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Special levy risk, visible before completion.
A FRIVE journal piece walks Fraser Valley condo buyers through the special-levy pass on strata documents. It is the clearest short explanation of levy timing we have seen, and the same reading applies to any building that wants to understand its own exposure.
Blog/Special levies·7 min read
The timing rule most buyers miss
A special levy is a one-time charge for a specific expense the operating budget and contingency reserve cannot absorb, most often roofing, envelope, membrane, or plumbing work. On a sale, the seller owes the instalments payable before the conveyance date and the buyer owes the instalments payable on or after it.
The article's example makes the consequence concrete: a $9,000 per unit levy payable in March, June, and September, with completion in May, leaves the buyer holding $6,000. That is disclosed on the Form B information certificate, which is why the Form B is the first document to pull.
Read the levy that failed, not just the one that passed
The sharpest point in the piece is about resolutions that did not pass. A levy defeated at 60 percent is not good news. The repair is still required, the building has told itself it cannot afford it, and the next vote often goes differently. Near-miss motions in recent minutes are the levies a buyer is most likely to inherit.
The reading order is worth keeping: Form B for approved levies and instalment dates, council and AGM minutes for the levies being discussed before they reach the Form B, then the depreciation report to cross-reference the components those discussions are about.
What strata documents cannot tell you
Minutes record decisions. A depreciation report models expected service life on a multi-year cycle. Neither tells you what the building looked like last month. A roof at year 22 of a 25-year projection may be sound or may already be failing at the parapet, and nothing in the document set distinguishes the two.
That is the gap a current condition record fills. Where a building runs recurring documented inspections, ranked by urgency and revisited at the same locations, both council and a prospective buyer can see whether a projected cost is arriving early, on schedule, or later than modelled.
For councils reading their own documents
Buyers are not the only ones who benefit from this pass. Every item a diligent buyer flags is an item the corporation is carrying. Reading your own minutes the way an outside reviewer would, then checking each flagged component against current condition, is the fastest way to find out where the building actually stands.
SENTiNEL documents condition and maintains that record across the eleven building systems. We do not provide engineering opinions, depreciation reports, legal advice, or real estate advice, and we are not licensed to manage buildings or to respond to emergencies. For document review and purchase decisions, work with your realtor, lawyer, and qualified consultants.
Common questions about this topic.
- Where are approved special levies disclosed?
- On the Form B information certificate, which lists approved levies and the dates each instalment is due. Levies still under discussion appear in council and AGM minutes before they reach a Form B.
- Who pays a levy instalment after a sale completes?
- In BC, the seller owes instalments payable before the conveyance date and the buyer owes instalments payable on or after it. If a project comes in under budget, a refund goes to the current owner.
- Is a healthy contingency reserve enough protection?
- It helps, but the reserve is only meaningful next to the components it has to fund. A reserve that looks adequate in isolation can be far short of a roof and envelope cycle arriving in the same three years.
FRIVE
Strata special levies: what Fraser Valley condo buyers need to read →
This post is SENTiNEL commentary on reporting published elsewhere. Read the original for the full account.
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