Building Strata Surveys in the Sea to Sky

Creating a building strata allows developers and property owners in the Sea to Sky to maximize the value and utility of their real estate by dividing a structure into individually owned strata lots while maintaining communal governance over shared spaces. Unlike a bare land strata, where boundaries are defined by posts driven into the ground, a building strata typically defines the boundaries of its strata lots by reference to the physical floors, walls, and ceilings of the structure. As dual-registered British Columbia Land Surveyors (BCLS) and Professional Engineers, our firm delivers the professional services, absolute statutory authority, and strategic guidance required to accurately define your multi-family, commercial, or mixed-use development.

The creation of a building strata is a highly regulated process governed by the Strata Property Act, the Strata Property Regulation, the Land Title Act, and the strict Survey and Plan Rules enforced by the Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors (ABCLS). Because creating new legal titles constitutes the "practice of land surveying" under the Land Surveyors Act, only a commissioned BCLS holds the exclusive statutory authority to determine, define, and certify the legal boundaries of a strata lot.

A critical element of our service is ensuring that the parent parcel is accurately defined before the strata is registered. Rule 7-2 of the Survey and Plan Rules mandates that prior to registration, the parent parcel must be fully monumented, any boundary discrepancies must be resolved, and natural boundaries must be established based on their present location under the Land Title Act. Furthermore, under Section 244(1)(f) of the Strata Property Act, we must rigorously assess the building perimeter to certify that all buildings are wholly within the external boundaries of the parent parcel, or that appropriate and necessary easements exist to cover any structural encroachments.

To achieve the absolute and relative accuracy standards mandated by the Surveyor General and the ABCLS, our field crews deploy an variety of surveying equipment. We establish a primary geodetic control network by occupying points for extended durations with Static GNSS and RTK GNSS Receivers to integrate your site into the official provincial datums. However, because building strata boundaries are internal and satellite signals are entirely obstructed indoors, our crews seamlessly transition to high-precision Robotic Total Stations and Terrestrial LiDAR (3D laser scanning) to capture high-density point clouds of the complex as-built conditions. For expansive building envelopes, we also leverage Aerial Drone LiDAR and Photogrammetry to ensure the exterior of the structure is captured accurately.