One levy vote in four fails, and the big ones fail more
Across 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews, about a quarter of the special levy votes from 2023 to 2026 were defeated. The odds of a no rise with the size of the ask, the size of the building and the number of levies on the same agenda.
A special levy in British Columbia needs a three-quarter vote of the owners at a general meeting, and a unanimous one if the cost is not split the way strata fees are. [1] That is a high bar, and the minutes show it. We took the levy resolutions recorded as approved or defeated in BC council and general-meeting minutes from 2023 to 2026 and asked three questions: how often do they fail, which ones fail, and what happens next?
1 in 4 | 40% | 1 in 8 |
|---|---|---|
recorded levy votes defeated, BC, 2023 to 2026 | defeat rate for asks of $1 million or more, BC | defeated levies approved for the same purpose within a year, BC |
The rate has held near 25%
About 27% of the levy votes in our BC sample were defeated in 2023, 25% in 2024, 23% in 2025 and about 30% so far in 2026. Spread across buildings instead of votes, about one BC building in three that put a levy to owners in the period saw at least one of them fail.
The typical defeated levy is bigger than the typical approved one. The median approved levy asked owners for about $65,000 as a whole building; the median defeated levy asked for about $100,000.
The bigger the ask, the more often it fails
| Category | Defeated |
|---|---|
| Under $25K | 18% |
| $25K to 100K | 25% |
| $100K to 250K | 26% |
| $250K to 500K | 29% |
| $500K to 1M | 33% |
| $1M and up | 40% |
Under $25,000, fewer than one levy vote in five fails in our BC sample. Between $250,000 and $500,000 it is closer to three in ten, and at $1 million and up, four in ten. Measured per door the pattern is the same at the top end: levies that work out to $10,000 or more per unit failed about 40% of the time, against roughly 21% to 22% for levies between $500 and $2,500 a door.
Building size pulls in the same direction. In buildings with fewer than 20 units, about 14% of levy votes failed. In buildings with 200 or more units, about 32% did. Some of that is the ask itself, since large buildings take on large projects, but not all of it. Among asks of $100,000 or less, votes in buildings under 50 units failed about 16% of the time, and votes in buildings of 50 units or more about 25% to 27%. One reading: in a twelve-unit complex, the owners voting on the roof are the owners who have been standing under it.
Building size | Levy votes defeated, BC |
|---|---|
Under 20 units | ~14% |
20 to 49 units | ~23% |
50 to 99 units | ~26% |
100 to 199 units | ~27% |
200 units or more | ~32% |
One more pattern: agendas with several levies on them. When a meeting carried a single levy resolution, about 20% failed. When the same meeting carried two or more, about 33% did. Owners asked for a roof, a camera system and a lobby refresh on the same evening appear to pick.
What owners say no to
| Category | Defeated |
|---|---|
| Landscaping | 48% |
| Windows | 47% |
| Common area | 41% |
| Electrical | 40% |
| Envelope | 27% |
| Roof | 20% |
| CRF top-up | 17% |
| Elevators | 6% |
The purposes that fail most often are the ones owners can see and could imagine living without for another year. Landscaping and window projects each failed close to half the time in our BC sample. Common-area work (lobbies, hallways, amenity rooms) failed about 41% of the time, electrical work about 40% and security systems about 36%. Building-envelope levies, the largest category by count, failed about 27% of the time.
At the other end are the purposes with a deadline or an inspector attached. Elevator levies failed about 6% of the time and fire-safety levies about 8%. Levies to cover a general operating shortfall, the ones where the money is already spent, failed about 9% of the time. Roofs and piping sit near 20%.
Elevators and fire safety pass. Landscaping and windows fail about half the time.
Among the BC cities with the most levy votes, the defeat rate ran from about 14% in New Westminster and 21% in Vancouver and North Vancouver, through 27% in Surrey and 30% in Coquitlam, to about 36% to 38% in Richmond and Burnaby. The cities differ in building size and building age, so these gaps carry the patterns above inside them.
After a defeat
A defeated levy cannot be collected. If it was for repairs needed for safety or to prevent significant loss and it won more than half the votes but less than three-quarters, the strata can apply to the BC Supreme Court within 90 days to have it approved anyway. [2] [3] Work that is recommended in the current depreciation report can also be paid from the contingency reserve fund on a majority vote, if the fund can carry it. [4]
A second try is the more common route in the minutes, though it is less common than we expected. In the twelve months after a defeat, about 17% of defeated levies came back to owners for the same purpose, typically about six and a half months later. About 12%, or one in eight, were approved for that purpose within the year. After about 24% of defeats, the same building approved some levy, for any purpose, within twelve months. Read the follow-up figures for direction only.
What to do with this
If you are buying: a defeated levy in the minutes is not a closed item. Look for the engineering report behind it and for any later meeting where the same work appears. Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Capital Regional District stratas with five or more lots were due for a depreciation report by July 1, 2026, and the rest of the province by July 1, 2027, so more buyers will be reading these reports next to the minutes. [5]
If you are on council: these are base rates, not forecasts. Large asks, large buildings and crowded agendas have all seen more defeats in the minutes we read.
If you want your area: levy activity by neighbourhood is on StrataStats.
See it for one building. A StrataReports building report lists every levy vote in the minutes, passed or failed, with the amount and the purpose. Look at a sample report.
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. Only resolutions the minutes record as approved or defeated are counted; deferred or withdrawn motions are not, and each resolution is counted once. Amounts are the whole-building figure in the resolution; per-door and building-size cuts use the corporation's total unit count. Follow-up figures look at the twelve months after each defeat and count a return only when the purpose matches. Shares are rounded to the nearest point; purposes and cities with too few votes to summarise are not shown. No building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.