Home Inspection · Toronto
Engineer-led inspections of Toronto houses, mostly prewar and postwar homes on narrow lots: structure, mechanical systems, underpinned basements and second units, the permit record and what By-law 569-2013 lets you add, in a written report by our P.Eng.
What’s included
The same team that designs structure, mechanical systems and permit drawings walks the house. That is what lets us say which wall carries load, whether the basement could be a legal unit, and whether the addition looks like it went through the city. In Toronto the package goes to Toronto Building, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Before you buy
A walk through the house with an engineer’s eye before you waive conditions: foundation, framing, roof structure, mechanical systems and the signs of work done without a permit.
Before you plan
What a renovation will actually involve: which walls carry load, where the ducts and drains can go, and whether the basement can become a legal unit.
When something looks wrong
Cracks, sagging floors, bowing walls or a deck that moves: a P.Eng assessment of what is happening and what, if anything, needs to be done.
Existing work
A review of finished or in-progress work against the Ontario Building Code, for buyers, owners responding to a city order, or anyone who needs a professional opinion in writing.
The package
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
06 common situations
06
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps from booking to a report you can act on.
Tell us the address, the closing or condition date, and what worries you about the house. We fit pre-purchase inspections around your deadline where we can.
We go through the structure, the attic and the basement, the mechanical room and the electrical panel, and note anything that looks like work done without a permit.
Findings, photos and priorities in plain language, with structural observations from our P.Eng where they apply and a note on what a renovation would need.
We go through the report with you on a call. If the answer is a repair, a permit or a design, the same team can carry on with it.
Case files
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
A compact two-storey suite in a Toronto backyard. Architectural and structural drawings, zoning review and a framing package that makes every square foot count.
Delivered
New living space on a lot the owners already had.
Start a project like this
Structural walls came out and rooms were added to open the plan. Beam and column design, permit drawings and renovation coordination through to final inspection.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
Start a project like thisA code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
Delivered
A legal second unit that brings in rent and adds property value.
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A new build taken from the client’s sketch to occupancy, with the architectural, structural and mechanical design done by one team.
Delivered
Built to the client’s own plan, with one team answering for every discipline.
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A two-storey garden suite laid out to get the most usable space from the footprint, designed and permitted as a rentable unit.
Delivered
Rental income and a higher property value.
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A dental office converted into a supermarket. Interior renovation, a new plumbing system and fire separations upgraded to the Ontario Fire Code.
Delivered
A dental office reopened as a supermarket, compliant with the Ontario Fire Code.
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A custom covered porch that turns the front of the house into usable outdoor space. Addition design and structural drawings for the permit.
Delivered
More usable outdoor space and added home value.
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Site grading to manage drainage and prepare the land for a new driveway, drawn as a grading plan for the site alteration permit.
Delivered
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Additions, basements, kitchens, new builds and commercial fit-outs. Drag a row to scrub through it, or open any photo full size.Tap any photo to see it full size.
21 platesResidential, commercial & new build
The drawing set
Framing schedules, wall assemblies, dimensions and a city review stamp, as issued. Client title blocks are trimmed off to protect the people we drew them for.
Drawing set
Sheets in this set
Sheet title
Existing basement plan
The existing house recorded before any design: beams, joists and bearing walls.
Drawing no.
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Service area
From the office we cover the whole GTA, north to Barrie and Orillia, east to Peterborough and Cobourg, west to Kitchener and Brantford, and down through Niagara.
46 across 8 regions
York Region
Toronto & Peel
Halton
Durham
Simcoe & Dufferin
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
Kawarthas & Northumberland
Past the 90-minute line
We've also completed projects in London and Strathroy. Farther out than that? Call (416) 990-9179 and ask.
Permits filed with municipalities including
Before you call
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179Toronto Building keeps the permit history for the address, so ask it for that and ask the seller for the permits and final inspections they hold. Toronto reviews lot grading through the building permit; a separate permit applies only inside ravine and natural feature protection areas. That puts a regraded yard or a walkout in the building permit file too, which is where we look for it. Anything on site that the file does not explain goes in the report, with what a legalization permit would need.
Yes. A Toronto house near a ravine, a watercourse or a floodplain can fall inside Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) regulation, which limits what a later owner can build there. We check the TRCA mapping for the address as part of a pre-purchase inspection, so an addition or a garden suite you have in mind is weighed against it before you waive conditions.
Yes. We take on home inspection across Toronto, including North York and Scarborough, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: property address and the date you need the report by; the listing, and any drawings or disclosures you have; and what you are planning to do with the house. Send those and we tell you what Toronto Building will ask for before we quote.
Yes. New homes in Ontario carry Tarion warranties, but a Toronto rebuild that kept the old footings or foundation may not be covered, so we check the permit record for whether the foundation is new. We also ask whether the grading consultant issued the final Lot Grading Certificate Toronto Building requires for a new house, and look on the City’s status site for any permit still open.
We can tell you whether the record and the building agree. Toronto allows a secondary suite in a detached, semi-detached or townhouse, but adding one needs a building permit, so we compare what we find with the permits Toronto Building has on file and the property information report. On site we check the fire separation, the exits and the interconnected smoke alarms between the units, and anything short of a permitted unit goes in the report with the work it would need.
The permit first. Underpinning an existing Toronto house needs one from Toronto Building, and an engineer has to test and report at the first and last stages before those inspections pass, so we check the permit’s inspections on the City’s status site and look for any order on the property information report. On site we look at the lowered walls and floor for cracking, water and settlement, especially along the wall next to the neighbouring house.
Yes. In a prewar or postwar Toronto house, a pre-renovation inspection shows what the structure and services will take before anything is designed: whether the wall you want gone carries the floor above, and whether the panel and drains can serve a secondary suite or a laneway suite. If the project goes ahead, the same notes become the measured base for the permit set we file through the Online Services Portal.
We can answer that from the survey and the zoning while your conditions are still open. A fourplex is allowed anywhere in Toronto, and up to six units in the Toronto & East York District and Ward 23, and laneway and garden suites can go in rear yards, but a lot still zoned under a former municipal by-law does not get the garden suite permissions in By-law 569-2013. We then check whether the house’s structure, exits and services could take the extra units, and the answer goes in the report.
The party wall first: where it has been opened, cut or supported differently on each side. Toronto Building needs a permit for each property a party wall separates when wall work involves it, so an alteration on your side with no matching record goes in the report. On a narrow lot we also look at how the two houses shed water toward each other.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the home inspection questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationNot in the pre-purchase sense. Toronto Building inspectors carry out mandatory inspections of construction done under issued building and demolition permits, to confirm it complies with the Building Code Act and the permit. A buyer who wants a house’s condition checked books a private inspection, and Fine Engineering does these across North York, Scarborough and the rest of the city.
It depends on the house and on the scope you ask for. Size, age, a finished basement, an addition and poor attic access all lengthen the visit and the report, and a P.Eng structural assessment or an engineer’s letter adds to the work. Specialist testing is separate. Fine Engineering prices the scope once it knows the address, after a free first consultation.
Signs that the house is moving, taking on water or has been altered. That means cracks and settlement in the foundation, sagging floors and roof framing, stains in the attic and basement, the condition of the heating, plumbing and electrical, and finishes that hide structure or unpermitted work. At Fine Engineering the same visit includes an engineer’s view of what carries load.
It depends on the size and age of the house and on how much of it can be reached. Finished basements, blocked attic hatches and a crowded mechanical room take longer, and a structural assessment of a crack or a sagging floor adds time on site. Fine Engineering tells you how long to allow when you book, so the seller and the agent can plan access.
An on-site, visual examination of the house’s condition and structure: foundation, framing, roof structure and attic, basement, heating, plumbing, electrical and the exterior. Anything hidden behind finished walls is noted as a limit rather than opened up. With Fine Engineering it ends in a written report with photos and priorities, a note on the permits your plans would need and a call to go through it.
If the house has a finished basement, an addition, visible cracks or sloping floors, or you plan a major renovation, an engineer’s inspection tells you what a checklist cannot: whether the structure is sound, what was permitted and what the renovation would involve. Fine Engineering carries out pre-purchase inspections across the GTA.
Good to know
In Toronto the reviewer is Toronto Building. Every Toronto lot sets its own terms: the age of the house, what has been added since it was built and whether that work was permitted decide where the inspection looks hardest.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the home inspection package to Toronto Building’s own checklist.
In Toronto, the housing is prewar and postwar houses on narrow lots across the inner suburbs, with most recent growth in mid- and high-rise apartments. In the older houses the foundation walls, floor framing and attic get the longest look, since settlement and old alterations show there. Postwar houses have often been renovated more than once, so we trace what was changed and whether a permit covers it.
In Toronto, a Property Information Report, sometimes called a property compliance letter, gives information for a specific address on issued building permits on file, the status of inspections, and any outstanding orders under the Ontario Building Code, Zoning By-law or Property Standards By-law. It is typically requested because of a possible sale or refinancing.
We read that report next to what we find on site. A finished basement, an addition or a second unit with no permit on file, or an order still open against the address, goes into the inspection report with what Toronto Building would need to see. The drawings behind a permit are a separate request, through the City’s building records service.
In Toronto, the current owner is responsible for any open building permits on the property, including permits a previous owner took out. Toronto Building notes that open permits can delay or complicate a sale, and a new owner who wants to carry on the previous owner’s work applies for a permit transfer.
So the inspection looks closely at work that seems unfinished or never inspected, such as a half-finished basement or an addition with open walls. Read with the property information report, it tells you which permits may still be open and what Toronto Building would need to close them, so you can raise it with your lawyer before the deal closes.
Chapter 813 protects private trees with a trunk 30 centimetres or more across and every City street tree, against injury as well as removal. If you plan an addition, a pool or a laneway suite, we mark the protected trees near that spot in the report, because the tree permit is a separate application with its own answer.
A lot backing onto a ravine can also be inside a ravine and natural feature protection area under Chapter 658, which needs its own permit before fill is placed or the grade changes. We look for that at the same time as the TRCA check, so you know what the back of the lot can and cannot take before you waive conditions.
Toronto’s Part V heritage conservation districts include Rosedale, Cabbagetown, Riverdale, Wychwood Park, Teiaiagon-Baby Point and Weston Phase 1, among others. For a house inside one, exterior work you plan later, such as a porch or a rear addition, has the district’s requirements to meet as well as By-law 569-2013.
Some districts come in parts, such as Harbord Village with its two phases or Rosedale South and North, so we check the address against the boundary itself during the inspection and note in the report what it means for the plans you have described.
Contact us
Tell us the address and your condition date, and we’ll tell you whether we can fit the inspection in, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179