128 Bylaw Amendment Procedures

REGULATIONS AND FORMS

Amendment to Bylaws, Form I: Section 128(2)

See the Strata Property Regulation, B.C. Reg. 43/2000, at chapter 58 (Strata Property Regulations), which prescribes Form I, Amendment to Bylaws, for the purpose of s. 128(2) of the Act. Form I is included at chapter 59 (Strata Property Forms).

Submissions

On the Strata Property Act Filing form, select Form I, Amendment to Bylaws, and attach an image of the original Form I.

Fees

Fee item 3, General Filing, in the Schedule to the Land Title Act applies to the filing of amended bylaws in the land title office. See chapter 31 (Land Title Act—Fees).

CROSS REFERENCES AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Notice Requirements

See s. 45 of the Act regarding requirements for notice of an annual or special general meeting.

Amendment of Bylaws before First Conveyance

See s. 8 of the Act, which permits an owner developer to amend a strata corporation’s bylaws before the first conveyance to a purchaser.

Endorsement in General Index

See s. 250(2)(e) of the Act, which provides that the registrar must endorse in the general index for the strata corporation any amendments to the bylaws that are different from the Standard Bylaws.

Amendment of Bylaws by Sections

See s. 197 of the Act regarding amendment of bylaws and rules by sections.

CASE LAW

Bylaw Amendments Invalid in Commercial Strata Corporation with Residential Caretaker Strata Lot

In Reid v. Strata Plan LMS 3917, 2023 BCSC 151, the appellant GR had acquired a caretaker’s unit in an industrial business park strata corporation. He was assigned two parking stalls that were limited common property, on which he stored container units. The strata corporation requested that he remove the containers; GR refused. As a result, the strata corporation amended its bylaws to prohibit owners from using parking stalls for anything other than parking or storing a motor vehicle. The amendments were approved by 3/4 of the owners of the commercial strata lots. GR maintained the amended bylaws were invalid because the resolution required 3/4 approval of both the commercial and residential strata lot owners. The strata corporation disagreed and removed the containers. GR’s application to the Civil Resolution Tribunal was dismissed on the basis that his caretaker unit was a commercial, not residential, strata lot, and therefore no differentiation of unit designation was necessary for purposes of amending the bylaws. After a Supreme Court judge dismissed his leave application in chambers, the Court of Appeal granted GR leave to appeal the CRT’s decision on whether the CRT erred in not using the definition of “residential strata lot” in the Strata Property Act.

Held, appeal allowed. Section 1 of the Strata Property Act defines a residential strata unit as “a strata lot designed or intended to be used primarily as a residence”. Having regard to the building plans, the building permit, and the zoning bylaws applicable at the inception of the strata development, the court concluded that GR’s strata lot was intended to be used primarily as a residence. (The then-applicable zoning bylaws defined a “residential security/operator unit” as a dwelling unit occupied by a person having some direct connection with the strata complex, including a caretaker of a commercial strata complex.) Accordingly, the amended strata bylaws were invalid because under s. 128 of the Strata Property Act, any amendment to the bylaws required a resolution passed by a 3/4 vote of the residential strata lot owners and also a 3/4 vote of the non-residential strata lot owners. That did not occur. Had the amended bylaws been valid, GR would have been in violation of them.