OpenCOOS — for strata and condo communities across Canada
The Common Ownership Operating Schema (COOS) is an open, community-driven data standard that makes strata and condominium information consistent, connected and interoperable — from strata corporations in British Columbia to condominium corporations in Ontario, Alberta and across Canada.
COOS is maintained by OpenCOOS, an open initiative founded by ManageStrata. It is industry infrastructure, not another property management product.
Shared definitions
Common Ownership Operating Schema (COOS)
Entities · fields · relationships · vocabularies
Consistent, interoperable data
{
"type": "StrataCorporation",
"strataPlanNumber": "EPS0001",
"jurisdiction": "BC"
}The problem
The approach
Shared definitions that map each province's terms — strata lot or unit, council or board — to the same concepts.
Consistent structures and machine-readable schemas that make integrations simpler and more predictable.
A transparent specification the industry can review, adopt and improve together, with no single vendor in control.
How the pieces fit
OpenCOOS
Open standards for community management
An open, vendor-neutral data model for shared-ownership communities.
OpenCOOS
The open initiative and community.
COOS
The technical specification: the Common Ownership Operating Schema.
ManageStrata
The software company helping initiate and implement the standard.
Built in Canada, for Canada
Strata
Strata Property Act
Condominium
Condominium Act, 1998
Condominium
Condominium Property Act
Strata, condominium and co-ownership
Provincial and territorial legislation
| Concept | BC (strata) | Ontario (condo) | Alberta (condo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The community's legal entity | Strata corporation | Condominium corporation | Condominium corporation |
| Registered plan creating the community | Strata plan | Declaration and description | Condominium plan |
| Individually owned property | Strata lot | Unit | Unit |
| Shared areas | Common property | Common elements | Common property |
| Shared areas for one owner's exclusive use | Limited common property | Exclusive-use common elements | Exclusive use common property |
| Owner's share of expenses | Unit entitlement | Proportion of common interest | Unit factor |
What the standard covers
The strata corporation, its plan, lots, buildings, common property, and the people and organizations involved.
9 drafted · 2 planned
Councils, meetings, resolutions, votes, bylaws and rules.
7 drafted · 2 planned
Operating fund, contingency reserve fund, budgets, levies and transactions.
4 drafted · 3 planned
Common assets, maintenance requests and work orders.
3 drafted · 3 planned
Documents, categories, versions and metadata for strata records.
1 drafted · 2 planned
Insurance policies, obligations, incidents and risk records.
1 drafted · 4 planned
How it works
Each entity, such as StrataLot or Resolution, has a plain-language definition, fields, types and controlled vocabularies.
Every definition is published as a JSON Schema with an example payload that is validated automatically.
Implementers map their own data to the standard at their system boundary and validate exports and imports against the schemas.
Changes are proposed in the open and published as versioned releases with migration notes.
The standard defines data, not an API. Systems remain free to choose their own storage, APIs and technology. Read the developer documentation.
Current status
What “draft” means
Who can participate
Build compatible strata applications and reduce custom integration work.
Help make community records more transparent, portable and consistent.
Push for better integrations and less fragmented data across tools.
Share terminology and data definitions across initiatives.
Work with strata information that has consistent meaning.
Improve the schemas, documentation and validation tooling.
Early adopters and implementations
| Implementation | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ManageStrata.caFounder of OpenCOOS | Strata management platform | Planned: intends to adopt the standard as the foundation of its data model |
| SearchStrata.com | Strata document analysis for buyers, owners and councils | Planned implementation |
Building something compatible? Tell us about your implementation. Read how ManageStrata relates to the standard on the About page.
Latest specification updates
First public working draft of the proposed domains, shared definitions, and draft JSON Schemas. Nothing in this draft is stable; every definition is open for review and may change without notice.
Full changelogFrequently asked questions
Review the draft, try the schemas in your own systems, or tell us where the definitions don't match how your strata corporation works.