Your questions about building in Toronto, answered.

Garden suites are permitted as-of-right (allowed without a rezoning or minor variance) on lots with a house, townhouse or low-rise apartment building in Toronto's residential zones, as long as the suite meets the size, height and setback rules in Chapter 150.7. The site-specific questions are separation from the house, setbacks, soft landscaping, protected trees and fire access.

Up to 120 m² of gross floor area (two storeys), or 60 m² if one storey, and always smaller than the main house. Height is 4.0 m within 7.5 m of the house and 6.3 m beyond that.

A path at least 1.0 m wide and 2.1 m high from the street to the suite door, no longer than 45 m, with a hydrant within 45 m of where the truck parks. Up to 90 m is accepted with sprinklers or fire-resistant construction, plus a flashing light outside and smoke alarms.

The City's free plans are a good starting point if one fits your lot as drawn, since any change ends its pre-approved status. Our certified models come with structural and HVAC design included, and their drawings can be ready for the permit application in as little as one week. Either way you need a site plan, a zoning review and a building permit, which we handle.

No vehicle parking is required. Two bicycle parking spaces are.

No. The City does not permit severing a garden suite from the main house. It can be rented, used by family or used as a home office.

Yes. A basement is allowed, and its floor area can be left out of the suite's gross floor area, so it doesn't count toward the 60 m² or 120 m² cap. Its walls still have to meet the suite's setbacks; we confirm the floor area and the setbacks in the zoning review.

No. It applies the main Chapter 150.7 numbers (separation, setbacks, floor area, soft landscaping) and Toronto Building's fire-access limits to three measurements. A real review also covers lot coverage, protected trees, easements, grading and any existing structures. We do that from your survey.

Lot frontage, the depth from the back wall of your house to the rear lot line and the walk from the street to where the suite door would be. Your survey has the first two; pace out the third along the side of the house.

No. Toronto Building accepts up to 90 m with sprinklers (a home sprinkler system designed by a Professional Engineer) or fire-resistant construction, plus a flashing light outside and smoke alarms. It adds cost, so we tell you before design starts.

Yes, if the suite sits at least 7.5 m from your house. The height limit is then 6.3 m and total floor area is capped at 120 m². Between Coxwell Ave, the Don River, Victoria Park Ave and the lake, the separation rule asks only 5.0 m for a taller suite, but the height rule still caps a suite less than 7.5 m from the house at 4.0 m, so we confirm with the City before you plan a two-storey suite less than 7.5 m from the house there.

A laneway suite sits on a lot that abuts a public lane for at least 3.5 m and is generally accessed from the lane. A garden suite sits in a rear yard with no lane. They live in different chapters of the zoning by-law: Chapter 150.8 and Chapter 150.7. The setbacks differ: 1.0 m off the lane for a laneway suite; for a garden suite, 1.5 m from the rear lot line, or 3.0 m if upstairs back windows (more than 4.0 m up) face a neighbour's yard. A lot can have one or the other, never both.

Up to 8.0 m wide and 10.0 m long, two storeys at most. Height is 4.0 m if the suite is within 7.5 m of the house, or 6.3 m if it is 7.5 m or more away. Its gross floor area must be less than the house's, and the suite's floor area does not count toward the lot's floor space index.

No. With a laneway suite on the lot, Chapter 150.8 removes the parking requirement for the suite and for the dwelling units in the house. Two bicycle parking spaces are required.

Yes. Since July 2025, the City has offered free “Made in Toronto” pre-approved plans for garden and laneway suites. A building permit is still required. Site-specific zoning, fire access and servicing are still reviewed. The set includes a Studio Laneway Suite and a Two-bedroom Laneway Suite. Each comes in heat-pump or forced-air versions and in three fire-access versions: 0 for a walk of up to 45 m from the street, and 1 (sprinklers, strobe, alarms) or 2 (fire-rated construction, strobe, alarms) for up to 90 m. You still file a full permit application with a site plan, grading plan and forms. Any change to the plan, including HVAC or plumbing, ends its pre-approved status. We prepare the site-specific package and handle the application.

Toronto Building's laneway-suite guide lists $18.56 per m² for houses, semis, townhouses and duplexes. Each new unit adds a $56.33 residential unit fee. Both are effective January 1, 2026. The City's Certified Plans Program is a separate route: $9.29 per m² to certify a plan and $15.75 per m² for each permit that uses it. City fees are paid to the City at submission and are listed, not marked up, in your quote.

Emergency access is measured from the street the house faces to the suite entry. Up to 45 m needs no extra fire-safety measures. Up to 90 m is accepted with sprinklers or fire-resistant construction, plus a flashing light outside and smoke alarms. The rule comes from the Ontario Building Code, not the zoning by-law. So it is checked at the building-permit stage and cannot be varied by the Committee of Adjustment. We measure it before we quote.

Between the back of the house and the suite: at least 60% soft landscaping on lots 6.0 m wide or narrower, 85% on wider lots. A walkway up to 1.5 m wide is excluded. Between the suite and the lane: at least 75% soft landscaping, excluding the driveway and walkway (s. 150.8.50.10). The site plan shows every square metre.

Chapter 150.8 lets a garage or shed that was built legally keep its current distances from the lot lines and the house. In the by-law, that generally means it was there legally on May 9, 2013, or had its permit by then. The structure, foundation and fire separation still have to meet the Building Code, so many garages end up rebuilt on the same footprint. We tell you which it is at the zoning review, from the survey and photos.

Yes. Toronto Building issues a building permit for an interior alteration that adds a second dwelling unit to a detached house, semi or townhouse; its guide names the basement apartment as the common example. The application needs a site plan referenced to your survey with a zoning summary, fully dimensioned floor plans of every level showing smoke and CO alarm locations and plumbing fixtures, sections with floor-to-ceiling heights and stair details, construction details, the Application to Construct or Demolish, Schedule 1 Designer Information and the Rental Renovation Licence Screening Form, all as PDFs through Toronto Building's online Application Submission Tool. Building without a permit adds 50% of the permit fee or $214.79, whichever is greater, up to $29,456.99.

Across Toronto's residential zones, yes, as-of-right (allowed without a rezoning or minor variance): By-law 569-2013 permits one secondary suite per dwelling unit in a detached house, semi-detached house or townhouse (Chapter 150.10, By-law 549-2019). In the apartment, commercial, commercial-residential and institutional zones (RA, RAC, CL, CR, I and others) the suite must sit inside a lawfully existing house of one of those three types. The suite is capped at 45% of the dwelling unit's interior floor area, except in a one-storey detached house, where it may take the whole basement. No parking space is required for it. The zoning review with your quote confirms your zone and the area split.

Toronto's Property Standards by-law sets 1.95 m over at least half the floor area as the minimum for a habitable room, and bars any basement from use as a dwelling unit unless every habitable room meets the rules for ceiling height, a way out (egress), light and ventilation (Chapter 629, § 629-4 and § 629-25). Measure to the underside of the joists, then under the beams and ducts, which often set the real number. Below 1.95 m the floor is lowered and the footings underpinned: a Professional Engineer designs and reviews the work where the new footing sits below a neighbour's footing within the soil's angle of repose (close enough to it that digging could undermine it), and the City requires engineer testing at the first and last stages in every case. The City's underpinning fee is $12.37 per linear metre (2026). The Building Code's own rules for the renovation are applied in the permit review; we design to both.

It needs its own way out to ground level. Toronto Fire Services lists three exit problems it finds in two-unit houses: no dedicated exterior door leading directly to ground level, a shared route through the other unit, and an exit that does not lead directly outdoors. A new below-grade entrance is a permit item in its own right: the City's basement-entrance guide asks for a site plan with setbacks, foundation plans with the underpinning stages numbered and the distance to the neighbour's footings, and sections showing the grade height above the basement floor and the landing at the base of the stair. Where the new footing goes below an adjacent footing within the angle of repose, a Professional Engineer designs it. We draw the entrance, the stair, guards and handrails, and coordinate the engineer.

Toronto Building requires the floor plans to show the location of every smoke alarm and CO alarm, and Toronto Fire Services names the lack of interconnected alarms throughout the house as a risk factor in two-unit homes, so the set lays out interconnected alarms on both levels. For CO: in a house with two units an alarm is required in a suite with a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace, in one that sits above, below or beside a service room with such an appliance or beside a garage, and, since January 1, 2026, in one heated by air from a fuel-burning appliance elsewhere in the house. They go adjacent to each sleeping area and, since January 1, 2026, on every storey of the suite, plus one in the service room itself. Hardwired, battery and plug-in units are all permitted under the Fire Code.

Toronto Building's 2026 rate for interior alterations is $11.53 per m² of altered floor area, plus a residential unit fee of $56.33 for the new unit, with a minimum permit fee of $214.79 for any work. A 70 m² suite is $807.10 plus $56.33, or $863.43 in all. Underpinning, if the floor is lowered, is $12.37 per linear metre. Plumbing and HVAC permits are applied for alongside and charged separately. All of this is paid to the City at submission and is separate from our fee.

Two things. The permit application includes the City's Rental Renovation Licence Screening Form, which checks whether the City's rental renovation licence by-law (Chapter 662) applies. Since July 31, 2025, a landlord who serves an N13 notice (the Ontario form that ends a tenancy for renovations) because the work needs the unit vacant must hold a Rental Renovation Licence for that unit: apply within seven days of the notice with the building permit already issued, pay $728 per unit (2026), post the City's Tenant Information Notice on the door, and provide either comparable temporary housing or rent-gap payments, plus a $1,500 or $2,500 moving allowance. Work that can be done without an N13 needs no licence. The building permit comes first, which is the order the by-law requires.

Architalcan's office prepares the drawings, and they are signed under BCIN 25897 – 41741 (House, Small Buildings, Large Buildings, HVAC-House). Toronto Building requires drawings prepared by a qualified designer to carry the designer's name, registration number, qualification number, signature and a statement accepting responsibility for the design; ours do. Sheets that need an engineer carry the engineer's seal; underpinning or structural sheets sealed by a Professional Engineer are filed with the Assumption of Responsibility for Engineering Content form and, where the City requires field review, the Commitment to General Reviews.

Yes. Toronto Building's Residential Underpinning guide covers a building permit for underpinning the foundation of an existing house. That means new footings beneath the existing ones to gain depth, reinforcing a foundation, or adding a below-grade or partly below-grade entrance. The application is filed as PDFs through Toronto Building's online Application Submission Tool. It carries a site plan on your survey, existing and proposed foundation plans, floor plans, sections, construction details and the forms. The City's fee is covered in the permit-cost question below.

Underpinning builds new footings beneath the existing ones. The work goes in numbered stages so the wall is never undermined all at once, and the new floor runs wall to wall at the lower level. Benching leaves the existing footing alone. The new slab is poured lower in the middle, and a sloped or stepped concrete bench is left along the walls. That bench keeps the soil under the old footing undisturbed within its angle of repose. You keep the footing, you lose floor width, and the deeper you go the wider the bench. For a few inches, benching can be the budget route. For a real change in ceiling height, underpinning is usual. The permit drawings show which, with the stages numbered.

Toronto Building's guide gives three triggers. First, a foundation built below the level of an adjacent building's footing, and within the soil's angle of repose, must be designed by a Professional Engineer. The engineer also reviews it on site, and the drawings carry the seal. Second and third come from the Commitment to General Reviews form. It applies where more than 1.2 m (about 4 ft) of the underpinned wall is left without soil or bracing to hold it from the side, or where the soil is clay or silt. On a semi or row house the party-wall footing is your neighbour's too, so the first trigger applies as soon as you go below it. And on every underpinning permit, whoever designed it, the City requires engineer testing and reports. They happen at the first and last stages at minimum, to pass inspections.

Toronto's Property Standards (Municipal Code Chapter 629, § 629-25) set a habitable room's minimum height at 1.95 m over at least half its floor area. Under § 629-4, no basement may be used as a habitable room or dwelling unit unless its way out (egress), light, ventilation and ceiling height all comply. A new secondary suite is also examined against the Ontario Building Code, and the City's Secondary Suites guide requires floor-to-ceiling heights on the sections. We design the lowered floor to the stricter figure that applies to your house and write it on the drawings. The ceiling planner on our underpinning page uses the 1.95 m Property Standards test.

In 2026, $12.37 per linear metre of underpinning, with a $214.79 minimum; 30 linear metres is $371.10. Finishing the basement under the same permit is $6.20 per square metre. If the lowered basement becomes a secondary suite, two more lines apply. The City's Secondary Suites guide lists interior alterations at $11.53 per square metre and a residential unit fee of $56.33 per new unit. Work started before the permit issues adds 50% of the fee or $214.79, whichever is greater, to a maximum of $29,456.99. These are paid to the City at submission and are separate from our fee and the engineer's.

Yes, and it is usually the right moment, because the stairs land at the new floor level. The City's Residential Basement Entrances guide asks for the underpinning extent next to the entrance, with the stages numbered. Sections must show the exterior landing at the base of the stairs, and the stair, guard and handrail details include their connections. The site plan carries setbacks to property lines and adjacent buildings, plus a summary of permitted and proposed zoning provisions. Where a below-grade entrance may sit on your lot is a zoning question, and we settle it in the zoning review before the drawings start.

Your contractor excavates and pours in the sequence numbered on the foundation plan, so the wall is only ever undermined in short lengths. The Professional Engineer tests and reports at the first and last stages at minimum, which Toronto Building requires to pass inspections. The engineer also carries out the general review committed to on the form. The City inspects against the drawings. That is why the stages, the linear metres and the depth are written on them rather than left to the crew.

Architalcan's office prepares the architectural drawings, and they are signed under BCIN 25897 – 41741 (House, Small Buildings, Large Buildings, HVAC-House). Toronto Building requires drawings by a qualified designer to show the designer's name, registration number, qualification number and signature, plus a statement accepting responsibility. Ours do. The underpinning design is sealed by the Professional Engineer and filed with the Assumption of Responsibility for Engineering Content form. The engineer signs the Commitment to General Reviews, and you complete its Part A.