A building permit is the city’s written permission to build, change or change the use of a space. It is not a formality and it is not a receipt. It is the point at which someone at the municipality has read your drawings, checked them against the building code and the local bylaws, and agreed that what you are proposing is safe and allowed on that particular property.
Most of the confusion around permits comes from the fact that the answer to “do I need one?” is almost never obvious from the size of the job.
When you need one
In practice, you need a building permit for most work that changes the structure, the layout, the use, or the life-safety systems of a building. In Metro Vancouver that usually includes:
- Moving, adding or removing walls — even non-structural ones, once they affect exiting or room counts
- Changing what a space is used for: retail becoming a clinic, an office becoming a restaurant
- New plumbing, or moving existing plumbing
- Anything that changes the electrical service, or adds significant load
- Adding a suite, a garden house or a coach house
- Decks over a certain height, and almost any addition
- Commercial tenant improvements, nearly without exception
You generally do not need one for cosmetic work: paint, flooring, cabinetry that is not plumbed, or replacing a fixture with a like fixture in the same position.
The part people get wrong
The most common expensive surprise is change of use. A space that was legally a retail unit is not automatically legal as a clinic, a daycare or a restaurant, even if you change nothing physical. Different uses carry different requirements for exiting, washroom counts, ventilation, accessibility and fire separation. The building might be identical the day before and the day after; the obligations are not.
The second is assuming the landlord has this covered. A lease will often say the tenant is responsible for obtaining permits. If it does, that responsibility is yours from the day you sign.
What a permit application actually involves
For a typical commercial tenant improvement, a complete application usually needs a code analysis, a floor plan, reflected ceiling plan, elevations and sections, mechanical and electrical drawings, and letters from any consultants the code requires. Municipalities vary in how much they ask for up front, and they vary a great deal in how quickly they respond.
The application then goes into review. Comments come back. Drawings are revised. This cycle is where most of the calendar time goes — not in drawing the space, but in answering the city.
What happens if you build without one
Two things, and neither is cheap. The city can issue a stop-work order, which halts everything until the paperwork catches up. And unpermitted work has to be made compliant, which sometimes means opening up finished walls so an inspector can see what is behind them.
It also surfaces later. Unpermitted work shows up when a property is sold, when insurance is claimed, and when the next tenant applies for their own permit.
The short version
If the work changes the structure, the layout, the services or the use, assume a permit is needed and confirm early. Finding out in week one costs a phone call. Finding out in week twelve costs a schedule.
We apply for permits as our clients’ authorized agent, which means the city corresponds with us rather than with you, and we carry responsibility for the drawings we submit. If you are not sure whether your project needs one, that is a short conversation and we are happy to have it.