EPR Requirements in BC: A Guide for Northern BC Strata Councils

The full guide

Search "electrical planning report requirements BC" and you get a mix of summaries, checklists and opinions. The requirements themselves sit in two documents: the Strata Property Act, which creates the duty in section 94.1, and the Strata Property Regulation, which fills in the who, the when and the what in sections 5.8 to 5.12. This guide is organised the way a council meeting is: six questions, each answered plainly, with the section it comes from and a link to the deeper guide when you want one.

1. Who must get one?

Every strata corporation in British Columbia with five or more strata lots. Section 94.1 of the Strata Property Act sets the duty, and it makes no distinction by use: residential condominiums, townhouse complexes, bare-land stratas, commercial, industrial and mixed-use stratas all have the same obligation. The regulation's only size-based exemption, in section 5.8, is for a strata corporation that had fewer than five lots on December 31, 2023.

Two timing variations follow from the same sections. A strata corporation created after that date has five years from the deposit of its strata plan to obtain its first report. A phased strata corporation follows section 5.9, which ties the deadline to each phase's deposit and location.

For the full background on what the report is and why it exists, see the complete guide to BC strata Electrical Planning Reports.

2. By when?

Section 5.8 of the regulation sets two dates, and the date follows the regional district, not the city.

• December 31, 2026 for strata corporations in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the Fraser Valley Regional District and the Capital Regional District, except those on islands reached only by air or water.
• December 31, 2028 for every other strata corporation in BC, including Bowen Island and the Southern Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island outside the CRD, the Sea-to-Sky corridor and Sunshine Coast, the Okanagan, the Kootenays, the Cariboo–Thompson and Northern BC.

A strata in Hope shares the 2026 date with one in Vancouver because both are in a 2026 regional district; a strata in Salmon Arm has until 2028. There is no extension, waiver or opt-out to apply for. Our guide to BC EPR deadlines by region lists each regional district.

3. Who may prepare it?

Section 5.10 of the regulation lists the qualified persons who may prepare an Electrical Planning Report, and the list depends on the buildings on the strata plan. For any strata, the list includes professionals registered with EGBC or ASTTBC. Where every building on the strata plan is a Part 9 building, the BC Building Code's "Housing and Small Buildings" part (generally three storeys or less with a footprint of 600 square metres or less), the list also includes a journeyperson in the construction electrician or industrial electrician trade under the Skilled Trades BC Act, a Journeyperson Electrician.

Many BC stratas are made up entirely of Part 9 buildings: townhouse rows, fourplexes and wood-frame walk-ups. For those stratas the Journeyperson Electrician pathway is often the most cost-effective route to a fully compliant report. For a strata plan with even one building beyond Part 9's scope, the Regulation requires a qualified person registered with EGBC or ASTTBC. To check your own buildings, read is your strata a Part 9 building?

4. What must it contain?

Section 5.11(2) of the regulation is the content requirement, and it is the same for every building and every qualified person. A report must include:

1. the date of the report;
2. the preparer's name, qualifications, any errors and omissions insurance, and relationship to the strata corporation;
3. the current capacity of the strata's electrical system;
4. a list of existing demands on the system, including any EV charging and the heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems;
5. the current peak demand and the spare capacity;
6. where it applies, an estimate of the capacity needed to power systems that now run on another energy source, such as gas heating;
7. an estimate of the capacity needed for other anticipated future demands, including changes to heating, cooling and ventilation and future EV charging;
8. practicable steps the strata could take to reduce demand;
9. practicable upgrades or modifications that would increase capacity; and
10. an estimate of the capacity those steps and upgrades would make available.

Section 5.11(3) carves out one narrow case: where the utility supplies electricity directly and separately to each strata lot, the report needs only its date, the preparer's details and a statement confirming that arrangement. Most stratas, whose units are fed through common-property panels and distribution, do not qualify.

Two things the regulation does not say are worth knowing, because they come up in quotes. Section 5.11 does not require a property assessment, and it does not require twelve months of utility data. Both come from the Province's guidance for preparing EPRs (May 2026), which recommends a property assessment and describes establishing peak demand from the building's measured maximum demand over twelve months. They are how a report reaches reliable numbers for items 3 to 5. For the item-by-item explanation see what an EPR must contain, and for the questions to put to any provider, the provider compliance checklist.

5. What happens after the report is obtained?

Three things, and only one of them is a decision.

• It becomes a permanent record. The Province describes the EPR as a permanent record of the strata corporation. It must be disclosed on the Form B Information Certificate when an owner or prospective purchaser requests it, and owners may ask to see it. The Province's guidance also suggests keeping council members' personal contact details and project price quotes out of the report, since it will be read for years.
• Owner EV-charging requests start to run. Sections 90.1 to 90.3 of the Strata Property Act set out how a strata handles an owner's request to install EV charging. That process comes into effect for a strata on the earlier of obtaining its EPR or its EPR deadline passing. From then on, council has three months to decide a request and must not refuse it unreasonably; insufficient capacity is the recognised example of a reasonable refusal, judged with the EPR in hand. See owner EV-charging requests in BC stratas.
• Council decides what to act on. The Act requires the strata to obtain the report; it does not require the strata to carry out the upgrades the report identifies. Which demand-reduction steps or upgrades to pursue, and when, is a council and owners' decision under the usual voting rules. Our guide to acting on your EPR walks through that conversation.

6. What does it cost to get wrong?

The Strata Property Act attaches no fine to a missed deadline or a deficient report, which is why the requirement is easy to underestimate. The costs arrive another way.

• A missing report is disclosed in writing. After the deadline, every Form B answers the EPR question with "the strata corporation does not have one", read by every buyer, lender and insurer involved in a sale.
• Any owner can ask a tribunal to order compliance. Obtaining the report is a statutory duty under section 94.1, and an owner can apply to the Civil Resolution Tribunal for an order that the strata comply, on the tribunal's timetable rather than the council's.
• A non-compliant report does not satisfy the duty. A report missing any item in section 5.11, or prepared by someone outside the section 5.10 list for that building, has to be done again. Paying for the report twice is the most common real cost, and it is avoidable by confirming the scope and the preparer's qualification before signing.
• Capacity decisions get made without the analysis. Owner EV-charging requests proceed whether or not the report exists, so a council without one decides them without the capacity figures the report is meant to provide.

The duty does not expire at the deadline, and the report is valid the moment it is obtained; what happens if a strata misses the EPR deadline covers the path back.

How CF Electrical Services can help

CF Electrical Services prepares Electrical Planning Reports to section 5.11's full content requirement for strata corporations across British Columbia, with a property assessment and twelve months of consumption data behind every report as our standard practice. We work with most BC strata building types, often wood-frame walk-ups and townhouse complexes, and larger buildings too. Request a fixed-price proposal, ask to see a redacted sample report, or call 778-910-4772 or email [email protected].

Authoritative sources

• Strata Property Act — section 94.1 (the duty to obtain an Electrical Planning Report) and sections 90.1 to 90.3 (owner EV-charging requests), BC Laws.
• Strata Property Regulation — sections 5.8 and 5.9 (deadlines and exemptions), 5.10 (qualified persons), 5.11 (content of report) and 5.12 (phased strata corporations), BC Laws.
• Guidance for the Preparation of Electrical Planning Reports — Province of British Columbia (May 2026).
• Strata electrical planning report — Province of British Columbia overview page.