For Strata Councils
Years of strata history, searchable in seconds
The institutional memory of a strata lives across years of minutes, contracts, and reports nobody has time to re-read. SearchStrata gives your council one place to ask and get sourced answers from all of it.
Council members are volunteers, and the building's history is scattered across years of PDFs that no one has the time to re-read. SearchStrata turns that archive into something you can simply ask questions of — preserving institutional memory and making it easy to hand the council to whoever serves next.
What gets missed
- ⚠“What did we decide about this last time?” buried somewhere in old minutes
- ⚠New council members with no easy way to get up to speed on the building's history
- ⚠Owner questions, AGM prep, and contractor disputes that all mean digging through the archive
Search the entire archive at once
Upload years of minutes, financials, bylaws, and reports, then ask a question and get an answer drawn from all of it — cited to the exact meeting and page.
Onboard new members instantly
Hand new council members a tool that explains past decisions, ongoing projects, and the building's track record, instead of a banker's box of PDFs.
Prepare meetings, answer owners
Pull the history behind a recurring repair, confirm what a past resolution actually said, and respond to owners with documented, defensible answers.
Context your minutes were never going to hold
Hazard exposure, nearby construction and infrastructure work all bear on capital planning and insurance conversations, and none of it is in your document archive. Location Insights scores nine areas around the building from public BC data, cites the dataset behind each number, and says plainly where coverage does not reach — so a council can bring sourced context to a depreciation report discussion instead of anecdote.
How Location Insights worksLocation score
- Coverage
- 88%
- Confidence
- 94%
- Addresses
- 4 of 4
Distance to nearest transit stop
240m
94 / 100Bus stop at the corner, 6 routes.
Frequent service within 400 mConcern
61departures/weekday
38 / 100Below the all-day 15-minute threshold.
Example profile — not a real building.
How it works
Upload the archive
Add years of minutes, financial statements, bylaws, contracts, and reports — hundreds of pages are handled in a single pass.
Ask across all of it
Ask a question and SearchStrata answers from the whole history, citing the exact meeting and page so the answer is defensible.
Share with the council
Use it to prep AGMs, settle “what did we decide” debates, and bring new members up to speed in minutes.
Common questions
- Can a council search the whole building's document history at once?
- Yes. Councils can upload years of minutes, financials, bylaws, contracts, and reports, then ask questions across the entire archive and get answers cited to the exact meeting and page.
- How does this help onboard new council members?
- Instead of handing a new member a box of PDFs, you give them a tool that can explain past decisions, ongoing projects, and the building's track record, so they're useful from their first meeting.
- Can we use it to prepare for AGMs and answer owner questions?
- Yes. You can pull the documented history behind a repair, a fee change, or a past resolution, which makes AGM preparation faster and lets you respond to owners with sourced, defensible answers.
- What is Location Insights, and is it included?
- Location Insights scores the area around a BC strata building from public data across nine areas — transit, schools, hazard, amenities, crime, infrastructure, development, demographics and change — with the records behind every figure and the gaps named rather than scored as zero. It is separate from the document analysis: your report reads the package you upload, while Location Insights measures what those documents never mention. It is included with Pro and Agent subscriptions, is in beta for BC corporations, and is reference only — not a valuation or an opinion of value.
- How much does SearchStrata cost?
- Looking a building up is free and needs no account — every strata corporation in BC, with what it is built of, its age, its size and who manages it. Reading a building's own documents is the paid part: a one-off property credit, or Pro at $29 CAD per month for unlimited buildings, detailed reports and Location Insights, or Agent at $79 CAD per month for white-label reports and team seats.
- How accurate are the answers, and can I verify them?
- Every answer and red flag cites the exact page in your strata documents where the information appears, so you can open the source and confirm it yourself. SearchStrata reads the documents you upload rather than relying on general web knowledge.
- What documents can I upload?
- You can upload a strata or condo package as a PDF or ZIP up to 200MB and hundreds of pages, including meeting minutes, financial statements, bylaws and rules, the capital-planning report (a depreciation report in BC or a reserve fund study in Alberta), insurance certificates, and the information certificate (BC Form B or an Alberta estoppel certificate).
- Does SearchStrata work for BC strata and Alberta condo documents?
- Yes. SearchStrata is built for Canadian strata and condominium documents, supporting both BC strata packages and Alberta condo document packages. The instruments differ by province — BC's Form B and depreciation report correspond to Alberta's estoppel certificate and reserve fund study — and SearchStrata reads either.
Latest reading for strata councils
All articles
What a BC Strata Council’s Paper Trail Actually Reveals (Thanksgiving Edition)
On Thanksgiving, strata council members often look back at the past year’s paperwork—minutes, budgets, levies, repairs. Here’s what the key documents really say (and what they quietly signal) to guide decisions for the year ahead.
Getting Voting Thresholds Right: Council’s Guide to Majority, 3/4, and Unanimous Votes in BC Stratas
BC strata councils must navigate majority, 3/4, and unanimous votes when making key decisions. This guide breaks down when each threshold applies, common pitfalls, and how to document results to protect your strata from challenges.
Responding Defensibly to Owner Requests for Strata Records: Council’s Role in Upholding Transparency
Strata council members face growing scrutiny around records access and privacy. Learn the essentials of responding to owner requests for strata records, from timing and scope to practical documentation tips, so your council stays compliant and defensible.
Approving Strata Contracts Defensibly: Council’s Role Before the Ink Dries
Before signing any contract, BC strata councils need to meet specific standards of diligence, transparency, and process. Here’s a defensible approach to contract approvals that council members and property managers can rely on.
How BC Strata Councils Can Enforce Bylaws Fairly and Defensibly
Bylaw enforcement is one of the toughest – and most scrutinized – duties for BC strata councils. This guide covers defensible processes, fair penalty practices, and tips for maintaining trust and compliance when enforcing your strata’s bylaws.
Writing Defensible Strata Council Minutes: Protecting Your Strata’s History and Decisions
Accurate, defensible minutes are a legal requirement and your strata’s memory. Learn practical best practices for council members and property managers to create minutes that stand up under scrutiny and serve your community for years.
Make your strata documents readable
Start free and get sourced answers from your strata package in minutes. No credit card required.
Building intelligence, in three parts
The building, the neighbourhood around it, and its own documents. The building is free and needs no account — its facts were already public.
1 · Free, no account
The building
What you’re buying into
Built of, year, storeys, homes, who manages it, what's been remediated. Assembled from land title, the assessment roll and strata filings. No account.
19,000+ BC corporations · $0
Search the record2 · Pro
The neighbourhood
What you can’t change
Nine areas past the lot line, measured from public BC data — transit, schools, hazard, crime, what's approved next door. Never in the building's own paperwork.
Location Insights · Pro
How Location Insights works3 · Upload
The documents
What you’re inheriting
The levies, the reserve fund, the litigation, the engineer's schedule — read out of this corporation's own package, each finding pointing at its page.
Your documents · deep analysis
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