Insights · Blog
Strata vs bare-land strata vs freehold townhouse in Langley
By Ramon Gutierrez, PREC
By Ramon Gutierrez, PREC
In Langley you can walk through two townhouses on the same afternoon that look almost identical and are owned in completely different ways. One is part of a strata corporation. One is a lot in a bare-land strata. One may be freehold, with no strata at all. The way a home is owned decides who fixes the roof, who pays for the road, what the bylaws can tell you to do and what documents you need to read before you remove subjects. The look of the building tells you nothing. The title and the plan tell you everything.
This is what most people picture: a condo building or a townhouse complex created by a strata plan filed at the Land Title Office. According to the province, a strata lot is owned individually, and for condominiums and townhouses its boundaries usually run to the centre of the walls, floors and ceilings unless the strata plan shows otherwise. Everything on the plan that is not part of a strata lot is common property, owned by the owners together and controlled by the strata corporation.
In a typical townhouse strata, that often means the roof, the exterior walls, the internal roads and the landscaping are common property. Some areas, like a patio or a parking space, may be limited common property, set aside on the plan for the use of one unit. The strata maintains and insures what it controls, and owners pay strata fees toward it. Who pays for a specific repair depends on the bylaws, so read them.
A bare-land strata is still a strata. There is a strata plan filed at the Land Title Office, a strata corporation, a council, bylaws and fees. The difference is in how the lots are defined. The province explains that a bare-land strata plan should be clearly labelled as one, and that it will not usually show the outlines of houses on the individual strata lots. The lots are defined by survey, on the land, rather than by walls and floors.
In practice, the owner of a bare-land strata lot is often responsible for their own house, inside and out, while the strata corporation looks after shared things like the private road, common landscaping or shared services. The province also notes that common pipes and lines may run under strata lots, with easements for the strata to reach them.
But "often" is not "always". The province warns that if individual houses are shown on the plan, it may not be a bare-land strata, and the house exteriors may be common property. This is why the strata plan matters more than the sales description.
When people say freehold townhouse, they usually mean a townhouse on its own titled lot with no strata corporation. You own the land under your unit and the building on it. There are no strata fees and no strata bylaws, and there is no strata corporation to plan or pay for shared repairs.
That freedom comes with its own questions. A townhouse shares walls with its neighbours, so who maintains a shared wall, a shared roof line or a shared driveway? Usually those questions are answered by easements, covenants or agreements registered on title, and sometimes they are not answered at all. Your lawyer or notary is the right person to explain what is registered and what it means for you.
Start with the listing, but do not stop there. Ask for the title search and the strata plan. If there is a strata plan, ask whether it is a bare-land plan and look at how the lots are drawn. If it is a strata of any kind, ask for the Form B, the bylaws and rules, the minutes, the depreciation report where there is one, and the current budget.
If there is no strata, look at what is registered on title and ask the seller how shared walls, roofs and driveways have been handled in the past. Ask the neighbours if you can.
I tell buyers to stop thinking of these as building types and start thinking of them as responsibility types. Before we write an offer, I want the buyer to know three things: what they will own, what they will share, and who decides how the shared part is maintained and paid for.
Then we read the documents during the subject period with that question in mind. A low strata fee in a bare-land strata may be fair because the owner carries the house. A freehold townhouse with no fees may still come with a shared roof that needs a neighbour's agreement to replace. Neither is better. They are different, and the price you pay should reflect what you are taking on.
Thinking about buying or selling in the Fraser Valley? Message me and we will go through your options.
Every property and every household is different. Ask Ramon directly.