Your First Week in a New Fraser Valley Condo or Townhouse: What to Do First

Keys in hand feels like the finish line. It's actually the start of a different checklist, one nobody hands you at closing. The first week of owning a condo or townhouse involves a handful of tasks that are easy to overlook when you're focused on the moving truck, and a few of them, done in the wrong order, cost real money or time.

We walk buyers through this same short list after almost every closing. None of it is complicated. Most of it just needs to happen before the boxes start piling up, not after.

The first-week checklist at a glance, roughly in priority order:

• Book the elevator or move-in slot with the strata and confirm the move-in fee.
• Get your personal condo insurance bound and send the strata proof.
• Photograph the empty unit before anything moves in.
• Confirm which utilities the strata fee bundles, and activate the rest in your name.
• Find the in-suite water shutoff and the breaker panel.
• Update Canada Post mail forwarding, your bank, your employer, and ICBC.
• Introduce yourself to the strata manager or council.

Each item is explained below, including why the order matters.

Book the move-in before you book the movers

Most BC stratas require advance notice, and often a formal booking, of the elevator or loading dock for move-in day. Some buildings restrict moves to specific days or windows, and busy buildings can fill their move-in slots weeks ahead. Contact the strata manager or council as early as you reasonably can, ideally as soon as your possession date is confirmed, not the week before.

Ask directly what the strata needs from you before releasing elevator access or fobs. Most require proof of personal insurance in place first, which is one more reason to have your condo or strata insurance sorted before your move-in date rather than scrambling for it that morning. Confirm the move-in fee amount and how it's paid, and ask whether there's a separate deposit for potential damage to common areas during the move.

Document the unit before anything moves in

Once you have access but before furniture and boxes start arriving, walk the entire unit and photograph it, every wall, floor, cabinet, and fixture. This does two things. It protects you if the strata later claims your move caused damage to a hallway or elevator that was actually pre-existing, and it gives you a clear record of the unit's starting condition for insurance purposes.

Test that everything the seller represented as included and working, appliances, outlets, any in-suite systems, actually functions before your furniture makes it harder to check. If something's off, your realtor or lawyer can advise on next steps while you're still close enough to closing for it to be a straightforward conversation.

If the previous owner left something behind that wasn't part of the purchase contract, a piece of furniture, a leftover appliance, anything not explicitly listed as included, it technically still belongs to them. Most of the time this is minor and easily sorted through your realtor. Occasionally it's the opposite problem: something that was supposed to stay, a light fixture, window coverings, an included appliance, is missing. Either way, documenting what you find in those first walkthrough photos gives you something concrete to point to if it needs to be resolved.

Confirm utilities, and don't assume anything's included

Some Fraser Valley stratas bundle heat, hot water, or gas into the monthly strata fee. Others leave every utility, hydro, gas, water, internet, to the owner entirely. Check the strata's budget or ask the strata manager directly rather than assuming your new building works like your old rental or a previous unit you owned. We cover the full first-year cost picture, including this utilities question, in our ownership budget guide.

Whatever isn't bundled, get it activated in your name before or on possession day so there's no gap. A day or two without hydro or internet is an annoyance during a move; a longer gap because nobody called ahead is avoidable.

Internet and cable providers in the Fraser Valley sometimes need extra lead time for a new install appointment, especially in a newer building where the previous owner's account has to be fully closed out first. Call two to three weeks ahead if you can, rather than the week of your move, since install slots in busy new-construction areas can book out further than people expect.

Find the shutoffs before you need them

Every unit has an in-suite water shutoff, usually under a sink, near a water heater, or at a laundry connection, and a breaker panel somewhere in the unit. Find both in the first week, while things are calm, not during an actual emergency at 11pm when a supply line fails. This single five-minute task is the kind of thing that turns a stressful late-night problem into a manageable one.

The address-update list, prioritized

Not everything needs updating on day one, but a few things matter enough to handle in the first week. Canada Post mail forwarding keeps important mail, tax documents, bank statements, from going to your old address during the transition. Your bank and credit cards should know your new address for security and billing reasons. Your employer needs it for payroll and tax documents. Vehicle registration and your driver's licence need updating with ICBC within the timeframe BC requires.

Everything else, streaming subscriptions, loyalty programs, the dentist's office, can follow over the first month without urgency. Prioritize the government and financial pieces first.

Moving-day courtesy matters more in a shared building

A single-family move doesn't affect anyone but the people doing it. A condo or townhouse move happens in a building full of neighbours who didn't sign up for a day of hallway noise and propped-open doors. Most stratas have move-in hour restrictions for exactly this reason, often something like weekday daytime hours only, no evenings or weekends, though the specifics vary by building.

Protecting shared surfaces matters too. Some stratas require moving pads on elevator walls or floor protection in hallways during a move, sometimes as a condition of the booking itself. Ask what's expected rather than assuming a casual move is fine, since a scuffed elevator wall is exactly the kind of thing that turns into a deductible-assessment conversation later.

Introduce yourself to the strata

There's no requirement to do this, but it's worth doing anyway. A short email or conversation with the strata manager or a council member in your first month means you're not a stranger the first time you need something, a maintenance question, a renovation approval, a noise concern. Buildings run more smoothly for owners who are at least a known name, and it costs nothing but a few minutes.

Townhouses have their own version of this

If you're moving into a townhouse rather than a high-rise or low-rise condo, some of the elevator-booking urgency disappears, but it doesn't mean move-in is booking-free. Many bare-land and conventional townhouse stratas still ask for advance notice of a move-in date, and shared driveways or visitor parking can have rules about moving trucks blocking access for neighbours. A truck parked across a shared driveway for six hours on a weekday is exactly the kind of thing that generates a first noise-and-nuisance complaint before you've even unpacked.

Townhouse moves also tend to have more exterior access points to think about than a single condo unit, a garage, a side entrance, sometimes a small yard. Confirm which keys and openers you actually have working before move-in day rather than discovering a garage remote doesn't pair with the opener while a truck full of furniture waits in the driveway.

A worked example: a Tuesday possession in Langley

Here's roughly how this plays out for a straightforward Fraser Valley closing. Possession is set for a Tuesday. In the two weeks before, we'd tell a buyer to contact the strata manager to book the elevator (if applicable) and confirm the move-in fee, get a condo insurance policy bound with proof ready to send the strata, and set utility activation dates to align with possession.

On possession day itself, once keys are confirmed transferred, walk the unit with a phone camera before a single box comes in. Confirm hydro and any other owner-paid utilities are live. Locate the water shutoff and breaker panel. If movers are booked for that afternoon or the next day, that gap is exactly when to do the walkthrough and utility checks without a truck idling outside.

By the end of that first week: mail forwarding is set up, the bank and employer have the new address, ICBC registration is updated, and a short email has gone to the strata manager introducing the new owner. None of it takes more than an hour or two total, spread across a handful of small tasks rather than one long afternoon.

What's genuinely urgent vs what can wait

If we had to rank it, the booking and insurance pieces come first, since missing those can delay your actual move-in day. Documentation comes next, ideally before furniture arrives. Utilities and shutoffs matter within the first day or two. Address updates and introducing yourself to the strata can happen across the first couple of weeks without any real cost to waiting.

The buyers who handle this smoothly aren't doing more work than everyone else. They're just doing the few things that matter in the right order, instead of discovering the elevator booking requirement while the moving truck is already idling outside.

Sources

• Province of British Columbia, Strata bylaws and rules explained
• Canada Post, Change your address
• Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC)

Data sourced August 2026. Move-in requirements and fees vary by building, confirm your specific strata's process before your possession date.

Next Steps: Work with FRIVE

FRIVE is a Fraser Valley team helping first-time and move-up buyers through the whole process, not just the offer and closing, but the practical first weeks of actually living in the place. If you're getting close to a possession date and want a second set of eyes on what to line up, that's exactly the kind of question we're happy to help with.

Get in touch with the FRIVE team: book a 20-minute chat or browse current Fraser Valley listings.