The condo corporation's insurance policy is one of the least understood documents a Canadian unit owner is bound by. It decides who pays for a burst pipe, a flooded unit below yours, a kitchen fire, and it does so through a number most owners never see: the deductible. When a corporation claims on its policy, the insurer pays the loss above the deductible and the corporation absorbs the rest. In most buildings the corporation recovers that absorbed amount from owners as a common expense. But when the loss started inside one owner's unit, the law of the province often lets the corporation send the whole deductible to that owner instead, and the amount can run to tens of thousands of dollars.
This explainer sets out the three provincial regimes side by side: Ontario's Condominium Act, 1998, British Columbia's Strata Property Act, and the co-ownership rules of the Civil Code of Québec. It reads each rule from the province's own legislation site on 2026-10-06, explains what the corporation's policy covers and leaves out, and maps each gap to the unit-owner coverage that answers it. It is information, not legal or insurance advice. Corporations can have by-laws that go beyond the statute, and your own declaration and by-laws control. To price an owner's own policy, start with the home insurance estimator, which treats condo as one of its home types.
Two policies, one building
Every condominium or strata home in Canada sits under two separate insurance contracts. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) puts it plainly: coverage is provided by two policies, and the corporation's policy does not cover your personal contents, improvements to your unit, or your liability. The corporation's policy typically covers the buildings shown on the plan, common property such as hallways, roof, pools and garages, fixtures built or installed as part of the original or standard construction, the corporation's own assets, and its liability to others for property damage and bodily injury.
Your own policy, which IBC calls a unit owner's policy, typically covers personal property, additional living expenses if you must move out after an insured loss, personal liability, upgrades and improvements made by you and previous owners up to a stated limit, "contingency" coverage in case the corporation's insurance is insufficient, and "loss assessment" coverage. IBC describes loss assessment as paying your share, up to a stated limit and sometimes subject to its own deductible, of a major property or liability loss on common property that exceeds the corporation's policy limit. That last coverage is the one most people have never heard of, and it is the one that interacts with the deductible chargeback.
| Layer | Corporation's policy | Your unit-owner policy |
|---|---|---|
| Building, common property, standard unit | Yes: required by statute in all three provinces | No, except the gaps below |
| Improvements and upgrades (flooring, custom kitchen) | No: carved out in Ontario (s. 99(4)) and Quebec (art. 1073); BC covers only original-construction fixtures | Yes: improvements or betterments coverage, up to a stated limit |
| Personal contents | No | Yes |
| Your liability to others | No (the corporation insures its own liability) | Yes: personal liability coverage; mandatory in Quebec |
| Living elsewhere after an insured loss | No | Yes: additional living expenses |
| Corporation's deductible charged to you | Not applicable: it is the charge | Maybe: depends on the loss assessment wording and its sub-limit |
| Special levy when the loss exceeds the policy limit | Not applicable | Maybe: loss assessment coverage, up to a stated limit |
Sources: IBC, Types of home coverage; Condominium Act, 1998 (Ontario) s. 99; Strata Property Act (BC) ss. 149 and 161; Civil Code of Québec arts. 1064.1 and 1073, all read 2026-10-06. The last two rows are the open ones: whether a given policy answers them is a question of wording, which this post cannot see.
Ontario: the Condominium Act, 1998
What the corporation must insure
Section 99(1) of the Condominium Act, 1998 requires the corporation to obtain and maintain insurance, on its own behalf and on behalf of the owners, for damage to the units and common elements caused by major perils or any other perils the declaration or by-laws specify. Section 99(2) defines major perils as fire, lightning, smoke, windstorm, hail, explosion, water escape, strikes, riots or civil commotion, impact by aircraft or vehicles, and vandalism or malicious acts. Water escape is in that list, and it is the peril behind most of the large claims discussed below. Section 99(3) makes an exclusion ineffective for damage resulting from faulty or improper material, workmanship or design that the policy would otherwise insure, and s. 99(7) says that, subject to a reasonable deductible, the insurance must cover replacement cost.
The corporation does not insure everything inside your unit. Section 99(4) says the obligation to insure does not include improvements made to a unit, and s. 99(5) says that what counts as an improvement is decided by reference to a standard unit for the class of unit. Under s. 99(6), the standard unit is the one described in a by-law the board has made under clause 56(1)(h), or, if there is no such by-law, the one described in the schedule to the declaration. The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) explains the consequence: the standard unit definition says which part of your unit is the corporation's responsibility to repair and insure; generally it includes walls, doors and plumbing, while appliances and flooring tend to be non-standard elements that owners must insure and repair themselves. Without a standard unit definition, the CAO warns, a corporation may be liable for additional damages and face higher premiums.
The chargeback: section 105
Section 105 is the deductible section, and it has four moving parts. Subsection (1) is the default: if the corporation's policy has a deductible clause that limits what the insurer pays, the excluded portion of the loss is a common expense, so every owner bears it through their monthly fees in proportion to their share. Subsection (2) is the chargeback: if an owner, a lessee of an owner, or a person living in the owner's unit with the owner's permission or knowledge causes damage to the owner's unit through an act or omission, "the lesser of the cost of repairing the damage and the deductible limit" is added to the common expenses payable for that unit. Subsection (3) lets the corporation pass a by-law to extend the circumstances in subsection (2), provided the damage was not caused by the corporation or its directors, officers, agents or employees. Subsection (4) says the amount an owner owes under s. 105 or under such a by-law is an insurable interest of the owner, which is the statutory hook for an owner's own policy to cover it.
Three details matter. First, the trigger in s. 105(2) is an act or omission that causes damage; the text does not use the word negligence, and it covers tenants and occupants as well as the owner. Second, the amount is capped twice: it cannot exceed the repair cost of the damage, and it cannot exceed the deductible limit. Third, as written, subsection (2) is about damage to the owner's own unit. The CAO explains that corporations commonly have by-laws that extend the circumstances in which owners pay the corporation's deductible, and gives as the usual example an owner who causes damage to other units and the common elements through negligence, such as a major flood affecting many units. That extension is exactly what s. 105(3) authorizes, and it is why you must read your own by-laws, not only the Act.
Section 105.1 adds a disclosure duty: subject to the regulations, the board must give owners a notice with information about the corporation's insurance under ss. 39, 99, 102 and 105. Section 106 says that if an insurance policy term or the Insurance Act conflicts with the Condominium Act, the Condominium Act prevails.
British Columbia: the Strata Property Act
Part 9 of the Strata Property Act (current to 2026-09-22 on BC Laws when read) sets the insurance duties. Section 149 requires the strata corporation to obtain and maintain property insurance on common property, common assets, buildings shown on the strata plan, and fixtures built or installed on a strata lot if the owner developer installed them as part of the original construction. The insurance must be on a full replacement value basis, except in prescribed circumstances, and must insure against major perils set out in the regulations and any other perils specified in the bylaws. Section 150 requires liability insurance. Section 154 requires the corporation to review its insurance annually, report on it at each annual general meeting, and inform owners and tenants as soon as feasible of any material change, including any increase in an insurance deductible. Section 155 makes the owners, tenants and normal occupants named insureds on the corporation's policy.
The deductible: section 158
Section 158(1) makes the payment of an insurance deductible a common expense, contributed to through strata fees. Section 158(2) says that does not limit the corporation's capacity to sue an owner to recover the deductible portion of a claim "if the owner is responsible for the loss or damage that gave rise to the claim." Section 158(3) removes a procedural hurdle: despite any other section, the corporation does not need an owner vote to approve a special levy, or an expenditure from the contingency reserve fund, to cover an insurance deductible it must pay to repair or replace damaged property, unless the corporation has decided not to repair under s. 159.
Responsibility is the operative word, and the BC government is explicit about how low the bar is. Its owner-and-tenant insurance page states that a strata owner can be deemed responsible, and required to pay the corporation's insurance deductible, even if not at fault or negligent, and gives the example of a dishwasher water hose that prematurely breaks and overflows. The BC Real Estate Association (BCREA), in a 2019 Legally Speaking column by lawyer Mike Mangan, reports two cases that show both ends of the range. In Strata Plan VR360 v. Jauhar, 2016 BCPC 238, a plugged toilet caused water damage of about C$50,000 and the corporation charged back its C$10,000 deductible; the court confirmed the owner's liability and no negligence was needed. In Strata Plan LMS 2446 v. Morrison, 2011 BCPC 519, the bylaw required an act, omission, negligence or carelessness, so the higher standard applied, and the court found negligence and ordered the owner to pay a C$25,000 deductible on C$42,538 of damage. A corporation can therefore raise the standard by bylaw, but the default in the Act is responsibility, not fault.
Two points distinguish BC from Ontario in the text read. First, s. 158(2) lets the corporation recover "the deductible portion" of the claim; unlike Ontario's s. 105(2), the wording read contains no lesser-of rule tying the charge to the repair cost. The 2019 BCREA column notes the British Columbia Law Institute's strata insurance committee had recommended such a rule and a standard bylaw requiring owners to carry insurance for the deductible; the current Act as read on BC Laws contains neither, and the Strata Property Regulation consolidation (B.C. Reg. 43/2000, current to 2026-09-29) has no provision that uses the word deductible. Second, the sums at stake are larger. The BC government's owner insurance page says strata corporation deductibles can range from C$100,000 to C$750,000 or higher, and that owner insurance can cover some or all of the cost of the strata deductible.
Quebec: the Civil Code and the syndicate
In a Quebec divided co-ownership the insurer's counterparty is the syndicate of co-owners. Article 1073 of the Civil Code of Québec, read on LégisQuébec on 2026-10-06, says the syndicate has an insurable interest in the whole immovable, including the private portions, and must take out insurance against ordinary risks providing for a reasonable deductible and covering the whole immovable, except improvements made by a co-owner to their portion where they can be identified against the description of that portion. The insured amount must cover reconstruction in accordance with the standards, usage and good practice of the time, and it must be evaluated at least every five years by a member of a professional order designated by regulation. The syndicate must also carry liability insurance for itself, its directors and manager, and the officers of the general meeting. The government may by regulation determine when a deductible is unreasonable, and an insurance contract entered into by a syndicate covers, by operation of law, at least the risks prescribed by regulation unless the policy expressly excludes them.
The 2018 reform, introduced by Bill 141 and phased in between 2018 and 2022 (the Ordre des évaluateurs agréés du Québec appraiser requirement, the liability-insurance minimums and the self-insurance fund each came into force on a different date, as the Organisme d'autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec, OACIQ, sets out), changed three things for owners. It made each co-owner buy liability insurance, it required the syndicate to build a self-insurance fund for the deductible, and it required a description of private portions so that improvements can be identified. Under the regulation (CCQ, r. 4.1), the minimum liability insurance each co-owner must take out under art. 1064.1 is C$1,000,000 if the immovable has fewer than 13 fractions used or usable as dwellings or to operate an enterprise, and C$2,000,000 if it has 13 or more. The minimum risks the syndicate's policy must cover include theft, fire, lightning, storms, hail, explosions, water leak damage, sewer backup and overflows from appliances connected to water distribution piping within the building, strikes, riots or civil disturbances, aircraft or vehicle impact, and vandalism or malicious acts.
Who pays the deductible
Article 1074.2 is the Quebec equivalent of Ontario's s. 105 and BC's s. 158, and it uses a different test from BC's. The sums the syndicate pays for deductibles and to repair injury to property in which it has an insurable interest may not be recovered from the co-owners other than through their contribution to the common expenses, subject to the damages the syndicate can obtain from the co-owner who is bound to make reparation for an injury caused by that co-owner's fault and, in the cases the Code provides, for the injury caused by the act, omission or fault of another person or by the act of things in the co-owner's custody. Any stipulation inconsistent with that rule is deemed unwritten, so a declaration of co-ownership cannot extend the chargeback the way an Ontario by-law can. Article 1074.3 makes the syndicate's insurance primary where the syndicate and a co-owner have insured the same risk on the same property, and art. 1075.1 bars the insurer from subrogating against the syndicate, a co-owner, a member of a co-owner's household, or the persons whose liability the syndicate must insure, except for bodily or moral injury or an intentional or gross fault.
The co-owner's own liability insurance is the practical answer to a claim of this kind. If you are bound to make reparation for a leak, whether through your fault or in one of the other cases the Code provides, the syndicate recovers its deductible from you, and your art. 1064.1 liability policy, with its C$1,000,000 or C$2,000,000 minimum, is what responds. Where no co-owner is bound to make reparation, the deductible falls on all co-owners through the common expenses, and Quebec has built a fund to absorb it. Article 1071.1 requires the syndicate to hold a self-insurance fund that is liquid and available on short notice, used to pay the deductibles and to make reparation where the contingency fund or an insurance indemnity cannot. Article 1072 includes the fund in the annual common expense contribution. Section 2 of the regulation sets the minimum yearly contribution: if the fund holds half of the highest deductible or less, the contribution equals half of that deductible; if it holds more than half, the contribution is the difference between that deductible and the fund balance; at or above the highest deductible, no contribution is required. The earthquake and flood deductible is not counted. Where the minimum contribution would lift the fund above C$100,000, the contribution may be lowered, but not below the amount that leaves the fund at C$100,000 or more, so C$100,000 is a floor on the fund's size, not a cap.
| Fund balance | Rule applied (CCQ, r. 4.1, s. 2) | Minimum contribution that year | Per fraction, 40 equal fractions |
|---|---|---|---|
| C$0 | At or below half the deductible: half the deductible | C$12,500 | C$312.50 |
| C$12,500 | At half: still half the deductible | C$12,500 | C$312.50 |
| C$18,000 | Above half: deductible minus balance | C$7,000 | C$175.00 |
| C$25,000 or more | At or above the deductible | None required | C$0 |
Illustration of the regulation's three-case formula using a hypothetical C$25,000 highest deductible and 40 fractions of equal relative value; real contributions are shared by relative value of fractions and a syndicate may set aside more than the minimum. Source: CCQ, r. 4.1 and Civil Code art. 1072, read 2026-10-06 on LégisQuébec.
The three provinces side by side
| Question | Ontario (Condominium Act, 1998) | British Columbia (Strata Property Act) | Quebec (Civil Code) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default: who bears the deductible | Common expense (s. 105(1)) | Common expense via strata fees (s. 158(1)) | Common expenses, with a self-insurance fund (arts. 1071.1, 1072) |
| When can it be recovered from one owner | Owner, lessee or occupant causes damage to the owner's unit by act or omission, added to the unit's common expenses (s. 105(2)); more by by-law (s. 105(3)) | Strata may sue an owner who is responsible for the loss or damage (s. 158(2)); no negligence needed by default; a direct charge to the owner's account depends on a bylaw | Co-owner bound to make reparation: fault, or the act of another person or of a thing in the co-owner's custody in the Code's cases (art. 1074.2) |
| Cap on the charge | Lesser of repair cost and deductible limit (s. 105(2)) | The deductible portion; no lesser-of rule in the text read | Damages for the injury; fault-based |
| Can the corporation change it | Yes, by by-law, within s. 105(3) | Yes, bylaws can raise the standard (Morrison) | No: inconsistent clauses are deemed unwritten |
| Special-levy procedure for the deductible | Common expense | No owner vote needed (s. 158(3)) | Board must consult the general meeting before a special contribution (art. 1072.1) |
| Owner's mandatory insurance | Not required by the Act; corporation may require it | Not required by the Act; strongly advised by the Province | Liability insurance, C$1,000,000 or C$2,000,000 minimum |
| What the corporation's policy leaves to you | Improvements beyond the standard unit (s. 99(4)) | Non-original fixtures, improvements, contents, liability | Identifiable improvements (art. 1073) |
Sources: Condominium Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 19, ss. 99, 105 and 105.1; Strata Property Act, SBC 1998, c. 43, ss. 149 to 162, and the BC government's Strata owner and tenant insurance page (published 2025-07-23); Civil Code of Québec arts. 1064.1, 1071.1, 1072, 1072.1, 1073, 1074.2 and 1075.1 and CCQ, r. 4.1; BCREA Legally Speaking #515 (2019-06-20). All read 2026-10-06.
Which unit-owner coverage answers which gap
Each provincial rule leaves a specific gap, and each gap maps to a coverage line on your own policy. The mapping below uses the labels IBC and the BC government use; actual endorsement names and limits vary by insurer, so show your broker the corporation's insurance summary and ask each question below by name.
- Improvements ("betterments") coverage. Answers the carve-out for improvements in Ontario's s. 99(4) and Quebec's art. 1073, and BC's limit to original-construction fixtures in s. 149(1)(d). IBC lists upgrades and improvements by you and previous owners, up to a stated limit, and an optional "owner's increased improvement" coverage for upgrades that may exceed standard limits. In Ontario the standard unit definition decides what is an improvement, so get the definition before you pick a limit.
- Personal liability. Answers the fault-based or responsibility-based claim from a neighbour or the corporation. In Quebec it is compulsory, with a C$1,000,000 minimum for buildings of fewer than 13 fractions and C$2,000,000 for 13 or more. In BC, s. 161(1)(e) expressly lets an owner insure liability for property damage and bodily injury occurring on the strata lot or the common property.
- Loss assessment. Answers the special levy (a special assessment, in Ontario) when a loss exceeds the corporation's limit, per IBC, and is the line most likely to answer a deductible chargeback. The BC government says owner insurance can cover some or all of the cost of the strata deductible, and the CAO advises Ontario owners to explore policies that cover them when the corporation asks them to pay its deductible. Ask whether the loss assessment extension applies to the corporation's deductible, what the sub-limit is, and whether it has its own deductible, which IBC says it may.
- Additional living expenses. Answers the cost of living elsewhere after an insured loss; the BC government and IBC both list it as an owner coverage, because the corporation's policy does not pay it.
- Contents. BC's guidance notes a condo policy asks for a dollar estimate of contents replacement rather than a percentage of the building's value, as a house policy does.
- Water and sewer backup, earthquake. IBC lists sewer backup, overland water and earthquake as optional coverages; the BC government lists sewer backup and earthquake among them and advises owners to ask about the cost of their earthquake deductible and their share of the corporation's earthquake insurance if the corporation has bought it.
A caution on the wording. The BC government's page says the corporation's policy does not cover paying the corporation's deductible, and that owner insurance "can" cover some or all of it, not that every policy does. A policy can offer a generous liability limit and still exclude, or sub-limit, a contractual or by-law-based charge. If your corporation has an extended chargeback by-law, an insurance reading of "liability" may not match a by-law reading of "responsibility." The question to ask is not whether you are insured for liability, but whether the policy pays an amount the corporation charges you under a statute or by-law when no one has sued you.
What to ask for before you buy a unit
The British Columbia Law Institute's strata committee, quoted in the 2019 BCREA column, observed that many strata corporations had seen their deductibles, particularly for damage caused by water ingress, rise significantly. A buyer who evaluates a building only by its monthly fee ignores the single largest contingent liability attached to the unit. The monthly fee is a known cost; the deductible is a conditional one, and it can only be sized by reading the corporation's insurance. The condo fee affordability calculator sets the fee against your income and debt service; the questions below size what the fee does not.
- Get the policy summary and the deductible schedule. In BC, a summary of the corporation's insurance must be attached to the Form B information certificate, according to the BC government. In Ontario, s. 105.1 requires the board to give owners a notice about the corporation's insurance. In Quebec, the reconstruction value must be appraised at least every five years by a designated professional. Ask for the latest appraisal and the highest deductible.
- Get the by-laws that touch the deductible. In Ontario, ask for the standard unit by-law (or the declaration schedule) and any s. 105(3) by-law. In BC, search the bylaws for a clause that charges the deductible on an act, omission, negligence or carelessness, as in Morrison. In Quebec, the Code overrides any extension, but ask for the description of private portions that identifies your improvements.
- Ask about claims history. A history of water claims tells you how often the deductible has been triggered, and whether the corporation's cover has changed. BC corporations must tell owners of an increased deductible as soon as feasible under s. 154.
- Check the reserve behind the deductible. In Quebec the self-insurance fund is a legal requirement and its balance is visible; elsewhere, a deductible without a reserve becomes a special levy. Under BC's s. 158(3) the strata can levy for it without an owner vote.
- Show your broker both documents. Then ask the questions in the previous section by name, and get the loss assessment sub-limit and any deductible in writing.
- Re-check each year. The BC government advises owners to review their coverage annually and to talk to their broker before renewal if the corporation's coverage changes.
If you are weighing a condo against a house, the deductible exposure is one of the costs that does not appear in a fee comparison. The condo vs house calculator compares ongoing ownership costs; add to it your own estimate of the unit-owner policy, and treat a chargeback as an event cost, not a monthly one.
A common misreading, and the limits of this post
The most common misreading is that the corporation's insurance covers the unit, so the unit owner need not insure much. In all three provinces the corporation's policy is built around the standard unit or the original construction, not around what you have actually installed, and it stops at the boundary the law or the declaration draws. A second misreading is that a chargeback requires negligence. In Ontario it requires an act or omission that causes damage; in BC it requires responsibility, which the Province says does not require fault; in Quebec it requires that the co-owner be bound to make reparation, through fault or one of the Code's other liability cases, such as the act of a thing in the co-owner's custody. A third is that the cap is the same everywhere. It is not: Ontario's text caps the charge at the lesser of repair cost and the deductible, and the BC text read has no such cap.
Limits. This post covers three provinces; Alberta, Nova Scotia and the others have their own condominium statutes and were not read. It covers condo and strata structures that follow the statutes cited; vacant land condominiums, common element condominiums and bare land stratas have different insurance requirements, as the CAO and BC government pages note. It does not address earthquake or flood deductibles in detail, tenant coverage, or commercial units. It reflects the statutes as they read on 2026-10-06; Ontario's e-Laws notes that the Act has amendments with future in-force dates. If your building has just had a large claim or a deductible increase, get advice from a lawyer who practises condominium law in your province.