The garage door on your townhouse is broken. Is it yours to fix or the strata's? In BC the starting point is the Standard Bylaws under the Strata Property Act. They settle the door itself fairly clearly and leave the opener, the springs and the remotes to your strata's own bylaws and how your council reads them. Below is what the text says, and what to do before you book a repair.
Who is responsible for a townhouse garage door in a BC strata?
Under the Standard Bylaws, the strata corporation repairs and maintains "doors, windows and skylights on the exterior of a building or that front on the common property." That duty applies even when the door is part of your strata lot, as long as the strata isn't a bare land strata. Everything else in your unit is yours: Standard Bylaw 2 says an owner "must repair and maintain the owner's strata lot," except for what the bylaws make the strata's job.
So if your garage door is on the outside of the building, the Standard Bylaws point to the strata for the door. That's the default. Two things can change it.
First: your strata may not use the Standard Bylaws
Section 120 of the Strata Property Act says a strata's bylaws are the Standard Bylaws "except to the extent that different bylaws are filed in the land title office." A strata can file its own, and a filed bylaw can assign exterior doors, or garage doors specifically, differently from the template. You need the bylaws that are registered for your strata, not the government template. Your property manager or council can give you a copy, and they're also on file at the Land Title Office.
Second: bare land stratas work differently
The part of Standard Bylaw 8 that puts exterior doors on the strata applies to "a strata lot in a strata plan that is not a bare land strata plan." In a bare land strata, where each owner's lot is land and the house sits on it, that clause doesn't apply, so under the Standard Bylaws a garage door on the house is part of the owner's duty to maintain their own lot. A filed bylaw, or a door that's actually on common property, can still change that.
Is the garage door opener part of the "door"?
This is where the bylaw goes quiet. It says "doors." It doesn't mention openers, springs, cables, rollers or remotes, and the bylaw text alone doesn't settle where they fall. One reading treats the whole door system as the door. Another treats the opener and remotes as the owner's, since they're inside the unit and are often added or upgraded by owners. Springs and cables sit in between, because the door can't operate without them.
We can't tell you which reading your council will take. What we can tell you is how to avoid paying for something the strata should have, or the other way around.
What to do before you book the repair
- Check the registered bylaws for anything about garage doors, exterior doors or limited common property.
- Email the property manager or council with a short description and a photo. Ask in writing whether the strata is handling it or whether you should. If it's urgent (a door stuck open, for example), say so.
- Keep the reply. If the strata says it's yours, you have a clear record. If it says it's theirs, they'll usually want to book the work through their own process.
- Don't let anyone take the door apart first, unless it's unsafe. If the strata ends up responsible, they may want their own contractor or a second opinion, and they'll want to see the damage. If the door has to be made safe right away, photograph everything first.
If there's a real dispute about who pays, BC's Civil Resolution Tribunal handles strata disputes, and the bylaw text above is what everyone will be arguing from.
One more wrinkle: limited common property
Some strata plans designate garages, driveways or yards as limited common property for one unit. The Standard Bylaws split the work on limited common property by how often it happens: the owner who has the use of it must repair and maintain it (which covers anything that comes up once a year or more often), and the strata handles repairs that ordinarily happen "less often than once a year," plus a fixed list that again includes exterior doors. If your strata plan shows your garage as limited common property, that split may apply too.
How we work with stratas
We do garage door work for individual owners and for strata councils and property managers across Metro Vancouver. If you're a council or manager, our strata garage door service page explains how we handle multi-unit buildings, and the commercial and property manager page covers parkade doors.
Questions about a specific door? Call or text (778) 873-7282, or see opener repair, broken spring repair and repair or replace.
Sources: Strata Property Act, S.B.C. 1998, c. 43, section 120 and the Schedule of Standard Bylaws, bylaws 2 and 8 (bclaws.gov.bc.ca). This post is general information about the bylaw text, not legal advice. Check your strata's registered bylaws.