Depreciation Reports in BC: What Every Strata Buyer Needs to Know
If you’re buying a condo or townhouse in a strata building, the depreciation report is one of the most important — and most overlooked — documents in your due diligence. It tells you what’s about to break, what it’ll cost to fix, and whether you’re walking into a special levy. Here’s how to actually read one.
What Is a Depreciation Report?
A depreciation report is a 30-year forward-looking plan that helps a strata corporation anticipate the maintenance and replacement of shared building components — think roofs, elevators, parking membranes, and building envelope systems. It estimates when major components will wear out, what it will cost to replace them, and how the strata should fund those costs over time.
To understand why this document exists, it helps to know how strata buildings actually pay for repairs. Every building eventually needs work done on shared components, and that cost is split across all owners in one of two ways: gradually, through monthly strata fees that build up a contingency reserve fund (CRF), or all at once, through a special levy charged directly to owners.
Before depreciation reports became standard, strata corporations had very little ability to forecast these costs — which meant special levies often arrived as unwelcome surprises, sometimes for tens of thousands of dollars per unit with little warning. The depreciation report exists specifically to prevent that: it gives the strata a long-range budget so major expenses can be planned for gradually rather than sprung on owners all at once.
How Often Are Depreciation Reports Required?
As of July 1st, 2026 under BC’s Strata Property Act, strata corporations with 5+ units are legally required to obtain a depreciation report at least once every three years. A strata can vote to defer this requirement, but doing so requires a 3/4 vote of ownership at each AGM. If that vote fails to pass, the strata must commission a new report within six months of the AGM.
One important exception: buildings with four units or fewer are exempt from this requirement entirely — which means if you’re buying into a small strata, you may not have a depreciation report to review at all, and that’s worth knowing going in.
What’s Required to Be in the Report
By law, a depreciation report must include:
- A physical inventory of the building’s common property and shared assets
- A summary of maintenance and repair work that needs to be done
- Anticipated maintenance and replacement needs over the next 30 years
- Financial forecasts under three different funding models
- The current contingency reserve fund balance and how it’s being funded
- Details on the strata’s errors and omissions insurance coverage
- Identification of any components that are the maintenance responsibility of individual owners rather than the strata
There’s no legislated qualification requirement for who prepares the report, though in practice these are typically completed by engineering firms or professional appraisal companies.
What to Actually Look For When Reviewing One
Depreciation reports run long and can be genuinely overwhelming to read cold. Focus your attention on these areas:
- Remaining life on major components — specifically the roof, cladding, elevators, parking membrane, windows, large boiler systems, and decks/balconies. These are the components most likely to trigger a significant special levy.
- The report’s summary section, which typically flags any items of immediate concern in plain language.
- Context on “100% replacement” figures — depreciation reports model full replacement costs for planning purposes, but that doesn’t mean full replacement is guaranteed to happen on that exact timeline. A report might project deck replacement in 15 years; in practice, the strata will assess the decks at that point and may determine only partial replacement is actually needed.
- What’s projected vs. what’s approved — nothing in a depreciation report is binding. It’s a planning tool, not a mandate. The strata council and ownership vote on which items actually get funded and completed, and how (increased strata fees vs. a special levy).
Typical Lifespans of Major Strata Components
These are general industry benchmarks — actual lifespan varies by building quality, climate exposure, and maintenance history:
- Roof: 20–25 years
- Windows: 30–40 years
- Balconies: 10–15 years
- Water lines: 30–40 years
- Cladding (non-rainscreen): 25–40 years
- Elevators: 25–35 years
- Underground parking membrane: 20–25 years
- Large boiler systems: 20–25 years
- Commercial water heaters: 8–10 years
What This Means for You as a Buyer
When you’re purchasing a strata property, the depreciation report is one of the key documents you should be reviewing during your subjects — alongside meeting minutes, the current CRF balance, and any engineering reports on the building envelope. A few things worth knowing that go beyond the report itself:
Check the CRF funding level, not just the report. BC law requires the contingency reserve fund to be funded at a minimum of 25% of the strata’s annual operating budget, unless owners have voted to waive or reduce that requirement. A strata sitting well below that threshold — even with a solid depreciation report on file — is a strata more likely to need a special levy soon.
A special levy requires a 3/4 vote. If the depreciation report flags upcoming major expenses, it’s worth asking whether a special levy has already been discussed or voted on, and if not, how likely one is in the near term based on the strata’s current reserve position.
Older buildings deserve extra scrutiny. If a building is approaching the projected end-of-life on major components like the roof or building envelope, get clarity on whether that work has already been budgeted, deferred, or ignored. This is exactly the kind of detail that can turn a “great deal” into an expensive surprise a few years in.
This ties directly into your subject-to-strata-documents condition. Your realtor should be requesting and reviewing the depreciation report, CRF statement, and recent AGM/council meeting minutes as part of your standard due diligence — not as an afterthought. If a listing doesn’t have a current depreciation report available, that’s a flag worth asking about, not ignoring.
Bottom Line
A depreciation report won’t tell you exactly what will happen — but it tells you what’s coming, and that’s often the difference between a strata purchase that stays predictable and one that blindsides you with a five-figure levy. If you’re buying a condo or townhouse in Coquitlam, Burnaby, Vancouver, Surrey, or Langley, this is exactly the kind of document I dig into with you before you remove subjects — not after.
