This page walks through each part using the sections of the Act that set them out, so you can read a strata plan and know what is yours before you make an offer.
The short version
- Unless the strata plan shows otherwise, the boundary of your strata lot runs through the middle of the walls, floors and ceilings that separate it from the next home or the common property (section 68).
- Pipes and wires inside a boundary wall are common property when they serve more than one home (section 1).
- You own the common property with the other owners, in shares set by unit entitlement (section 66).
- Limited common property is common property set aside for the use of one or more homes, such as a yard or a parking space (sections 73 to 75).
- The strata insures the building, and you insure your contents, your improvements and the strata deductible.
Your strata lot, and where its walls end
A strata lot is a lot shown on a strata plan, which is the drawing filed at the land title office when the strata is created. Each lot has its own number and its own parcel identifier, and section 67 makes it a separate parcel for property assessment and tax, together with your share of the common property.
The edge of your lot is set by section 68. Unless the strata plan shows something different, where your home is separated from another home, from common property or from another parcel by a wall, floor or ceiling, the boundary is midway between the two inner surfaces of the structural part of that wall, floor or ceiling. In plain words, you own half the thickness of the wall you share with your neighbour, and they own the other half.
Where there is no wall, the boundary is whatever the strata plan shows. That is how a balcony, a patio or a yard can be drawn as part of a lot on one plan and left as common property on another.
This matters on the first day you want to change something. Hanging a picture on your side of a wall is your business. Cutting into the wall is a change to the structure, and Standard Bylaw 5 requires the strata's written approval before you alter the structure or outside of the building, or any part of your lot that the strata must insure. The strata must not refuse its approval without a good reason.
The common property, and the pipes inside your walls
Common property is defined in section 1 of the Act as the part of the land and buildings shown on the strata plan that is not part of a strata lot. In a multiplex that usually means the land around the building, the roof, the outside walls, shared paths and driveways, and any shared room such as a bike store or a garbage area.
The same definition reaches inside your walls. Pipes, wires, cables, ducts and other services are common property if they sit inside a floor, wall or ceiling that forms a boundary, or if they sit inside your lot and also serve another lot or the common property. The water pipe that runs through your kitchen wall to the home upstairs belongs to everybody.
Section 66 says how much of all this is yours. Each owner owns the common property as a tenant in common, in a share equal to their lot's unit entitlement divided by the total unit entitlement of all the lots. Unit entitlement is the number in the strata plan's Schedule of Unit Entitlement. For a home it is usually the habitable floor area in square metres, or a number that is the same for every home, under section 246.
The same number sets your share of the strata's expenses, which is why a larger home in a fourplex usually pays a larger share of the strata fee. Look at the schedule before you buy, because it fixes your share of every future bill.
| Part | Who owns it | Who repairs it under the Standard Bylaws |
|---|---|---|
| Inside your home: floors, kitchen, fixtures | You | You (bylaw 2) |
| Structure and outside walls of your home | The boundary runs through the walls; the outside is common | The strata (bylaw 8) |
| Roof, foundations, shared paths | All owners, by unit entitlement | The strata |
| Pipes and wires that serve more than one home | All owners, as common property | The strata |
| Your yard or parking space, if limited common property | All owners, for your use only | You for routine care; the strata for things that happen less than once a year and for fences |
Standard Bylaws apply unless the strata has filed its own. Read on BC Laws, 23 October 2026.
Limited common property: shared on paper, yours to use
Many multiplex homes come with a yard, a patio, a parking space or a storage locker that only that home can use. That space is often limited common property. The Act defines it as common property set aside for the exclusive use of the owners of one or more strata lots.
Under section 73 it can be set aside in three ways: by the company that created the strata, on the strata plan or by an amendment to it; by an amendment to the strata plan; or by a 3/4 vote of the owners at a general meeting under section 74, filed at the land title office with a sketch plan. The designation has no effect until it is filed.
How it was created decides how it can be taken away. Section 75 says a designation made on the strata plan can only be removed by amending the plan, while one made by a 3/4 vote can be removed by another 3/4 vote. If the yard is a reason you want the home, ask which kind it is.
Repairs to limited common property are split. Standard Bylaw 2 makes the owner who uses it repair and maintain it, and Standard Bylaw 8 makes the strata repair the parts that need work less than once a year, plus the structure, the outside of the building, and fences and railings around patios, balconies and yards. So you mow the lawn, and the strata replaces the fence.
Rights you get without anything being written down
Section 69 gives every strata lot a set of rights over the rest of the building, called easements, that exist without being registered anywhere. Your lot has a right to be held up by the common property and by the other lots, a right to the water, sewer, power, gas and other services that run through them, and a right to shelter from the parts of the building that cover it.
The common property gets the same rights over each lot. That is why the strata can come into your home, with notice, to repair a pipe that serves the whole building, and why your neighbour cannot remove a wall that holds up your floor.
For a buyer, the point is reassuring: the services your home relies on cannot be cut off by another owner's choices, because the right to them comes with the lot.
Insurance: the strata's policy and yours
Section 149 requires the strata corporation to insure the common property, the common assets, the buildings shown on the strata plan, and the fixtures installed by the company that created the strata as part of the original work, at full replacement value and against the major perils set out in the regulations. Section 150 requires liability insurance as well.
The strata's policy does not cover your belongings, your own improvements, your personal liability, the cost of living somewhere else after a flood or fire, or your share of the strata's deductible. The Province's guidance for strata owners advises buying a home owner policy that covers those, and reviewing it each year with a broker, with a copy of the strata's insurance summary.
Look closely at the deductible. Section 158 lets the strata sue an owner who is responsible for a loss for the deductible, and the Province notes that an owner can be held responsible without being at fault. Its insurance page says strata deductibles can range from $100,000 to $750,000 or more, depending on the number of homes and the claims history. Ask your insurer for deductible cover equal to the deductibles on the strata's policy.
In our view, the insurance summary is the second document a multiplex buyer should read, right after the strata plan. It takes five minutes and it tells you the largest single bill you could face.
What this means when you are comparing homes
Two strata homes with the same floor plan can give you different things. One may have a yard that is part of the lot, one a yard that is limited common property, and one a yard that is common property any owner can use. One may carry a larger unit entitlement than its neighbour, and pay a larger share of every bill.
Ask for the strata plan of every home on your shortlist. Look for the lot boundaries, the areas marked as limited common property and the Schedule of Unit Entitlement. Then ask for the Form B and the insurance summary. If you would like help reading any of them, our team can go through them with you.
- Strata plan: lot boundaries, limited common property, unit entitlement.
- Bylaws: whether the strata uses the Standard Bylaws or its own.
- Insurance summary: the deductibles you may need to cover.
- Form B: fees, levies and anything pending.
Questions buyers ask
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Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page comes from the body that issues it. Rules and rates change, so each entry says when we checked it.
- Strata Property Act, Part 1: Definitions and interpretation (section 1). BC Laws, King's Printer for British Columbia. Act current to 20 October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026.
- Strata Property Act, Part 5: Property (sections 66 to 82). BC Laws, King's Printer for British Columbia. Act current to 20 October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026.
- Strata Property Act, Part 14: Land titles (sections 239 to 266, including 242 and 246). BC Laws, King's Printer for British Columbia. Act current to 20 October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026.
- Strata Property Act, Schedule of Standard Bylaws (bylaws 2, 8, 9, 18 and 27). BC Laws, King's Printer for British Columbia. Act current to 20 October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026.
- Strata Property Act, Part 9: Insurance (sections 149 to 160). BC Laws, King's Printer for British Columbia. Act current to 20 October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026.
- Strata owner and tenant insurance (including the bare land endorsement). Government of British Columbia. Published 23 July 2025, accessed 23 October 2026.
- Insurance for strata corporations (bare land strata and strata-titled duplexes). Government of British Columbia. Published 23 July 2025, accessed 23 October 2026.
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