When something in your home stops working, the usual move is to call someone and get it fixed. Windows in a multi-unit building don’t quite work that way.
In a strata, the windows usually aren’t yours to replace, so getting them fixed means getting your strata council to act. This guide walks you through the strata window replacement process in British Columbia, starting with what BC strata bylaws say about windows and ending with a written request your council can decide on.
Key Takeaways
- In most BC stratas, exterior windows are common property, so the strata is responsible for repairing them and owners need written approval to change them.
- A dated record with photos taken over several weeks makes a stronger case than a single complaint or a single day of photos.
- Owners can ask for the strata’s most recent depreciation report, which can show the windows’ condition, remaining life and planned replacement.
- Requests that lead with what’s failing, rather than asking for an upgrade or naming a contractor, fit the way stratas decide on repairs.
- If council doesn’t act, you can request a hearing in writing, and council must hold it within four weeks.
Before You Call Anyone: Who’s Responsible for Your Windows?
Before anyone measures a frame, you need to know who the windows belong to. That answer decides who approves the work and who pays for it.
In most BC stratas, whether you live in a condo or a townhouse, your exterior windows are usually common property, which means the strata is responsible for repairing them. That comes from a rule in the Strata Property Act: unless your strata plan says otherwise, your unit ends at the middle of your exterior wall. Anything past that point, including most exterior windows, belongs to all the owners together.
Some stratas label certain windows as limited common property. That’s common property set aside for one unit’s use, like a private balcony. It sounds like it would make the windows yours to fix. But under the Standard Bylaws, the default bylaws the province provides for every strata, the strata stays responsible for windows on the exterior of the building, even on limited common property, no matter how often the work is needed.
Still, those default bylaws may not be the ones your building follows. Many stratas file their own, and the BC government points out that bylaws are usually not the same from one strata to the next.
Two documents give you the answer. The first is your strata plan. As an example, when an owner asked about window responsibility in his strata column, Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC, shared that he starts with the plan. The official copy of the plan can be ordered online from the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC (LTSA), which keeps it on file. The second is your strata’s current set of bylaws, which you can request from your strata manager or council. The LTSA has the plan, but it doesn’t usually have the latest bylaws, so ask the strata for those.
Good to know: The Strata Property Act requires your strata to give you copies of the bylaws within one week of your request. It can charge up to 25 cents per page for the copies.
Whatever those documents say about responsibility, the Standard Bylaws are clear on one point. You can’t change exterior windows on your own. An owner needs the strata’s written approval before altering doors, windows or skylights on the outside of the building.
Once you know who’s responsible, the next job is building your case.
Step 1: Write Down What’s Going Wrong, Window by Window
What makes a request stand out to the council is a record that shows what’s happening, where it’s happening and since when.
Start with the windows themselves. For each problem window, write down:
- the room it’s in
- what you’re seeing, like fog between the panes or water at the sill
- the date you first noticed it
- whether it slides or swings open, and roughly how old it is
Fog trapped between the panes, the kind you can’t wipe away from either side, usually points to window seal failure. Water is worth watching closely too, along with any damage it leaves behind.
Then take photos, and keep taking them over several weeks or across a few rainy spells. Photos from a single day can show there’s a problem, but not that it keeps happening. That gap weakened one owner’s case at the Civil Resolution Tribunal, BC’s online tribunal for strata disputes. His photos showed heavy condensation, but the tribunal noted they appear to have been taken on a single day and found he hadn’t proven his windows were damaged.
Before you write to council, ask your neighbours whether their windows have the same problems. If they do, you may be looking at a building-wide issue rather than a problem with one unit. In one strata, an owner’s window complaint turned out to be part of a bigger picture. Many other units had window problems too, and the council decided to replace every window in the building at once. A building-wide project can take longer than a single repair, so it helps to know that going in.
One more thing while you’re gathering all this: let the strata in when it asks to look. In the case with the single-day photos, the strata said the owner had refused to let council members view his windows, and the tribunal found he was at least partly responsible for the delays.
Not sure what you’re looking at? If you’re seeing fog between the panes or water at the sill, we can tell you what it usually points to and what’s worth writing down.
Step 2: Find Your Windows in the Depreciation Report
Your notes show what’s happening inside your home. The depreciation report shows what the strata already knows about the whole building.
A depreciation report is a long-term planning study of the building’s major parts and what it will cost to repair or replace them. In BC, every strata corporation with five or more units must have one, and it has to be renewed every five years. You don’t need to wait for the strata to share it, either. The Strata Property Act lists the most recent depreciation report among the records an owner can ask for, and the Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered a strata to give a copy to an owner who requested one.
Once you have it, look for the windows. Check what the report says about their condition, how much life they have left and when replacement is planned. The report is also meant to point out which items need attention first, so see where the windows land on that list. And while you’re reading, check whether your windows appear among the parts owners have to look after themselves. Every depreciation report must identify any common property or limited common property that owners are responsible for maintaining.
Keep one thing in mind as you read. A planned replacement in the report isn’t a promise, because the report helps council plan but doesn’t commit it to anything. Still, if the report already shows your windows near the end of their life, your request points to a problem the council has on record.
The report also helps with the money question that comes up next. Its financial section has to include at least three funding models for the contingency reserve fund over 30 years. The strata doesn’t have to adopt any of them, but they give council a starting point. Window projects can be paid from the contingency reserve fund, a special levy on owners, or a mix of both, and each option has its own approval rules. We walk through those in our guide to turning a depreciation report line item into a completed window project. That guide also covers the records your strata’s insurer may ask to see at renewal, like engineering sign-off and warranty documents.
Step 3: Put Your Request in Writing and Bring It to Council
With your notes and the depreciation report in hand, it’s time to put everything in writing. An email or letter does more than a chat in the hallway. The Strata Property Act requires the strata to keep copies of all correspondence it receives, so your request becomes part of the strata’s records. And any decision council makes about it must be recorded in the meeting minutes, which means you’ll be able to see exactly what was decided.
Send your request to your strata manager or council, and ask for it to be discussed at the next council meeting. Keep it short and stick to the facts, and include:
- your notes and photos from Step 1
- what the depreciation report says about the windows
- what you’re asking for, whether that’s a repair for your unit or a look at the windows across the building
Timing matters too, especially for bigger projects. The strata’s budget for the next year is approved by a majority vote of owners at the annual general meeting. A request that reaches council well before that meeting gives it time to consider the work while the budget is still being put together.
How you frame the request matters just as much. Two approaches can work against owners, and both come down to the same rule: the strata decides how its windows get fixed. The Civil Resolution Tribunal has said that the strata has discretion to approve “good, better or best” solutions to any given problem.
The first approach to avoid is showing up with a contractor already picked. If you’ve gathered a quote, share it as a rough guide to what the work might cost, and leave the choice of contractor to council.
The second is asking for more than the problem needs. In the case where the tribunal used that “good, better or best” wording, owners wanted their window replaced because of a broken lock. The strata offered external locking devices instead, and the tribunal found that was a reasonable choice. Your request will carry more weight if it leads with what’s failing and what that failure is causing, like water at the sill or a window that won’t lock, rather than with the windows you’d like to have.
What Happens After Strata Council Approval
If the council decides the windows need work, the project moves into the strata’s hands. For a building-wide replacement, that means defining the scope, getting engineering sign-off and a city building permit, planning the installation unit by unit, and keeping residents informed as crews move through the building. We break down each of those stages in our depreciation report guide, which is worth passing along to the council once your request is on the table. For the bigger picture, our project toolkit for managers and councils covers how to build the business case.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if the council says no, or doesn’t respond to my request?
You can ask for a hearing, which is your chance to be heard in person at a council meeting. Make the request in writing and include your reason. Council then has four weeks to hold the hearing. If you ask for a decision, the council has to give it to you in writing within one week of the hearing.
If the hearing doesn’t settle things, the next step is the Civil Resolution Tribunal. And the hearing request matters there as well. In one case, the tribunal refused to take on an owner’s dispute because he hadn’t asked for a council hearing before filing.
Conclusion: Getting Council to Act on Your Windows
Getting strata windows fixed is mostly about preparation. Once you know who’s responsible, have a dated record of the problem and know what the depreciation report says, your request gives the strata council what it needs to make a decision.
The next move is yours: send that request. And if your council wants to see what a window project could look like for your building, our team can walk them through a scoped assessment and a clear proposal they can act on. We’ve been manufacturing windows since 1992, and today we make them at our Burnaby manufacturing facility and install them ourselves, including on strata window replacement projects.
Written by Brandon P., Sales Manager at A1 Windows.
With 25+ years in the local window installation sector, Brandon leads our residential and commercial installation teams, providing transparent, no-pressure guidance to BC homeowners.
