Changing the Layout of a Small Condo: What You Can Move and What Stays

Two tests decide what can move

A part of your condo can move when it passes two tests: it holds up nothing, and it carries nothing that serves another unit. A wall, a door or a cabinet that passes both is one of the unit's own parts.

An approval step still applies under the Standard Bylaws. Standard Bylaw 5(1)(g) requires the strata's written approval before an owner alters the fixtures the original developer installed. The Strata Property Regulation defines fixtures as "items attached to a building, including floor and wall coverings and electrical and plumbing fixtures". An original wall, door or cabinet is attached to the building, so we write every request on the basis that item (g) covers it.

The two bylaws differ in how the strata may answer. For the items listed in Bylaw 5, the strata "must not unreasonably withhold its approval". Bylaw 6, which covers common property, has no matching sentence. A council has to treat a request about the unit's own parts reasonably, and it can refuse a request to change a shared pipe.

Furniture, shelving units that stand on the floor and lamps that plug in are attached to nothing. They fall outside the approval list.

What stays unless the strata agrees

Four kinds of parts are the fixed points of a small-condo plan, because each belongs partly or wholly to the building.

Standard Bylaw 8 gives the strata the duty to repair those same parts: the structure, the exterior, and the doors and windows that face outside or front on the common property.

The plan with the fewest approvals keeps the sink, the toilet, the shower, the range and the electrical panel (the box that holds the unit's main switches) at their existing connections, and moves the unit's own parts around them.

• Structure. Standard Bylaw 5(1)(a) requires written approval for an alteration that involves the structure of a building. Treat concrete walls, columns, the floor and the ceiling as structure until the building's drawings say otherwise.
• Shared pipes, wires and ducts. Under section 1 of the Strata Property Act, a pipe, wire or duct inside your unit is common property when it is capable of being used, and intended to be used, by another unit or the common property. Every wall and boxed-in corner has to be checked for one before a plan removes it.
• The entry door. Standard Bylaw 5(1)(d) lists doors that front on the common property. The door between your unit and the hallway is one of them.
• Windows. The same item lists windows on the exterior of a building, and Bylaw 5(1)(b) covers the exterior itself.

How we find out which is which before design starts

We check three things before anyone draws a new layout.

The strata plan. This is the registered drawing that shows where the unit ends. Section 68(1) of the Act puts the boundary midway through the walls, floor and ceiling that separate your unit from a neighbour or from the common property, unless the plan shows another line. The strata must keep the registered plan under section 35(2)(b), and section 36 gives an owner a copy within 2 weeks of a request.

The developer's drawings. Section 20(2)(a) of the Act required the developer to give the strata all plans that were required to obtain the building permit. It also required any document the developer held that showed the actual location of a pipe, wire or duct, where the developer had reason to believe it was placed differently from the plans. Section 35(2)(n) makes the strata keep those records. Ask for them in the same letter as the strata plan.

A small inspection hole. Where a plan depends on one wall, we ask the strata for written approval to cut a small hole in it and look inside. Wall coverings are fixtures under the regulation, so the hole needs that approval. Section 20.112 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation also requires a qualified person to inspect for hazardous materials before renovation work begins, and WorkSafeBC lists drywall among the building materials that often contained asbestos. In a unit where that inspection is still to come, the wall's materials are sampled before we cut.

Layout changes that stay inside the unit's own parts

Each change below keeps the structure, the shared services, the entry door and the windows as they are. Under the Standard Bylaws, each one still goes in the written request when it alters something the developer installed. Your building's own bylaws can ask for more, so read them first.

The last item needs a permit. Technical Safety BC, the body that runs BC's Safety Standards Act, lists installing or moving light switches or electrical outlets among the work that needs an electrical permit, and states that owners of a strata must hire a licensed contractor. Inside the City of Vancouver, the City issues the permit.

Before we place a new wall, we mark the heaters, the air vents, any fire sprinkler heads and the smoke alarms on the plan, and we draw the wall so that each one stays uncovered.

Ask the City of Vancouver whether a new or removed wall needs a building permit. We state no City rule on this page.

• Remove or shorten a wall that carries no load and holds no shared pipe, wire or duct, to join two rooms.
• Build a new wall or a half-height wall to form a sleeping area, a work corner or a closet at the entry.
• Move or widen a doorway in a wall of that kind, or change a hinged door to a sliding door.
• Rebuild a closet as built-in storage, or add storage that reaches the ceiling.
• Rearrange kitchen cabinets and counters while the sink, the range and the hood stay at their connections.
• Add or move lights, switches and outlets on the unit's own wiring.

What we put in the strata request for a layout change

The request for a layout change shows the council what was checked and what was found. Ours includes the items below.

We draw the new layout only after the three checks. If a check finds a shared pipe in a wall the plan removes, we show you two choices: a plan drawn around the pipe, or a separate request under Bylaw 6 to move it. You decide which one goes to the council.

• A floor plan of the unit as it is and a floor plan of the new layout, with each changed wall and door marked.
• For each wall to be removed or opened: how it was checked, and what was found inside it.
• A statement that the structure, the shared pipes and ducts, the entry door and the windows stay unchanged.
• The hazardous materials inspection report.
• The name of the licensed electrical contractor, if lights, switches or outlets move.