Two strata rules changed in 2022 and most of what is written about them online is still wrong. A strata corporation in British Columbia can no longer restrict rentals at all. It can still restrict age, but only at 55 and over, and only subject to a list of exemptions most buyers have never been told about.
The bylaws that bind you are the filed ones
Section 120 of the Strata Property Act says the bylaws are the Standard Bylaws except to the extent that different bylaws are filed in the land title office. Section 128 requires a 3/4 vote to amend them, and says that until the amendment is filed, it has no effect. Rules are a different animal. Section 125 limits rules to the use, safety and condition of common property and common assets, so a rule cannot reach inside your unit, the bylaw prevails in a conflict, and a rule dies at the first annual general meeting after it is made unless a majority vote ratifies it. The notice taped inside the elevator may well be dead.
Rentals: there is nothing left to restrict
Section 141 now reads, in full, that the strata corporation must not screen tenants, establish screening criteria, require the approval of tenants, require the insertion of terms in tenancy agreements or otherwise restrict the rental of a strata lot. Sections 139 to 140 and 142 to 145, which carried the old rental restriction machinery, were repealed outright in the same 2022 amendment. Section 121 backs it up: a bylaw is unenforceable to the extent it restricts an owner's right to freely sell, lease, mortgage or otherwise dispose of a strata lot.
The province dates the change to November 24, 2022, and says existing rental restriction bylaws are invalid and owners do not need to amend their bylaws to remove them. That is why you still see rental caps in the documents. Filing an amendment costs a meeting and a 3/4 vote, so most councils leave the dead text alone. Do not pay less for a unit because the bylaws still say two rentals.
Short term is a separate power, and the fine is five times larger
Short term accommodation survived. A strata can still ban or limit use of a residential strata lot for remuneration as vacation, travel or temporary accommodation, by a 3/4 vote of owners. Regulation section 7.1 caps an ordinary bylaw fine at $200 per contravention and a rule fine at $50, imposed at most every 7 days. For a vacation or temporary accommodation bylaw the cap is $1,000 per contravention, and it can be imposed daily. Whatever the amount, section 135 blocks a fine unless the strata first received a complaint, gave the owner or tenant written particulars and a reasonable opportunity to answer, including a hearing on request. The provincial and municipal layers are separate, set out in short term rental rules in Langley and South Surrey.
Age: 55 and over, and it attaches to residents
Section 123.1 says a bylaw must not restrict the age of persons who may reside in a strata lot, except that the strata may pass a bylaw requiring one or more persons residing in a strata lot to have reached a specified age that is not less than 55. Any age bylaw with a lower number stopped being enforceable on November 24, 2022.
The province's guidance makes the next point plainly: age restriction bylaws apply to the residents of the strata lot, not the ownership. A 40 year old can own a unit in a 55 plus building in White Rock. Whether that owner can live in it turns on the filed wording, because the Act lets the bylaw require one or more residents to meet the age, not necessarily all of them. Read the filed bylaw, not the listing remark.
The exemptions nobody mentions
Section 123.2 of the Act and section 7.01 of the regulation put a list of people outside any 55 plus bylaw. The regulation calls a resident who meets the age in the bylaw, or who is grandfathered, a specified resident.
- Existing residents. Someone living in the lot immediately before the bylaw passed, lawfully at the time, who keeps living there.
- A younger spouse. The spouse of a specified resident, and spouse includes a person living with another in a marriage like relationship, not only a married one.
- A child. A person under 19, if one of that child's caregivers is a specified resident.
- An adult child. A person 19 or over who lives with a specified resident who was one of their caregivers before they turned 19.
- A caregiver. Someone living in the lot to care for a resident who depends on caregivers for continuing assistance because of disability, illness or frailty.
The spouse and children classes came in on May 1, 2023. They answer the question I field most often on the White Rock hillside, which is whether a 52 year old partner can move into a 55 plus building. On the Act and the regulation as written, yes. Get the filed bylaw in front of a lawyer anyway, because a council does not always know its own rules.
If you are the one renting it out
Section 146 requires you to give the tenant the current bylaws and rules and a Notice of Tenant's Responsibilities, Form K, before the tenancy starts, and to give the strata a copy signed by the tenant within 2 weeks. Miss either and the tenant stays bound by the bylaws but may end the tenancy without penalty within 90 days of learning of the failure, and you pay moving expenses up to one month's rent.
Section 131 lets the strata collect a fine levied on your tenant from the tenant, from you and from the owner, as long as the total does not exceed the fine, and section 147 says you cannot assign that responsibility away. Section 138 lets the strata corporation itself end your tenant's tenancy, under section 47 of the Residential Tenancy Act, for repeated contravention of a reasonable and significant bylaw that seriously interferes with another person's use and enjoyment. Selling with a tenant in place: see selling a tenanted property in BC.
New buildings are the hard case
In a new Willoughby or Grandview Heights building the bylaws are whatever the developer filed on deposit of the strata plan. Section 127 blocks any amendment before the second annual general meeting unless it passes by a unanimous vote. In a phased development, the regulation stops the strata changing bylaws on pets or the age of occupants without the developer's written consent until the annual general meeting after the final phase is deposited. Read them with what you sign when you buy a presale in Langley.
How to get the real documents
As a buyer you are not an owner yet, so section 36 is the seller's tool, not yours. An owner or tenant who asks must be given records within 2 weeks, and within one week where the request is for the bylaws or rules, at no more than 25 cents a page.
What you can order is an Information Certificate, Form B, capped at $35 plus copying. Read section 59(4) before you lean on it. It attaches the rules, the current budget and the most recent depreciation report. It does not attach the bylaws. Those come from the land title office or the seller. The Form B still earns its fee, because section 59(5) makes the information in it binding on the strata corporation in its dealings with a person who relied on it and acted reasonably. For the rest, see what White Rock condo buyers should check.
Why an hour is worth it here
In October 2026 the Fraser Valley board counted 295 active apartment listings against 46 sales in White Rock and South Surrey, and 404 active listings against 60 sales in Langley. The apartment benchmark was $558,600 here, down 3.5 per cent on the year, and $522,300 in Langley, down 8.4 per cent. With that much inventory, a bylaw you cannot live with is a reason to look at the next building, not a problem to litigate.
If you are looking at a condo in White Rock, South Surrey or Langley and the age or rental wording is unclear, send me the strata plan number. I will pull the filed bylaws and tell you what actually binds you.
Sources
Strata Property Act sections 36, 59, 120, 121, 123.1, 123.2, 125, 127, 128, 131, 135, 138, 141, 146 and 147, and Strata Property Regulation sections 4.2, 4.4, 7.01 and 7.1, from bclaws.gov.bc.ca, both consolidations current to November 3, 2026. Effective dates, the residents rather than ownership point and the May 1, 2023 exemptions from the Province of BC strata housing pages. Listings, sales and benchmarks from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's October 2026 package. Checked November 7, 2026. Not legal advice.