I want to be sure that you all don’t miss the story that I wrote for Tiny House Listings regarding the ecological tiny house building program in Peterborough.
Too, they have in the last couple of days announced a number of the new programs for 2015.
We are so very fortunate to have such a great program in Ontario! I hope a few of you will be there this year. Let me now what you think.
Photo: Courtesy of Chris Magwood
Jay Austin’s Illegal Tiny House is, a new 10 minute video which is very much worth the watch.
I am sure you will all agree.
I just heard some good news for tiny house wannabes in Ontario. This came from Tamara who is a tiny house fan. She says that Edwardsburg/Cardinal has a minimum house size of 400 square feet***. So, if you are considering the absolute maximum size of a tiny house or even a small house this area looks like this area could be a good and totally legal option. This is a nice area of Ontario, particularly down at the riverfront.
Since we are here at the border, I want to wish a happy fourth of July to friends and readers down in the USA. And, on the topic of celebrating America, I have been working on my family tree and have found that my ancestors were the White family (no pun intended) who arrived on the Mayflower. My direct branch were of course UEL, so this is how they wound up in Canada. None the less, they were clearly the first of my genetic background to come to North America, excepting the Native Delware Indian branch; however, this branch is impossible to trace.
***NOTE: I have not confirmed this so please be sure to check with the building department before purchasing land.
Edwardsburgh/Cardinal, Ontario screen shot from Google Maps
Update: Monday May 16, 2016
I am sorry to say that the tip that came to me about the Municipality of Highlands East was not correct. I don’t think that the tipper meant any malice but they were simply misinformed and I passed on this misinformation to you. I am very sorry about this.
I know it must have been a sad disappointment for at least one of the people who read it, because Dan wrote to the the Municipality of Highlands East and here is the note that he got back.
“Our zoning by-law has not changed and the minimum size of a dwelling is 65 square meters or 700 square feet.”
I am sorry Dan and others who hoped to make this community their home.
_____________________________________________
There are two bits of news that I find promising when it comes to the legality of tiny houses in Ontario.
1. Garden Suites
2. UPDATE: the Municipality of Highlands East has lowered its footprint size to 500 feet. Which is a perfectly reasonable house size and right sized for a lot of people. (News of this came to me on November 19, 2015) One tiny step forward!
Tiny house hopeful Anthony shared a bunch of research that he has been doing in his area. He discovered that Garden Suites are allowed to be built in the area outlined in black in the below map of Ontario.
Each of these areas has rules unique to its own area. But essentially what holds true to all of them is that if you can get someone to agree to allow you on their land, if you hook up your services to the main house and if you pay a nice hefty fee, you can park a tiny house in these areas. Yes I said PARK! These buildings must be supplementary and they must be mobile.
With this said, please before you jump check the specific area, there are a lot of restrictions and you will need to know these. You can’t fill too much of the green space in a lot for example and wouldn’t it be a pity to build a house 1 square foot too big after paying for all the hookups.
Also doing this will NOT be cheap. These houses MUST be hooked in on the existing infrastructure. No off grid toilets, there must be running water and electricity. In other words, if you are considering building you have to add all of these infrastructural costs to your build. Further to this, you better have a LONG term lease with the land owner, even if this is someone you trust. Once you spend the money for hooking your house to sewage, water and electricity you want to be sure that a fight over a cup of sugar won’t find you and your house without a place to live.
I want to note that while I am excited about the potential of this, there is a lot of leg work and money to make this happen.
If you decide to go ahead with doing this, please do so with your building inspector as well as a lawyer to draw up a lease agreement. Remember I know something about tiny houses, but I am not willing to take any responsibility if you fail to do your own homework for your own house. I can’t possibly know all the individual codes for every township.
The second point, and this is REALLY great news, just last night I heard from a counsellor from a very nice area in Ontario. This person said that they are considering removing the minimum house size in the area that they are representing. I sent back SO much information that they will have to spend quite some time reading the information I sent. This said, it is totally worth my time to donate my time to this cause, because I want to ensure that tiny and small sustainable homes are available to anyone who wants to live this lifestyle.
When I know more, I will certainly share more.
We are getting closer every single day folks!
Due to the fact that I have a tiny house and I am so far the only tiny houser in the area who writes about the experience, I have a lot of people writing to me to ask if they can legally live in the tiny house that they dream of building. The honest answer is that I have very little idea.
The problem is, the question is not a simple one. The Canadian Building Code is used as a guideline by all municipalities in Ontario (as far as I know); however, each community can amend these guidelines to fit their own vision of a community.
On Undeveloped land:
Most communities will not allow an RV to be parked there and a tiny house will fit into the same category. So far I have not learned of any areas that allow you to live on wheels on land, whether you own it or not. You can get a permit to live in an RV short term while you are building a house and as far as I know this is the only time you can live in an RV, unless you are in a licensed RV park.
You can typically build a structure on undeveloped land but this is variable depending on your area. You must check yourself with your building inspector. In the case of the area that I live, I am allowed to have a building with a footprint of 108 square feet (many are 100 square feet, I know of one area that has 120 square feet and I am sure that there are other sizes outlined too). The said structure can be no higher than 15 feet which is a gift because this allows me to have a half floor loft. I cannot live there but I can visit it as much as I like. This said without a permit to reside there, my house may well be at risk when new administration or inspectors come on the scene.
On Developed land (land with a house):
You are allowed to park a house on wheels on your own property in most areas but not all. This is why you often see RV’s at storage facilities. You cannot live in an RV beside someone’s house as far as I am aware. The only exceptions are are some communities which allow you to have a garden house which is livable as long as it is movable. There are some communities North of Toronto that welcome movable garden houses. The hitch here is that you must put expensive infrastructure in place. With the exception of the ones that exist already and these movable garden houses, most communities in Ontario strictly prohibit 2 families on one lot.
So far I have never heard of any communities which allow garden houses to be built in back yards but I suspect as our population climbs and cities become denser, this will change.
In short, I can’t really answer this question for you. The answers are very specific to your area and your building inspector. I suggest that anyone who is wants to know call their building inspector. This is their job to know the answers, so don’t feel that you are wasting their time.
If anyone knows specific rules for their city and county please leave this information in the comments section.
I will amend this article as information becomes available or known to me.
Amendment #1: Unorganized Townships:
Barbara Sheridan writes: “If you live in an unorganized township they follow canadian building code not a municipal code (since there is no organized municipality). The Canadian code does not set out building size requirements.” What this means is that you can build a tiny house here, as long as it meets building code. Be aware ladders to the loft do not meet code so you have to make room for stairs that are up to code if you want a second floor.
Tiny House Ontario 