The fence that came back
3 min read
In BC, a special levy for a fence fails about two times in five. About one defeated levy in six is back on the agenda within a year, usually at the same price.
A special levy in a BC strata needs three-quarters of the votes cast at a general meeting. [1] Across 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews, about one levy vote in four fails, and the failures are not evenly spread. Roof levies fail about one time in six, because a roof that is already leaking makes its own argument. Levies to cover an operating deficit rarely fail, because the money is already spent. Fences fail about two times in five, and so do lobby and hallway refreshes. Cameras and gates fail about one time in three. EV charging fails about half the time.
Nobody's unit floods because the fence is grey. Everyone has an opinion about vinyl.
Then the fence comes back. Within a year, about one defeated levy in six returns to owners for the same purpose, a median of about six and a half months later, which is roughly the next meeting council can reasonably call. About one defeat in eight has turned into an approval by the end of that year. What changes in between is the surprising part. Where both votes carry an amount, the most common revision is none: the same project for the same money, explained again. About one return in three asks for less, usually by moving part of the cost into the contingency fund or splitting the work into phases.
The minutes show three ways a fence gets home. The first is the menu. Council puts two or three versions on one agenda (cedar or vinyl, the whole perimeter or one side, all from the levy or half from reserves), and owners approve the cheapest and defeat the rest in the same hour. The second is the sequel: a resolution fails at one meeting and the identical resolution passes a few months later. The third is endurance. A smaller group of projects, more often windows and envelope work than fences, fails at one AGM, fails again at the next and passes at the third.
The prices are modest by strata standards. A fence levy asks for about $50,000 for the whole building, around $900 a door, which is a long way below the roof and envelope levies that tend to pass.
The depreciation report used to follow the same rhythm. Until July 2024 a strata could vote by three-quarters to put it off, and about one BC building in fourteen has a waiver on record. That option is gone: strata corporations with five or more lots now need a depreciation report on a five-year cycle, with no vote to defer it. [2] It is the one item in this story that cannot come back.
A defeat is not always final in law either. Where a levy for urgent work wins a majority but not three-quarters, the strata can ask the court to approve it. [3] For a fence, nobody bothers. They just bring it back in the spring.
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, searched for levy resolutions recorded as approved or defeated and for the same purpose returning to owners within a year. Every pattern described appears in at least three unrelated buildings; nothing is quoted, amounts are rounded and no building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.
Further reading
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.