If you’re going through an insurance renewal this year, your broker has almost certainly asked whether your strata has a current depreciation report. There’s a reason that question keeps coming up, and the short version is: in the BC strata insurance market, a recent report is one of the very few pieces of paper that materially changes how an underwriter prices your risk.

This isn’t a sales pitch. It’s a current, hard-market reality that most council members find out the unpleasant way — by getting a renewal quote that’s 30% higher and a broker who can’t push back because they have nothing to push with.

The market context, briefly

BC’s strata insurance market hardened sharply in 2018–19. Premiums roughly doubled in two years on many buildings, deductibles climbed from $25,000 to $250,000–$500,000, and some carriers exited the segment entirely. The Province responded with legislative changes in 2020–21, but the underwriting market itself only partially settled. As of 2026, capacity is back but discipline is high — every renewal is re-underwritten, and the path to a flat-or-better renewal goes through documentation.

A depreciation report is one of the two or three documents that consistently moves a quote. The others are a current building-envelope review and a clean three-year claims history. You can’t do much about claims you’ve already had. You can produce a current depreciation report.

What underwriters actually do with it

A modern BC strata underwriter is trying to answer three questions: how big is the exposure, how well is it managed, and how predictable are the next five years? Your depreciation report speaks to all three.

• Asset register. The report inventories major systems — roof, envelope, plumbing, mechanical, elevators — with current condition and remaining useful life. That gives the underwriter a much sharper read on the building than a generic occupancy code.
• Replacement cost reality-check. The cost estimating in the report flags where the strata is materially under-insured. Buildings whose insured value hasn’t been refreshed since 2019 are routinely 30–50% under current replacement cost in 2026 dollars; the underwriter would rather know now.
• CRF posture. The Contingency Reserve Fund scenarios tell the underwriter whether the strata is funding for the work that’s coming. A council with a credible CRF plan signals lower future-claims risk than a council that’s going to defer roof replacement until something fails.
• Council operating signal. A strata with a current report, a thoughtful CRF, and documented capital planning reads as a well-run risk. That’s a soft factor, but in this market every soft factor matters.

A report that’s older than five years (or missing entirely) signals the opposite: nobody has looked rigorously at what this building’s next ten years cost. That’s not what the underwriter wants to see.

What pages your broker actually asks for

You don’t typically hand over the whole report. Most BC brokers want a specific subset:

• The executive summary (1–3 pages)
• The asset register / major component schedule (5–15 pages)
• The 30-year cost projection with assumptions
• The CRF scenarios (three scenarios is the BC regulatory minimum)
• The replacement-cost summary if your provider included one

If you have a recent building envelope review or a mechanical certification that supplements the depreciation report, send those too. Underwriters reward documentation.

How to use a current report at renewal

Three concrete things councils that handle this well tend to do.

1. Get the report into the broker’s hands 60 days before renewal. Not 10. The broker needs time to assemble the submission and shop it; the underwriter needs time to read it. Same-week submissions get same-week shrugs.

2. Volunteer a short summary memo. One page from the council president or treasurer that says: “We commissioned this report in [date], we adopted Scenario 2 with annual CRF contributions of $X, and our 5-year capital plan is [3 bullets].” That memo gets read first and frames the report.

3. Ask for the renewal commentary, not just the price. A good broker will share what the underwriter actually said about the building. That’s the most useful feedback your council will get all year, and it costs nothing.

What if you don’t have a current report

If your last report is from 2019 or earlier — or you’ve never had one — and your renewal is more than 90 days away, getting a current report between now and then is the single highest-leverage move you can make on the renewal. Even a draft report can be included in the submission.

If your renewal is in the next 60 days, you’ve missed the window for this cycle. Note in the submission that a report is in progress (with a delivery date and a provider name), and put the cycle into your next renewal.

A note on what this isn’t

A depreciation report is not an insurance appraisal, and a competent underwriter knows that. The replacement-cost numbers in the report are good for planning — but if your insurance limits haven’t been formally appraised in five years, you may still need a stand-alone insurance valuation. Ask your broker.

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If your strata is one of the many on the Lower Mainland staring down the July 2026 depreciation-report deadline and a 2026 insurance renewal in the same window, treat the two as one project. The report that satisfies the regulation is the same report that anchors the renewal submission. There’s a planning win there if you sequence it right.

If you’d like quotes from qualified providers, our matching service is the fastest path.