Setting a Strata EV Charging Fee in BC: What Curtis v. EPS4098 Means for Your Council

It's AGM season and someone on council proposes a $30 or $40 flat monthly fee for every owner who charges an EV in the parkade. The logic sounds fair at first. EV owners use more common-property electricity than everyone else, so they should pay something back. Council votes it in as a rule, the property manager adds it to the monthly statement, and everyone moves on.

Then one of those EV owners reads the Civil Resolution Tribunal decision in Curtis v. The Owners, Strata Plan EPS4098, 2024 BCCRT 960. And files a dispute.

Here's the short version: a strata EV charging fee in BC has to be reasonable, documented, and tied to actual cost or actual usage. A flat monthly number someone pulled out of the air does not survive contact with the tribunal. The Curtis case spells out exactly why, and there are three defensible ways to structure the fee instead.

What actually happened in Curtis v. EPS4098?

Strata Plan EPS4098 is Miramar Village, a 230-unit development. The strata passed a bylaw imposing a flat $35 per month user fee on any owner who charged an EV in their parking stall. User fees are governed by section 110 of the Strata Property Act, which says a strata must not charge user fees at all unless they fit within the regulations. Strata Property Regulation 6.9 is what allows them, and 6.9(2) says the fee must be "reasonable."

Mr. Curtis paid the fee for eight months, then asked the strata to justify how it arrived at $35. The strata said individual metering wasn't feasible, that $35 reflected "average" EV usage, and that a fixed fee was simpler to administer.

That wasn't enough for the tribunal. The decision turned on a single line of reasoning: because the strata is the party imposing the user fee, the strata carries the burden of proving it's reasonable (adopting the approach in Frost v. Strata Plan BCS 3463). The tribunal found the strata provided no evidence or explanation of how it calculated the $35. No kWh figures. No blended rate math. No sub-meter data. Just an assertion that the number was fair.

The tribunal ordered the strata to stop collecting the fee from Mr. Curtis, refund the eight months he had paid, and pay him $510.17 in total once tribunal fees were added. The decision is binding between Curtis and the strata, and as a published CRT ruling it is the precedent any other owner in any other BC strata can point to when challenging the same kind of flat fee.

The takeaway is narrower than the headlines suggested. The tribunal did not say flat fees are always illegal. It said this flat fee, with no evidence behind it, was unreasonable under Reg 6.9(2). A strata that can actually show its work has more room to move. Very few do.

Why does a flat monthly EV fee fall apart under the SPA?

Two things happen when your strata imposes a flat EV fee without backing math.

First, you fail the section 110 test. s.110 is phrased as a prohibition with an exception: the strata must not charge user fees unless the regulations allow them. Regulation 6.9(2) is what allows them, and it says the fee must be reasonable, and lists "the user's rate of consumption," the operating cost, the number of users, and the duration of use as examples of a reasonable basis. A number picked at a council table doesn't fit any of those.

Second, if the fee is really just a subsidy (EV owners paying more so non-EV owners pay less on their electricity line item), it starts to look like a contribution to common expenses dressed up as a user fee. And contributions to common expenses are governed by section 99 of the SPA, which requires they be calculated by unit entitlement. Full stop. The only way to use a different formula for operating-fund or CRF contributions is a section 100 resolution passed by unanimous vote at a general meeting. That resolution is kept in the strata's records and applies only to future fiscal years.

You can see the trap. If the fee is a user fee under s.110, it has to be reasonable and tied to use. If it's really a cost-recovery formula that doesn't track use at all, it starts to look like a common-expense contribution that would have to run through s.99 or s.100 instead. Either way, "flat $35 because that sounds about right" is on thin ice. The Curtis tribunal decided the case under s.110 and Reg 6.9(2), not under s.99 or s.100, but the structural risk is worth keeping in mind when the fee stops tracking real consumption.

And no, Bill 22 didn't change this. The 2023 amendments lowered voting thresholds for common-property changes and CRF spending tied to EV charging (see our EPR deadline article for what Bill 22 actually moved), but they did not create any new fee-setting power outside Reg 6.9, and they did not amend s.99 or s.100. The common-expense math is untouched.

What are the three strata EV charging fee structures that actually hold up?

There are three fee models that work in BC, and they come from very different places in the Act. Mixing them up is where councils get into trouble.

1. Metered, per-kWh billing. The cleanest legally. You install a sub-meter at each stall or rely on kWh data from networked chargers (most major networked Level 2 products report per-session kWh through their management portal), and bill each owner for what they actually used. The fee tracks consumption exactly. Reg 6.9(2) lists "the user's rate of consumption" as a basis for a reasonable user fee, so as long as the bylaw authorizes it and the rate is documented, you're on solid ground.

One practical wrinkle. If a strata bills owners directly per kWh, there is an open question about whether Measurement Canada's rules for revenue-grade metering apply (those rules govern devices used in the sale of electricity, and a strata recovering its own cost arguably isn't a "sale"). Most networked EV chargers sidestep the question by billing per hour of use at a rate calibrated to kWh output. Ask your electrical engineer and charger vendor to confirm what their equipment is certified for before you commit.

2. Cost recovery at the electricity rate plus a small admin fee. You don't need individual metering if you're willing to split the aggregate EV-circuit draw by session count, hours, or stall-days and pass it through at the BC Hydro blended rate. The strata pays BC Hydro, totals up the EV-attributable portion, and invoices each EV owner for their share plus a defensible admin fee (most stratas land around $2 to $5 per owner per month for accounting time). The key is that every number is defensible. You can show the BC Hydro bill, you can show the allocation method, you can show the admin time.

3. Capital cost-sharing agreement. This is separate from ongoing electricity. If an owner is installing a charger at their own cost under section 90.1 (the owner request process we covered in our owner request guide), the strata can require a written agreement under s.90.2(5) covering things like pre-approval of the equipment, future modification to fit a building-wide system, and joint-and-several liability for shared installations. That's a one-time buy-in for the stall or the conduit path. It is not a monthly fee. Don't try to make it one.

Most buildings end up using a combination. Networked chargers do the metering, the strata bills per kWh or per hour (model 1 or 2), and the original installers signed a s.90.2(5) agreement when they put their charger in (model 3). All three lanes are running, and none of them depend on "average usage" math that falls apart when one owner actually checks it.

How should your council actually adopt the fee?

Even a perfectly calculated user fee fails if you impose it the wrong way.

Section 110 requires the user fee to be in a bylaw or a rule, and bylaws are the stronger path. A rule can only apply to common property and limited common property and can be struck down more easily; a bylaw is binding on all owners and sticks. To pass a new bylaw in a residential strata you need a 3/4 vote at a general meeting (SPA s.128(1)(a)). The amendment has no legal effect until it is filed at the Land Title Office (s.128(2)), so file it as soon as the vote passes.

Your EV charging bylaw should spell out:

• The fee mechanism (metered per kWh, per hour of use, or cost-recovery allocation)
• The rate or the formula for the rate, with a pointer to how it gets updated when BC Hydro rates change
• The admin fee, if any, and how it's calculated
• When and how the fee is billed (monthly, per session, with the regular strata fee statement)
• What happens when an owner sells or stops using the charger
• Enforcement if an owner refuses to pay (unpaid user fees are recoverable as a debt to the strata, with SPA s.135 procedural steps required before any fine)

Pass it at your AGM or a special general meeting. Don't let council adopt it as a standalone resolution. A council resolution can't override the SPA's bylaw/rule framework for user fees, and the minute someone disputes it you're in the same position as EPS4098.

One practical tip from cases that have gone the other way: include the methodology document as a schedule to the bylaw, or at least reference it and keep it with the minutes. The Curtis tribunal said plainly that the strata had "no evidence or explanation" of how $35 was calculated. A one-page methodology showing your load data, your rate assumption, and your allocation math is the single easiest way to meet the Reg 6.9(2) reasonableness bar.

What should your council do right now to avoid the Curtis problem?

If your strata already charges a flat monthly EV fee, pull the file this week. Check three things:

• Is it in a registered bylaw or just a council resolution? If it's a resolution, you have a problem. Start the 3/4-vote bylaw amendment now, and consider pausing collection in the meantime.
• Do you have written math behind the number? Not "council thought $35 seemed fair." Actual kWh assumptions, actual BC Hydro rate, actual allocation method. If no, write it. If you can't write it, the fee is probably wrong.
• Does the fee track actual use, or does it flow the same whether an owner charges once a month or every night? If it doesn't track use at all, you're at Curtis risk.

If your strata is planning a fee for the first time (which is most councils reading this), skip the flat-fee model entirely. Go straight to metered billing or rate-plus-admin cost recovery. Networked chargers have made the metered option dramatically cheaper than it was five years ago, and most new installations already generate per-session kWh data as a side effect of how the hardware works.

And the broader picture: if you haven't done your Electrical Planning Report yet, the fee conversation is premature. The EPR tells you how much of your building's aggregate electricity bill is actually going to EV charging versus everything else (see our EPR vs EV Ready Plan article for the distinction between the two documents). Without that baseline, you're setting a fee blind.

Where the $149 roadmap fits

The StrataEV Ready roadmap (generated from the free compliance check) includes a user fee calculation worksheet as a .xlsx, pre-built to the Reg 6.9(2) rules and the Curtis reasoning. You plug in your building's charger count, your BC Hydro rate, your assumed kWh per session, and your admin cost, and the worksheet produces:

• A defensible per-kWh or per-hour rate
• A written methodology you can attach as a schedule to your bylaw
• Sample bylaw language for the 3/4-vote amendment at your AGM or SGM
• The allocation math for a cost-recovery model if you aren't ready to sub-meter

It won't replace a strata lawyer's review, and for any building with unusual circumstances (phased strata, sections, large mixed-use, or an existing disputed fee) you should engage one before the vote. But for the average 40-to-100-unit condo, it takes you from "someone on council just said $35" to "here's the documented rate, here's the bylaw, here's the methodology" in an afternoon.

Your property manager probably charges $150 to $200 an hour to work this out from scratch. The roadmap is a one-time $149.

Take the free compliance check to see whether your building is already at Curtis risk, what your EPR deadline looks like, and what rebates you're still eligible for. It takes about 5 minutes.

The Curtis decision is a shot across the bow for every council in BC that picked a round number and hoped nobody would notice. Some owner, in some building, always notices. Get the math right and the bylaw registered, and the whole issue goes away.

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your strata, consult a strata lawyer or your property manager.