Strata Council & Board Hub

As an elected strata council or condominium board member, you carry fiduciary responsibility for your building’s governance, physical upkeep, and financial reserves. Pastrata streamlines your council operations with digital AGM facilitation, real-time financial dashboards, bylaw violation management, and broadcast notices.

Required Roles & Capabilities

Access to these features depends on your building role and assigned capabilities:

Quickstart (Getting Started)

1. Log into Pastrata and confirm your Strata Council badge in your user profile.
2. Explore the Management section in the navigation menu.
3. Review the Dashboard for open maintenance tickets, pending member verifications, and upcoming meetings.
4. Access the Finances tab to monitor operating fund balances and Contingency Reserve Fund reserves.
5. Review the Governance guide for instructions on running compliant virtual meetings and AGMs.
6. Open the Council Records page (/[building]/management/council/continuity) to access rosters, shutdown protocols, and the emergency handover toolkit.

Step-by-Step Guides

How to Broadcast an Official Building Notice

Send urgent alerts or scheduled maintenance notices to all verified building residents.

1. Go to Notices > New Notice.
2. Choose the notice category (e.g. Water Shutoff, Fire Alarm Testing, General Announcement).
3. Specify whether an acknowledgment (read receipt) is required from residents.
4. Compose the notice title and body, and attach PDF documentation if applicable.
5. To serve a notice by email or by post, choose Email or post, by how each person receives notices. Each person is emailed only if they gave the strata an email address for receiving notices, and only at that address. Anyone who gave a mailing address outside the strata plan is posted there and never emailed. Everyone else gets a printed letter mailed to their unit, and each letter is charged. A letter isn't mailed to an address moved from older records until a manager confirms it was given for notices; the notice's Notice delivery record lists anyone the notice couldn't be sent to, with the reason, so you can serve them another way, such as by hand.
6. Or ask eConcierge, for example "Send all residents a notice that the water is off Thursday from 9am to noon". It shows who will get the notice, how and when, and the full text, and sends nothing until you confirm. eConcierge sends by email and in the app (or in the app only), now or at a time you give; attachments, images, postal mail, text messages and notices to hand-picked people are sent from New Notice. It can also save and edit notice templates.
7. On the mobile app, open Notices from More and tap +. Write the subject and message, choose who it's from (the council, management or you), who it goes to (all members, owners, residents, or the units or people you pick), how it's delivered, and whether to add it to the building calendar. The app asks you to confirm before anything is sent. Templates, images, attachments and scheduling are on the web.
8. In Notices, a notice sent to particular units or people shows who it went to, for example "Sent to Unit 407 and 2 people", and its recipient count. Open it to see how many were delivered, read and acknowledged, and how many bounced or failed. A notice you sent to others isn't shown to you as unread mail.

How to Review and Publish Automated Seasonal Notices

Review, customize, and broadcast monthly seasonal notices synthesized from building bylaws, council minutes, and seasonal maintenance needs.

1. Navigate to Management > Notices (/[building]/management/notices).
2. Review the Seasonal Notice Draft banner at the top of the notices list. Inspect the seasonal rationale, cited bylaws, and past meeting motions.
3. Click Preview Draft to read the generated announcement text.
4. If the draft meets your building’s current needs, click Publish Now to immediately issue the notice to all residents.
5. To customize wording or adjust the category, click Review & Edit, modify the subject or content in the review dialog, and save or publish.
6. If the proposed topic is not applicable this season, click Dismiss to remove the banner.
7. You can also ask eConcierge to "draft this month's seasonal notice", change its wording, send it or dismiss it. It shows the draft's full text and who will receive it before anything is sent.

How to Review and Action Bylaw Violations

Manage noise complaints, parking violations, and bylaw infractions with strict procedural fairness.

1. Go to Management > Violations.
2. Review incoming complaints submitted by residents or concierge staff.
3. Issue an official Warning Notice to the strata lot owner detailing the alleged infraction and applicable bylaw clause.
4. Allow the owner statutory time to respond in writing or request a council hearing.
5. If substantiated, vote on levying an approved fine in accordance with registered bylaws.

How to Execute a Post-AGM Council Handover

Transition council leadership post-election with officer designations, a custody transfer checklist, and a dual e-signed Transfer of Custody certificate (a council record, not a statutory form).

1. Navigate to Management > Council Continuity (/[building]/management/council/continuity) or Handover (/[building]/management/council/handover).
2. Click Post-AGM Handover Wizard (COUNCIL_TRANSITION_MANAGE).
3. Starting from an AGM's Elections tab (Start council handover) fills in the owners elected at that AGM as the incoming council.
4. Step 1 (Election Review): Confirm election term year, effective date, and review outgoing council members. Only members of the outgoing term can be marked as stepping down. On your building's first transition there is no outgoing term, so removing a current council member's access is a role removal: it waits for another manager's approval if your building requires approval for removing manager roles, and happens straight away if it doesn't. The same applies to outgoing members of a transition you record without linking the AGM or special general meeting whose council election it came from, where your building requires that approval. The election must have been decided after the current term began and not already used for a term, and the incoming council must be everyone it elected plus only current members who weren't on the ballot (their seats weren't up); then the handover removes the access of members who stood and lost straight away. Outgoing members never decide each other's removal, and officers the handover itself seats never decide its removals: if nobody else can, the removal waits. A removal already waiting for an incoming member blocks the handover unless the election elected them (it is then cancelled) or they are a continuing member whose seat wasn't up (it keeps waiting). The final screen lists each removal and whether it is waiting for approval, and why any was refused. You need permission to remove manager roles to record a transition that removes anyone's access without a linked election.
5. Step 2 (Officer Designation): Add elected council members and assign officer roles (PRESIDENT, VICE_PRESIDENT, TREASURER, SECRETARY, MEMBER_AT_LARGE). Owners elect council members, and council elects its officers at its first meeting (in British Columbia, Standard Bylaw 13), so members filled in from an election start as member-at-large.
6. Step 3 (Permission Preview): Inspect granted and scheduled capability revocations.
7. Step 4 (Custody Certificate Signoff): Review the custody checklist (bank signing authority, physical keys/fobs, vendor contracts, digital administration, and physical records).
8. Submit transition to dispatch dual e-signature custody certificates via SignWell.

How to Use Council Records & the Emergency Toolkit

Centralize permanent strata memory across council election cycles under BC Strata Property Act s. 35.

1. Navigate to Management > Council Continuity (/[building]/management/council/continuity).
2. Council Roster & History tab: View active term roster, elected officers, and download signed Custody Certificates.
3. Equipment & Shutdowns tab: Inspect mechanical asset registry and click View Emergency Shutdown Procedure for step-by-step shutoff protocols and valve tags.
4. Vendor Contracts Vault tab: Gated by VENDOR_CONTRACT_MANAGE. Monitor vendor agreements and auto-renewal cancellation deadline countdowns.
5. Emergency Handover Toolkit tab: Download offline Council Binder (PDF), Printable Emergency Trade Card (PDF), and Smartphone Contacts (.vcf).

How to Vote on Written Resolutions and Read the Council Binder (Mobile App) (Strata Council & Property Managers)

Vote on a council written resolution between meetings, and read the handover binder, from your phone. Requires the Manage motions and votes capability for resolutions and View council orientation and handover briefings for the binder.

1. Open Meetings and tap Written resolutions. Filter by Open, Passed, Rejected or Expired; each resolution shows its decision rule, when voting closes, and your vote if you have cast one.
2. Tap a resolution to read the motion, the vote tally and who has voted.
3. While voting is open, add an optional note and tap In favour, Against or Abstain, then confirm. You can change your vote until voting closes. Under unanimous consent, one vote against rejects the resolution.
4. Add to the Deliberation thread at the bottom of the resolution to discuss it with the rest of council.
5. When a resolution has passed, tap Open record to view its record.
6. To read the handover binder, open Meetings and tap Council binder. It lists the current council, building profile, emergency shutoffs, finances, maintenance, key contacts and upcoming compliance deadlines. Tap Download binder (PDF) to save or share the full binder.

Pro-Tip: Proposing a written resolution, the post-AGM handover wizard and vendor contracts are on the web.

How to Complete the Interactive Council Orientation Walkthrough

Self-paced 5-domain operational briefing for newly elected council members.

1. Click Orientation Walkthrough on the Management or Continuity page.
2. Review Domain 1 (Building Profile): Strata plan number, unit counts, warranty milestones, and primary shutoff locations.
3. Review Domain 2 (Financial Posture): Operating and CRF balances, statutory 10% CRF contribution rule compliance, and arrears.
4. Review Domain 3 (Active Maintenance): Open work orders, urgent priorities, pending contractor quotes, and capital projects.
5. Review Domain 4 (Key Contacts): Master strata insurance broker, deductibles, and 24/7 emergency trades.
6. Review Domain 5 (Compliance Runway): 30/60/90-day deadlines from the building's Compliance Calendar.
7. Click Mark Orientation Complete on Domain 5 to certify completion.

Key Concepts & Building Policies

Fiduciary Duty & Transparency

Council members must act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the strata corporation. Pastrata provides full audit logging on all management actions and financial approvals.

Institutional Knowledge Preservation

Volunteer council turnover often causes loss of passwords, untracked vendor auto-renewals, and misplaced mechanical shutoff protocols. The Council Records page ensures operational records belong permanently to the strata corporation under BC Strata Property Act s. 35, independent of individual council turnover.

Frequently Asked Questions & Troubleshooting

How do new council members get assigned their role?

Following the AGM election, council officers are officially designated using the Post-AGM Council Handover Wizard (/[building]/management/council/handover). Granular capabilities are granted automatically based on elected roles.

Can council members access emergency handover documents offline?

Yes. The Emergency Handover Toolkit tab of Council Records allows generating a self-contained Council Binder PDF and Emergency Trade Card PDF that can be stored offline or printed for physical mechanical rooms.

Related Guides

• Governance & Meetings
• Finances & Strata Fees
• Bylaw AI & Documents
• Maintenance & Assets
• Vendor Projects: From Council Decision to Paid Vendor