Half the leaks, a quarter of the buildings
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Sort BC stratas by the pattern their water history makes and six profiles fall out. The largest is a few unrelated leaks. About one building in four shows repeated water coming in from outside, and those buildings account for about half of all the leaks in the minutes.
A count of leaks tells you how often a building gets wet. It does not tell you whether the leaks are related. Three leaks from three different pipes over two years read very differently from three roof leaks in the same winter. So instead of counting, we looked at the shape of each building's water history. We took 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews, read every water incident in the council and general-meeting minutes, and gave each corporation one of six profiles based on how many incidents it recorded, what caused them, how serious they were and whether they kept coming back.
1 in 4 | ~48% | ~37% |
|---|---|---|
BC stratas with repeated water ingress | of BC strata leaks recorded in those buildings | BC stratas with only isolated incidents |
Six profiles, unevenly split
| Category | Share of corporations |
|---|---|
| Isolated incidents | 37% |
| Repeated water ingress | 27% |
| Building-wide plumbing | 17% |
| No pattern | 10.5% |
| Severe history | 4% |
| Recurring unit leaks | 3.9% |
In plain words, from most common to least:
Isolated incidents, about 37%. A few leaks with no common thread. The median building in this group logs three incidents in about two years, roughly 1.4 a year, and about 23% of them have one that the minutes describe as serious.
Repeated water ingress, about 27%. Water keeps getting in: through roofs, walls, windows, balconies, or from floods and overflows. The median building here logs nine incidents, about 3.9 a year. Roofs (about 17% of their incidents) and the envelope (about 12%) are far more prominent than in other groups, although plumbing is still the single largest cause at about 34%.
Building-wide plumbing, about 17%. A pattern of pipe failures that reaches across floors or the whole building. Plumbing is about 57% of these buildings' incidents, and the median building logs seven.
No pattern, about 10.5%. Nothing to sort. About 96% of these corporations have no water incident in their minutes at all. They also skew small: the median has 37 units.
Severe history, about 4%. Fewer incidents than the ingress group, a median of five or six, but heavier ones. Nearly all of these buildings have at least one serious incident, and about 31% of their incidents are serious, against about 8% in the isolated group.
Recurring unit leaks, about 4%. Leaks that keep starting inside units: supply lines, fixtures, failed fittings. Plumbing is about 53% of their incidents.
The leaks are concentrated
| Category | Share of buildings | Share of leaks |
|---|---|---|
| Repeated water ingress | 27% | 48% |
| Building-wide plumbing | 17% | 22% |
| Isolated incidents | 37% | 20% |
| Severe history | 4% | 5.7% |
| Recurring unit leaks | 3.9% | 3.9% |
| No pattern | 10.5% | 0.1% |
Put the six groups side by side and the water piles up in a few of them. The repeated-ingress group is about 27% of BC stratas but holds about 48% of the incidents. Building-wide plumbing is about 17% of buildings and about 22% of incidents. The isolated group runs the other way: about 37% of buildings, about 20% of incidents. Between them, ingress and building-wide plumbing account for about seven leaks in ten.
Part of that is size. Bigger buildings have more roof, more wall and more pipe, so they log more incidents and are more likely to show a pattern. The median corporation in the ingress group has 97 units and in the plumbing group 112, against 57 in the isolated group. Per door the gap is smaller but still there: the ingress group records about 4.3 incidents per 100 units a year, the plumbing group about 2.7 and the isolated group about 2.4.
About one BC strata in four shows water repeatedly getting in, and those buildings account for about half of the leaks in the minutes.
Size, age and construction
Among BC stratas under 20 units, about 53% have isolated incidents and about 32% have no pattern at all. Among stratas of 100 units or more, about 34% show repeated ingress, about 24% building-wide plumbing and about 27% isolated incidents.
Age moves the ingress share most. About 33% of BC stratas built before 1990 show repeated ingress, against about 20% of those built in 2010 or later; the newer group is also about twice as likely to show no pattern, about 14% against about 7%. Building-wide plumbing barely moves with age, between about 17% and 19% in every era. Construction moves it more: about 27% of concrete stratas show the plumbing pattern against about 13% of wood-frame ones, in line with concrete buildings being larger and taller, so one failure can reach more floors.
A typical leak costs about the same
Where the minutes give a repair or damage figure, the median incident costs about $5,500 in the isolated group, about $5,800 in the ingress group, about $6,900 in the plumbing group and about $5,000 in the recurring-unit group. The severe-history group stands apart at about $15,000. What separates the profiles is mostly how often water shows up, not what each visit costs.
What to do with this
If you are buying: read the leaks in the minutes as a set, not one by one. Ask whether they share a cause (the roof, the same stack, the same side of the building) and whether the council has commissioned an investigation or a repair plan.
If you own a unit: recurring leaks from common property are the strata's to repair; leaks that start in a unit can come back to that owner through the deductible bylaw. [1] [2] [3] Know which kind your building has.
If you are on council: a pattern is cheaper to fix once than to repair one incident at a time. The depreciation report and the minutes together usually show which.
How we counted. Based on 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews. Figures come from the council and general-meeting minutes in those samples, mostly 2023 to 2026. Each corporation is given one profile from the water incidents its minutes record: how many, what caused them, how serious they were, where they started and how far they spread. Shares of incidents count each incident once, under its corporation's profile. Rates divide a corporation's incidents by its unit count and by the years of minutes read. Figures are medians or shares, rounded. No building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.
Further reading
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common water-risk profile for a BC strata?
Isolated incidents: about 37% of BC stratas record a few unrelated leaks with no pattern. About 27% show repeated water ingress and about 17% a building-wide plumbing pattern.
How many BC stratas have no leaks in their minutes?
About 10% record no water incident in roughly two years of minutes. Almost all of them fall in the "no pattern" profile, which skews toward small buildings.
Do older BC buildings have more water-ingress problems?
Yes, in share terms. About 33% of BC stratas built before 1990 show repeated ingress, against about 20% of those built in 2010 or later.
Does a pattern make each leak more expensive?
Mostly not. The median incident costs about $5,000 to $6,900 in every profile except severe history, where it is about $15,000.
What happened in a building, and whether it is normal
StrataReports reads the full document package of one strata or condo building and reports what happened in it. It then compares the whole building with similar buildings nearby, from finances and insurance to repairs, the condition of its components and disputes, and shows what is normal and what is not. Every finding links to its source page.