Kai Mallari's Notes'

Strata-Entry-Door-Is-Common-Property-Under-Standard-Bylaw-8 (Home Systems)

4 min read

Strata Entry Door Is Common Property Under Standard Bylaw 8

idea

Claim: Under BC’s Strata Property Act Standard Bylaw 8, exterior-facing doors that front on common property are the strata corporation’s responsibility to maintain and repair — including unit-entry doors that open onto common hallways. Many stratas amend this bylaw to shift some maintenance to owners, so the registered bylaws (not this default) are the authoritative answer for any specific strata.

Mechanism

The Strata Property Act (SPA) establishes a default maintenance split. Standard Bylaw 8(d) states the strata corporation must repair and maintain “doors, windows and skylights on the exterior of a building or that front on the common property” — and this duty applies regardless of how frequently the repair is needed.1

A unit-entry door that opens onto a common hallway almost always meets this definition: it sits at or near the strata lot boundary, its exterior face is in the common hallway, and courts have held that such doors are common property when they sit on the exterior side of the strata lot midpoint.2

The practical split in most BC stratas:

  • Strata’s scope: major repairs, structural work, replacement of the door slab or frame, anything affecting the door’s common-side appearance
  • Owner’s scope (if bylaws have shifted it): ongoing minor maintenance — weatherstripping, sweep replacement, interior painting — may be assigned to the owner in amended bylaws. Some stratas assign all door maintenance to owners entirely.
  • Alteration approval: regardless of who maintains the door, Standard Bylaw 8 also governs alterations to common property. Replacing the door slab with a different style or material will typically require strata council approval, even if you’re paying for it.

Patio and balcony doors are often designated as limited common property. For limited common property, the strata corporation’s maintenance duty is restricted to repairs that occur less often than once a year — meaning the strata handles structural or major failures, but annual weatherstripping or sweep replacement often falls to the owner.1

The trap: homeowners who spend money replacing or significantly upgrading a door that turns out to be common property have no automatic right to reimbursement from the strata, unless they obtained prior strata approval for an owner-funded common property alteration with a cost-sharing agreement (SPA s.195).

Scope

This idea applies to non-bare-land strata corporations in BC governed by the SPA. It is not a substitute for reading your actual registered bylaws and strata plan. The standard bylaw default is the starting point; every strata’s registered bylaws override it. Bare-land stratas have different rules.

Sources

Idea Compass

North: Where this comes from

  • SPA s.72 (common property definition) and Standard Bylaws s.8 (maintenance split)
  • doors (Home Systems) — the parent component note this idea supports

East: Tensions / failure

  • The registered bylaws of any specific strata override this default — the standard bylaw is just the starting point
  • Owners who do unapproved work on common-property doors may face denial of reimbursement or a bylaw-contravention notice

South: Where this leads

  • Reading your strata’s registered bylaws before spending money on any door work
  • Requesting strata council approval before replacing the door slab, changing the hardware, or making any alteration visible from the common hallway

West: What’s similar

Footnotes

  1. BC Laws — Strata Property Act, Schedule of Standard Bylaws, Bylaw 8: strata corporation’s duty to maintain doors, windows, and skylights on the exterior or fronting on common property; for limited common property, duty restricted to repairs occurring less than once per year — https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/98043_18 ↩ ↩2

  2. Clicklaw Wikibooks (Law Students Legal Advice Program) — Common Property and Common Assets (22:V): courts have held exterior-facing unit-entry doors to be common property under SPA s.72(2)(b); SPA s.72(3) permits bylaws assigning strata responsibility for building components within strata lots — https://wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca/index.php/Common_Property_and_Common_Assets_(22:V) ↩

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