What did BC Bill 44 (2022) change about strata rental and age restrictions?

Direct answer

Bill 44 took effect on November 24, 2022 and voided every strata bylaw in BC that stopped an owner from renting out their unit. Its full name is the Building and Strata Statutes Amendment Act, 2022, and it is not the 2023 Bill 44 that brought in small-scale multi-unit housing. It also struck down most age restrictions. The only age bylaw a strata can still enforce is one requiring at least one resident of the lot to be 55 or older; 19+, 45+ and every other threshold is unenforceable. That bylaw binds residents rather than owners, so someone under 55 can own a unit in a 55+ building without being able to live in it, and the regulation exempts anyone already living there when the bylaw passed, a live-in caregiver, a younger spouse, and children including adult children. What Bill 44 left alone is short-term rentals: a strata can still ban stays under 30 days by bylaw, and most do. Pet, smoking and other quality-of-life bylaws were untouched. For investors: a strata that bought into a "no-rental" rule pre-2022 lost that restriction overnight, opening up rental supply but also eroding owner-occupier "lifestyle" expectations. For buyers reviewing Form B: rental restrictions on the bylaws filed before November 2022 are obsolete; only short-term-rental restrictions and the narrow 55+ exception remain enforceable.