Many BC Stratas Are Part 9 Buildings. Yours Might Be One of Them: A Guide for Northern BC Strata Councils

The full guide

A great many strata corporations in British Columbia are made up of Part 9 buildings under the BC Building Code: townhouse rows, duplexes and fourplexes, two- and three-storey wood-frame walk-ups, and the detached homes of a bare land strata. Some of them are in the metro areas and city centres. Most are outside them, in communities like Nanaimo, Courtenay, Kamloops, Vernon, Penticton, Cranbrook, Prince George, Squamish and the Sunshine Coast. If your strata looks like that, yours might be one of them.

That matters for one practical reason: under the Strata Property Regulation, the building classification decides who is qualified to prepare your strata's Electrical Planning Report. This guide explains what a Part 9 building is, why so many stratas are one, how to check yours in a few minutes, and what changes once you know.

What a Part 9 building is

The BC Building Code sorts buildings by size and use. Part 9 is the Code's "Housing and Small Buildings" part. It generally covers buildings of three storeys or less with a building footprint of 600 square metres or less — about 6,450 square feet, roughly a building 20 metres by 30 metres — used for housing and other small occupancies. Larger buildings fall outside Part 9's scope: concrete mid-rises and high-rises, buildings with bigger footprints, and most large mixed-use blocks.

In strata terms, Part 9 describes the familiar stock: townhouse rows, duplexes and fourplexes, two- and three-storey wood-frame walk-ups, garden apartments, and the detached homes of a bare land strata. The tower on the waterfront and the six-storey block downtown are beyond Part 9's scope. Our companion guide, Is your strata a Part 9 building?, goes deeper on the definition; this one is about where these buildings are and why it matters to you.

Why so many stratas are Part 9 buildings

Building height follows land value. Where land is expensive, developers build up in concrete; where it is not, they build wood-frame walk-ups and townhouse complexes on larger sites. A large share of BC's strata development over the last forty years has been exactly that: two- and three-storey wood-frame buildings and townhouse rows, often on suburban or lakeside lots, frequently with each unit on its own utility meter. Those buildings sit squarely inside Part 9's limits.

They are found in every region of the province: the Okanagan, Vancouver Island, the Kootenays, the Cariboo–Thompson, the Sea-to-Sky corridor and Sunshine Coast, Northern BC, and the suburbs of Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Greater Victoria too. The strata that is made up entirely of Part 9 buildings is a familiar sight across British Columbia. Our region-by-region guide to wood-frame walk-ups and townhouse complexes describes that building stock community by community.

How to check your strata in five minutes

A council can usually settle the question from its own documents and a walk around the property. The outline:

1. Count the storeys. Three or fewer storeys generally points to Part 9. A fourth storey, or a tall parkade level that counts as a storey, generally points beyond it.
2. Estimate the footprint. Pace out or measure the building's ground-floor outline. Under about 600 square metres — 6,450 square feet, or a building smaller than roughly 20 by 30 metres — generally points to Part 9. Townhouse rows are often split into separate buildings by firewalls, each with its own footprint.
3. Check every building on the strata plan. The pathway described below applies only where every building on the plan is a Part 9 building. A strata with three townhouse rows and one larger mid-rise is not an all-Part-9 strata.
4. Look at the permit documents. Building permits and occupancy documentation on file with your municipality typically record the classification. Your strata manager or the municipal building department can pull them.
5. Ask the person assessing your building. A qualified person preparing your Electrical Planning Report can confirm the classification as part of the engagement.

What being Part 9 changes for your EPR

The Strata Property Regulation sets out the qualified persons who may prepare an Electrical Planning Report, and the list depends on the building. For a strata corporation where every building on the strata plan is a Part 9 building, that list includes a journeyperson in the construction electrician or industrial electrician trade — a Journeyperson Electrician under the Skilled Trades BC Act — alongside professionals registered with EGBC or ASTTBC. The Province's own preparation guidance describes the same pathway.

For many townhouse and walk-up stratas, this pathway is often the most cost-effective route to a fully compliant report. The report's required content does not shrink with it: the regulation asks for the same information about capacity, existing and future demand, and the same demand-management recommendations, whoever prepares the report. Our guide to what an EPR must contain lists every item.

For a strata with any building beyond Part 9's scope, the regulation requires a qualified person registered with EGBC or ASTTBC to prepare the report. CF Electrical Services works with those stratas too, with the same team from the first call to final delivery. Our Electrical Planning Report page answers the common questions about how the report is prepared for larger buildings.

Two more things many of these stratas share

The 2028 deadline. Many of the communities where Part 9 stratas are common are in the December 31, 2028 deadline group — everywhere outside the Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Capital regional districts, plus ferry-access islands anywhere. Our 2028 deadline guide explains which stratas fall in that group, and stratas that sign an EPR agreement in 2026 set their price at 2026 pricing whenever the report is delivered.

Independently supplied lots. Many townhouse stratas have each lot on its own utility meter and service. Where the utility supplies electricity directly and separately to every strata lot, rather than through the strata's own common-property system, the regulation provides for a much shorter report that records the preparer's qualifications and confirms that arrangement. Most stratas do not qualify, but a townhouse council should ask. The EPR content guide explains the exception.

Where to start

Count your storeys, pace out a footprint, and pull the permit documents. If every building on your plan is a Part 9 building, say so when you ask for proposals — it tells any provider which pathway applies. CF Electrical Services works with strata corporations across British Columbia; request a fixed-price proposal, ask to see a redacted sample report from a comparable building, and we will connect you with references from stratas like yours.

Authoritative sources

• Strata Property Regulation — the report content requirements (section 5.11) and who may prepare the report (BC Laws).
• Guidance for the Preparation of Electrical Planning Reports — Province of British Columbia (May 2026).
• Strata electrical planning report — Province of British Columbia overview page.