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What we mean by a small strata
A small building, not a small number of units in a large one. Townhouse rows. Fourplexes and sixplexes. Duplex and triplex strata groups. Two- and three-storey wood-frame walk-ups and garden apartments. Small bare-land stratas with a handful of lots and some shared lighting or a pump.
If your strata is a condominium in a tower, this page is not written for your building, even when the number of units is small. A tower has a main service, risers and often a parkade, and our high-rise page covers it. The proposal process is the same.
First, the exemption
A strata plan with fewer than five strata lots on December 31, 2023 does not need an Electrical Planning Report at all. If you are a four-lot strata, that is your answer: nothing to order and nothing to budget for. The requirement in section 94.1 of the Strata Property Act begins at five lots.
From five lots up, the report is required, with the same deadline as every other strata in your region: December 31, 2026 in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Region, and December 31, 2028 elsewhere in British Columbia. The EPR checker resolves your own case from your strata plan number in a few seconds.
The same requirement as a 200-unit tower
A six-home townhouse row and a 200-unit tower sit under the same section of the Act, and the report must contain the same items for both: the capacity of the strata's electrical system, the demand on it today, the spare capacity, what EV charging and heat pumps would add, and the practicable steps and upgrades that would make more capacity available.
Much of what is written about Electrical Planning Reports, and many of the quotes councils see, are built around large buildings: an electrical room, switchgear, a parkade and hundreds of suites on one service. Spread across 200 owners, a report fee is a small line in the budget. Spread across six or twelve owners, it is a real levy, and councils of small, often self-managed stratas notice. Our guide Why Electrical Planning Report Prices Vary So Widely in BC explains what sits behind the range.
A report sized to the building
Send us your strata plan number and you receive one fixed price, in writing, within one business day. The proposal sets out the scope in plain language, and there is no commitment until council accepts it.
Most small strata buildings are Part 9 buildings under the BC Building Code, and under the Strata Property Regulation that affects who may prepare the report. The regulation's own wording is set out in the questions on our Electrical Planning Report page, and our guide Is Your Strata a Part 9 Building? explains how to check your own buildings.
The report covers what the strata owns in common, and its capacity and demand figures rest on twelve months of the building's own metered history rather than on assumptions. The finished report is written for the people who have to use it, with the numbers the Act requires and what they mean for your building. References are available on request before you decide anything.
One thing we settle on the first call: where every strata lot is supplied by the utility independently, the regulation provides a shorter report pathway. We confirm whether your strata qualifies before the proposal is written.
What to have ready
- Your strata plan number. EPS, VIS, LMS, NW, KAS and so on, followed by the number. It is on your strata documents and your Form B, and it is all we need to look your strata up.
- A recent BC Hydro bill for the strata. The common account, if the strata has one: the account that pays for the shared lights, a pump or a clubhouse. If every bill goes to an owner and the strata has none, say so; that is useful to know too.
- How the electricity comes in. Is there a shared electrical room or a bank of meters the strata owns, or does each home have its own meter straight from the utility? If you are not sure, that is fine; it is one of the things the first call sorts out.
That is all. Request a proposal below, or book a free 15-minute call with a strata electrical advisor if you would rather talk it through first. You can also call 778-910-4772 (Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Pacific).
