurance policy of their own, and the other owner wanted them to pay half of the strata insurance, $564.90. Under the BC Strata Property Act, the starting point for any strata duplex is the same: the strata corporation exists from the day the strata plan is filed at the Land Title Office, and its duty to insure the buildings and each lot’s share of that cost start on that day, with or without meetings.
This post sets out those rules, how the share is worked out, and what your own home policy can and cannot do. Our strata insurance guide covers the full list of what a strata policy must include. You can read the tribunal’s own reasons by searching for 2020 BCCRT 1283 on its decisions site.
The strata exists from the day the plan is filed
Section 2 of the Act says that from the time the strata plan is deposited at the Land Title Office, a strata corporation is established, and the owners of the lots are its members under the name “The Owners, Strata Plan [number]”. The filing is the only condition in that section. The strata exists from that day, before any annual general meeting (AGM), bank account or vote.
So a duplex can be a strata on title while the two owners have always treated it as two houses. The Province says “You can’t tell by looking whether a building or development is strata-titled.” The title tells you. A title search from the Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) costs $11.06, plus $3.55 for an online search, and a strata lot’s legal description includes a strata plan number.
If you find a strata plan number on your title, the rest of this post applies to you.
What the strata must insure
Section 149 says the strata corporation must obtain and maintain property insurance on:
- the common property
- the common assets
- the buildings shown on the strata plan
- fixtures the owner developer built or installed in a strata lot as part of the original construction
The cover must be for full replacement value and must insure against the “major perils” listed in the Regulation (s.9.1(2)): fire, lightning, smoke, windstorm, hail, explosion, water escape, strikes, riots or civil commotion, impact by aircraft and vehicles, vandalism and malicious acts.
Section 150 adds liability insurance for property damage and bodily injury, at least $2,000,000 (Regulation s.9.2).
In a duplex where the strata plan shows the building, the strata policy covers the whole building, both halves. The Province’s strata insurance page says it plainly: “homeowner insurance doesn’t provide coverage for a strata corporation, including strata-titled duplexes.”
Your share is set by unit entitlement
The premium is a common expense. Each owner pays a share through strata fees, and section 99 sets the share: your lot’s unit entitlement, divided by the total unit entitlement of all lots, times the total.
Unit entitlement is a number for each lot printed on the Schedule of Unit Entitlement (Form V) filed with the strata plan. In a duplex it is often the same number for both lots, which makes each share 50%. If the numbers follow floor area, the shares differ.
| Unit entitlement | Lot A share | Lot B share | On a $1,129.80 premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equal (for example 100 and 100) | 50% | 50% | $564.90 each |
| 110 and 90 | 55% | 45% | $621.39 and $508.41 |
Example figures, our arithmetic using the s.99 formula. $1,129.80 is twice the $564.90 claimed in the 2020 case.
Owners can use another formula only by a unanimous vote at a general meeting held after the first AGM, and it has no effect until it is filed at the Land Title Office with a Certificate of Strata Corporation (s.100). A spoken deal between neighbours to “each insure our own side” would need that unanimous vote and filing before it could change the split. Our unit entitlement guide explains how to read Form V.
What your own home policy is for
Section 161 lets an owner buy insurance of their own for:
- loss or damage to the strata lot and the developer’s original fixtures, for perils the strata does not insure and for amounts above the strata’s cover
- fixtures the owner added
- improvements to the original fixtures
- loss of rental value above the strata’s cover
- liability for property damage and bodily injury, on the lot or on common property
Everything on that list sits on top of the strata policy. Section 162 also says the strata’s policy and an owner’s policy are not “other insurance” for each other unless both are issued on the same property, so one cannot be used to share a claim with the other.
The owner’s policy does one job the strata policy cannot. The Province says “Strata owner insurance can cover some or all of the cost of the strata insurance deductible.” If a loss starts in your half, the strata can recover its deductible from you (s.158(2)), and your own policy is what pays that bill.
One exception: a bare land strata
In a bare land strata the lot lines are set by survey markers on the ground, and the houses are usually not shown on the plan. The strata does not insure fixtures on the lots (s.149(3)), and an owner may insure the buildings on their own lot (s.161(2)). The Province says that in a bare land strata the owner insures, repairs and maintains the buildings on their lot.
Some duplexes are bare land stratas. Your strata plan tells you which kind you have: a building strata plan shows the building, and a bare land plan is labelled bare land. If yours is a building strata, section 149 needs a strata policy on the whole building.
Paying when there was never a budget
A strata that never met has no budget, so owners ask how the premium can be paid at all. Section 98(3) lets the strata spend without a vote when there are reasonable grounds to believe the spending is needed right away to prevent significant loss, and section 98(3.1) says that includes obtaining and maintaining the insurance section 149 and section 150 require. The strata must tell owners about the spending as soon as it can (s.98(6)).
The longer fix is to start running the strata:
- Search the title and read the strata plan and Form V, so both owners know the unit entitlements.
- Put the policy in the strata’s name, “The Owners, Strata Plan [number]”, at full replacement value, with $2,000,000 of liability cover.
- Hold an AGM with at least 2 weeks’ written notice (s.45), pass a budget by majority vote (s.103), and set strata fees into an operating fund and a contingency reserve fund of at least 10% of the operating budget (s.92; Regulation s.6.1(2)). If both owners agree in writing, s.41 lets you skip the meeting and approve the budget in writing instead.
- Report on the insurance at each AGM, and tell owners and tenants as soon as you can about any change in cover, including a higher deductible (s.154).
- Call your own insurer and ask what your policy covers under s.161, including a deductible charged back to you.
If one owner refuses to pay their share, the other can ask council for a hearing in writing (s.34.1) and then file with the Civil Resolution Tribunal, which hears strata claims of any amount. The fee is $125 online. In a duplex both owners are the council, so read our page on duplex stratas for how the hearing and the votes work with two owners.
What to keep in your records
Keep the policy, the yearly insurance report and proof of each payment. Insurance policies stay in the strata’s records for 6 years after the contract ends (Regulation s.4.1). Every Form B Information Certificate, the document a buyer gets before buying a strata lot, must now include a summary of the strata’s insurance (s.59(3)(l.2)), so the day one of you sells, the buyer will see whether the building was insured. Our strata insurance guide lists what that summary should show.
We are building the StraPlex app for owners of 2 to 6 unit stratas, with the policy dates, each owner’s share and the yearly insurance report in one place. The waitlist is below.
David Babakaiff, Co-Founder, VanPlex | PlexRank™ | Profit with Multiplex
