When Katharine Olson, founder of Groundbreaking Strata, meets someone new, she gets one of two reactions without fail: “I could never do your job” or “I hate my strata.” As she puts it, both responses usually come from the same root cause—most people have no idea what strata actually is.
In a refreshingly candid conversation with Thomas Beattie, co-founder and CEO of OctoAI Technologies, Katharine pulled back the curtain on the realities of strata living. What emerged was part education, part therapy session, and entirely relatable for anyone who’s ever wondered “what is the freaking deal with strata?”
Strata 101: It’s Not Lego, Unfortunately
Let’s start with the basics. “A strata is just a big grown-up word that means y’all share the building and y’all take care of it together.” In legalese terms, it’s a legal corporation created when a developer files a strata plan at the Land Title Office. Every owner becomes a member automatically—there’s no “them,” only “us”.
This might be the most important thing Katharine wants people to understand. When people say “oh, I hate my strata,” she responds with: “oh, okay. Kind of uncomfortable, but you hate yourselves, kind of”. Because that’s what it is; you ARE the strata.
“You can’t think of strata as a bunch of detached homes that are stacked or placed adjacent. It is literally something else, completely different. It’s a living ecosystem, people and policies together. It’s not building blocks. It’s not Lego, unfortunately. I wish it was.”
Katharine brings impressive credentials to this discussion. She grew up immersed in strata management through her family, built a diverse career spanning property management and Fortune 500 retail leadership, and now shapes industry training programs as an instructor and speaker. Thomas complements this with his technology perspective—OctoAI’s Eli Report has delivered over 25,000 strata document reports to approximately 7,000 users across North America.
Why Is Everything So Complicated?
Between a quarter and a third of British Columbia’s population lives in stratas, and 99% of them don’t know how it works. As Katharine playfully points out, this isn’t because people are being willfully careless or difficult: “It’s because no one ever taught them. There was no strata economics in high school that I’m aware of”.
Strata communities are inherently complex:
- Diverse populations bring different views, cultures, and priorities.
- Evolving needs: The Strata Property Act is decades old, while modern issues like Airbnb, EV chargers, and new technologies have added layers of complexity.
- Lack of education: Most owners and council members were never taught about strata governance.
So you know what happens? The decisions and the conflicts drag on, owners and councils start to check out and insulate from each other, and things start to fall apart.
The Reality Check: Meet Your Unpaid, Untrained Volunteers
If you’ve ever browsed strata Facebook pages or Reddit, you’ll notice a definitive theme: “our council is the worst”. But here’s the reality check these frustrated owners need.
“Strata councils are unpaid, untrained volunteers elected from within the ownership. They’re dealing with legal, financial, building systems, and people problems—everything all at once. No off switch, no backup usually. They are being accosted in the mail room, in the lobby, in the gym. That doesn’t sound like a job that I want, you know?” Katharine observes. Said like that, it’s no wonder strata managers are seeing it’s harder and harder to get people to want to join councils.
The motivations vary widely. Some join genuinely wanting to help their community. Others join because they want to get their renovation approved, or push through something they like, or get their cousin’s company hired for a contract.
But perhaps the most amusing category is the well-meaning newcomers who experience what Katharine calls “the Wizard of Oz moment”:
People who are well-meaning join the council all gung-ho, and then they get behind the veil, like with the Wizard of Oz. And they’re like, oh my god. He’s not a wizard. He’s just a man. And then they realize there’s no magic thing. There’s no ‘us.’ The council’s just people, and we just have more work to do.
“I always find that really amusing when I see that light in their eyes—oh, the realization hits at a council meeting. Not gonna lie, as a strata manager that’s fought against certain dynamics, when I see that realization in their eyes, I do have a little bit of personal satisfaction.”
Realities of strata councils:
- Motivations vary: Some join to help, others for personal interests or to fill time.
- The shock factor: Even well-meaning members are often surprised by the workload and lack of “magic solutions.”
- Egos and politics: Grudges can linger, but ultimately, the council serves the greater good as a nonprofit community group.
Three Things Every Strata Owner Needs to Know
1. Who Does What? (Or: The Great Light Bulb Mystery)
Straight up, a lot of problems in strata are just that people don’t know who does what. Katharine’s favorite example perfectly illustrates the chaos:
“The hallway light’s been out for three weeks. Somebody thinks it’s the council’s job. Council thinks the caretaker’s doing it. The caretaker thinks an electrician’s being called out. The owners are bitching to each other in the mail room. There’s an angry Facebook thread starting about how the strata never fixes anything, but nobody’s emailed the strata manager and the light is still out. And that’s just one light bulb.”
That’s just one light bulb she emphasizes, letting the absurdity sink in. Confusion over roles leads to problems, and stratas work better if everyone understands their responsibilities.
2. Why Meetings Matter (Even Though They’re Terrible)
Strata meetings often somehow manage to be both boring and anxiety-inducing. So it’s a really wonderful combination.
Despite this, Katharine draws a brilliant analogy to that Adam Sandler movie Click, where he uses the remote to fast forward through all the boring parts of his life: the arguments, traffic, family stuff. Spoiler: at the end of the story, he realizes that those boring parts were where the actual living happens.
That’s what strata meetings are. They’re the boring parts and they’re the place where matters get decided. So necessary evil, maybe, but super important, honestly.
Here’s the legal reality: decisions made outside of properly called meetings through email chains, group chats on WhatsApp or Slack aren’t valid until they’re ratified in meeting minutes. If it’s not in the minutes, it didn’t happen in the eyes of the court.
The irony? Some of the loudest people in email are some of the least present in person. Katharine believes that if people could just get in front of each other once a year at least and speak their truth in a respectful way, most stratas could be far more productive than they are right now. Just that one change alone.
On strata meetings:
- Strata meetings are consequential, not just administrative.
- Decisions must be made at properly called meetings and recorded in minutes as otherwise, they’re not legally valid.
- Owners should attend at least the annual general meeting (AGM) to have a voice.
3. Where Your Fees Go
Strata fees aren’t just abstract numbers. Price is not king. Can we please get rid of that? Money is about trust and priorities, especially when it comes to stratas.
Most fee issues aren’t about mismanagement, they’re about mistiming or misalignment. The biggest problem? A lot of strata councils fail financially because they don’t even look at what’s coming down the pipe or how they plan to get there in terms of what they’re going to save.
“There’s no strata lottery. That’s how I feel sometimes people are acting. They’re like, oh, we’ll just try to push this until we can sell, and no one will notice our building’s falling down, and we’ll somehow still get our current value even though the building’s falling down around us. Does that make sense? I don’t think so.”
On condo / strata fees:
- Strata fees reflect trust and priorities, not just numbers.
- Proactive budgeting, reading depreciation reports, and realistic planning are key to financial health.
Technology Meets Tradition: OctoAI on Innovation
Thomas brings a tech perspective to these age-old problems. His company created Eli Report after a simple observation: “when you bought a used car you got a Carfax report of its history, but when you spent a million dollars on a condo, you got hundreds of pages of noise”.
Eli Report uses extractive intelligence rather than relying exclusively on generative AI to avoid the problem where “when artificial intelligence doesn’t know something, it’s very happy to make something up”. The tool has now delivered over 30,000 reports to over 7,000 users across North America, demonstrating real market demand for transparency in strata transactions.
Moving Forward: Practical Advice with Compassion
Both experts emphasize that if you’re in the world of strata, you’re not alone. Don’t feel like you have to know everything. It’s really hard. And it’s normal to feel a little lost when it comes to strata.
The industry, meaning owners and professionals, have an entire alphabet of associations—CHOA, CCI, VISOA, PAMA, BOMA—and they exist for a reason. Reach out. Get those reputable guides. Try their help lines. Ask weird questions even if you’re embarrassed by them.
For councils specifically: Assign learning as a group. This is not homework. Strata managers and councils have to see this as strategy for their corporation.
For owners who want to get more involved: Show up. Hold space for accountability in yourself. Don’t go in guns blazing trying to blame everyone else. Go in with curiosity and compassion and ask questions and seek to learn. Read the documents that everyone is avoiding reading and speak up and do something before there’s a crisis in your building.
When it comes to switching management companies, Katharine’s advice is refreshingly practical: Don’t attack. Don’t go on the offense. Try defensively, with curiosity and compassion, to talk to your strata manager. Look, what can we do? How can we get to a better place? She warns that there’s a lot of knowledge lost between management companies, and notes the irony that “you hated Bob the manager. Well, guess what? He just left that brokerage, and now he’s at the brokerage you’re switching to”.
The Bottom Line: It’s Complicated, But You’re Not Alone
Strata living is challenging, but with education, participation, and empathy, it can be deeply rewarding. As Katharine puts it:
- Don’t expect to know everything.
- Lean on the community and professional resources.
- Show up, stay curious, and be proactive! Your building (and your neighbors) will thank you.
The conversation between these two experts reveals that behind all the complexity, legal requirements, and volunteer drama, strata living ultimately comes down to people figuring out how to live together. It’s not always about being right (as Katharine admits she has had to remind herself plenty of times) it’s about responsibility.
Whether you’re the person complaining about the light bulb in the Facebook group or the overwhelmed council member being accosted in the gym, remember: there’s no “them.” It’s us. And sometimes, that realization is exactly what makes it work.
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