Vaughan Building Permits: How Long They Take and What Needs One

Any addition, new building or demolition needs a Vaughan building permit: Ontario's Building Code Act bars construction and demolition until the chief building official issues one [Building Code Act, s. 8(1)]. Indoors, the City adds two jobs by name: finishing a basement, and adding or moving a plumbing fixture [City of Vaughan, Finishing a Basement].

Replacing what's already there mostly doesn't need one. New cupboards or counter tops, a fixture swapped where it sits now, and replacement windows, doors or shingles can all go ahead without a permit [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. Structural changes are missing from that exempt list, so expect to need a permit for them.

Vaughan usually processes a complete permit application for a single-family house within 10 business days [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. Other building classes are given longer:

Everything in that table hangs on the word complete. An application still waiting on zoning or planning approvals, or on any other information or applicable law requirement, is not processed or issued until those are done, and it is exempt from the timelines above [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

Your own wait depends on what you hand in. If a zoning approval is needed for your plan, the City's timeline doesn't apply until you have it. Check zoning first, ahead of the drawings.

The City gives you six months from the date of issue to start construction. Once construction has started, the permit will not expire [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

It can still be taken away. If construction stops for more than one year, the City can revoke the permit under section 8 of the Building Code Act [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

That makes the timing of your application part of the plan. Since a complete house application is usually processed in 10 business days, there is little point applying months ahead. Apply when your start date is close, so the six months aren't running down while you wait for a crew or a delivery.

Most of what the City exempts is like-for-like replacement. The rest is small outdoor building work, and each of those items has a size limit [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

On the deck row, check the height before the area. A deck stays exempt only up to 0.6 metres above grade; the 1 metre figure on the same list is the retaining wall limit [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. Clearing the exemption only spares you the building permit, and an exempt deck still has to meet the Zoning By-law [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

Nothing on the list touches the structure of the house. Removing a load-bearing wall is structural work and appears nowhere on it, so plan it as permit work.

The City's list also names electrical projects, for a different reason: the Electrical Safety Authority inspects them, not the City [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

The owner can, provided the design falls within Division B, Part 9 of the Ontario Building Code, which exempts owners who prepare their own drawings [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. Drawings that are below standard or missing information come back: the City asks the owner to complete them or to hire a designer qualified under the Code.

That return trip costs time. Until the drawings are complete, the application isn't either, and the City's processing timeline doesn't cover it.

When a designer draws a basement finish, the City's basement page asks for these on the drawings [City of Vaughan, Finishing a Basement]:

• •the designer's name and registration number
• •their BCIN (Building Code Identification Number)
• •their signature
• •a stamp, or a statement that the designer has taken responsibility for the design

Whoever draws them, you apply online through the City's Online Permitting Portal, which it also calls the ePlans Portal. Building Standards answers questions at 905-832-8510 or buildingstandards@vaughan.ca [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. The applicant has to own the house first (someone who buys partway through a permitted job applies to transfer the existing permit) [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ].

Finishing a basement needs a permit in Vaughan, and adding a secondary suite during the same work needs a separate one [City of Vaughan, Finishing a Basement]. A rec room with a bathroom is a basement finish. Lay the same space out as a self-contained suite and you are applying for both.

So settle what the space is for before anyone starts drawing, and if it is a suite, plan for both permits from the start.

During construction, two things have to be on site whenever a City inspector comes: all of the original permit documents, and your City of Vaughan building permit card [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. The inspector signs the back of that card at each approved stage, so it becomes the job's running record of what has passed.

Wiring runs on a separate track. Electrical permits and inspections come from the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA), which regulates electrical work across Ontario, and the City points electrical permit questions there [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ]. A job with both building and electrical work will see two sets of inspectors.

You'd be breaking Ontario's Building Code Act, whether you swing the hammer yourself or hire someone who does. Section 8(1) says no one may construct a building, or cause one to be constructed, until a permit has been issued [Building Code Act, s. 8(1)].

The penalty, on conviction, is a fine of up to $50,000 for a first offence and up to $100,000 for any later one [Building Code Act, s. 36(3)]. The province sets those maximums, so they are the same in Vaughan as anywhere else in Ontario.

The other cost is the paper trail. Work done without a permit never gets a permit card, so nothing hidden behind the drywall carries an inspector's signature.

Second storey additions are part of the full house work our Bradford office takes on across York Region, Vaughan included. An addition is construction, which puts it on the permit side of the Building Code Act from the start [Building Code Act, s. 8(1)].

Zoning comes first. The City holds an application until its zoning and planning approvals are in place [City of Vaughan, Building Standards FAQ], so find out what zoning allows on your lot while the design can still change.

Then the drawings. On our full house jobs, architectural drawings, 3D renders, material selection and construction are under one roof, so the set the City reviews comes from the same team that will build it. Open concept plans that take out a bearing wall are structural work too, and our wall removals come with permits, engineers and beam installation.

The permit application goes in last, once both are done.