Can you permit a tiny home after living off the radar for a while?

Video transcription:

Presented by Bianca from The Giving Tree Consultancy.

So we have a very exciting question today and that is, can you permit your tiny home after living off radar for a while?

And the answer is yes, but you still have to adhere to a lot of the bylaws and the policies that go along with permitting a tiny home in the first place.

So there are few things that you really want to consider when going on radar after being off radar for a while. And those are, namely, is your tiny house compliant.

So across Ontario and across Canada, you have different compliances for different provinces. In Ontario, we have the Ontario Building Code and we also have CSA certifications and other different certifications for living in a tiny home as a habitable dwelling.

Your tiny home will still need to have those compliances in place and if not, I would highly consider hiring somebody to help you with those renovations and getting your home to code.

The second thing is looking into the policies and permissions of the property you hope to live at or the one that you’re already living at. And the reason for that is we need to see whether or not that home and that property can host an additional detached dwelling unit.

And if so, how would the municipality recognize a permit for you? Whether it’s through a land leasing scenario, whether it’s a park or a campground, whether you’re in a community. Or whether there are multiple things going on, such as maybe you’re in a farm help house or, you know, there are other options that that are possible municipality to municipality.

So the big consideration. though, and kind of a high level thinking about it is municipalities do not want to see you – nobody wants to see anybody – homeless, houseless, any of these different things.

So if you’re living non compliantly, they really would love to work with you. And this is not always across the board. Are we going to have an easy time to convince municipalities of these permissions and these requirements? Right now, nobody is in a position to say no to affordable housing solutions and we really have to take that. And we have to run with it.

So it’s extremely important to remember that – is your house compliant? Does the property allow you to be there via zoning and policy, and if not, how do you get there? You can talk to someone such as myself who is a consultant in this area. You can speak to a designer or an architect or a planner. Speak to your local municipality. And do some of the research and some of the due diligence to get yourself above board. And get into a tiny house legally.

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