BC's 2024 Depreciation Report Reform: Deferral Ends, Five-Year Cycle Begins

The 2024 amendments to the Strata Property Regulation were the most significant change to BC depreciation reports since they were introduced. The central point: a strata corporation can no longer vote to avoid one.

The deferral loophole is closed

From 2013 until mid-2024, a strata corporation could postpone obtaining a depreciation report indefinitely by passing an annual three-quarter vote. Many did, year after year. Effective 1 July 2024 that option no longer exists.

This single change did more than any deadline. A corporation that had deferred for a decade now has an obligation it cannot vote away, and often a contingency reserve fund that reflects ten years of not knowing what was coming.

A five-year cycle

Depreciation reports now sit on a five-year cycle for every strata corporation with five or more strata lots. Corporations with four or fewer lots remain exempt.

Deadlines for corporations without a current report

Strata corporations with no report, or with a report received before 31 December 2020, must obtain one by 1 July 2026 in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District, and by 1 July 2027 elsewhere in the province.

New corporations

Corporations established between 1 July 2024 and 1 July 2027 must obtain a first report within two years of the first annual general meeting. From 1 July 2027, developers must also provide some funding toward the first report.

Why councils felt this immediately

A depreciation report frequently reveals that contributions are well below what the thirty-year projection requires. Where deferral once allowed a council to postpone that conversation, the reform forces it — which is uncomfortable in the short term and considerably cheaper than a special levy after a failure.

It also changed the market. Demand for qualified providers rose sharply, which is part of why the Province later widened the list of professionals permitted to prepare reports.