Residential Permits in Hamilton

We make them, at no extra charge. Comments from the examiner at the City of Hamilton Building Division come to us, and we revise the sheets, reply to each point and resubmit until the permit is issued.

Any that build, add on or change the grade on a lot the HCA regulates, such as an addition, a garden suite, a new house or a pool. East Stoney Creek and Glanbrook are under the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and parts of Flamborough under the Grand River Conservation Authority. Ontario Regulation 41/24 counts site grading and building or enlarging a structure as development activity, which needs a permit from whichever authority regulates the lot. Each authority has to hold a pre-submission consultation if the applicant asks for one. On a Hamilton lot we check each authority’s maps against the survey before the site plan is drawn, then prepare the application from the same drawings as the permit set.

Yes. Hamilton residents apply for building permits online through the City’s Customer Portal, which they reach by signing in at my.hamilton.ca. The portal’s Permitting and Inspections category is also where applicants check the status of an application and request inspections. We follow the application there until it is issued, and on jobs we also build, we book the inspections through the same system.

Yes. We take on residential permits across Hamilton, including Ancaster and Dundas, within an hour of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: property address; what you want to do, in your own words; and a survey of the lot, if you have one. Send those and we tell you what the City of Hamilton Building Division will ask for before we quote.

Against whichever governs the lot. Most of the city is under 05-200, but a property not yet moved into it is still zoned under its former community’s by-law, such as Dundas 3581-86 or Flamborough 90-145-Z. Our site plan takes its setbacks, lot coverage and height from that by-law, and the City of Hamilton Building Division cannot issue a permit for a set that breaks it until the design changes or a minor variance is granted.

Yes, and which rule applies depends on where the tree stands. A private tree is protected under the by-law of the former municipality the lot is in, such as Ancaster’s 2000-118 or Dundas’s 4513-99, while many front lawn trees are City trees on the road allowance under By-law 15-125. We plot each one from the survey, so a footing or a walkout that crowds a tree is moved while the layout is still on paper.

Mostly the exterior sheets. In the eight Part V districts, among them Durand-Markland, MacNab-Charles and Hamilton Beach, an addition or a new porch on the street has to suit the district as well as the zoning, so we settle the elevations first and draw the floor plans around them. A basement unit or other interior work is reviewed by the City of Hamilton Building Division against the zoning and the Building Code like any other house.

It should. Some Hamilton zones let a property hold up to four dwelling units, inside the house, in an addition or in a detached building, so the first set can place exits, fire separations and the water service where the later units will need them. We confirm the limit for your zone under By-law 05-200 or the former community by-law first, so the plan matches what the lot is allowed.

Usually the approvals that have to come before it. A lot regulated by the HCA, or by the NPCA in east Stoney Creek and Glanbrook or the GRCA in parts of Flamborough, needs that authority’s permit first, a design that misses the zoning waits for a minor variance, and exterior work in a heritage district has its own review. We list which of these your address brings at the first visit, then upload a complete set to the Customer Portal.

The scope first, then what the house and the lot add to it. In an older single-detached house we start by measuring what is there, and a property still zoned under a former community by-law, a lot inside a conservation authority’s area or a protected tree close to the work each add a review or an application. We price the job after the free consultation, once we know the address and what you want built.