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.
Community
Another Illegal Tiny House
Categories: Building code, Community, Open your eyes, Tiny house, View
Tags: Building code, Illegal, Planning, Tiny House
12 Comments
Canadian Tiny Houses
I was very stoked when I heard from Natalie yesterday. She is I think, the newest tiny house person in Canada. You can see about her here. She is located a couple of hours drive from Tiny House Ontario, in Quebec. This is the first finished or almost finished tiny house, I have heard about since learning about Lydiah’s tiny house in Saskatoon.
I am sure there are others of us and I would very much like to add you to this list.
If you are living in a tiny house please leave a comment here or privately on the Tiny House Ontario Facebook page and I will contact you. If you don’t want your house to be public information I will not disclose. If you are interested I will add you to this list with a link to your blog.
Here are the Canadian tiny houses that I know about.
With Blogs or sites:
Me! Laura Moreland, Ontario: Tiny House Ontario:
Red Door Tiny Homes: London Ontario BUILDER
Builders Henry, British Columbia: The Totems:
Heather, Manitoba: Tiny is More: Not much up at the site yet, but the house is nearly done!
Collin and Joanna, Ontario: Our Wee House (SOLD – but story is still there):
Kat and Matt, Ontario: Hobohemians:
UNKNOWN, British Columbia: Chemical Free Tiny House:
Natalie, Quebec: Tiny Refuge:
The Leaf House, Yukon (BUILDER as well):
Kyle and Jessie Jang, Alberta: A Tiny House on the Prairies:
Newly Weds, Nova Scotia: Tiny House Nova Scotia
Derrick and Lisa, New Brunswick:
Get Tiny Michelle, British Columbia, (BUILDER):
Without Blogs
The Little House (Built in 1912) UNKNOWN, Newfoundland,
The Great Escape: Deanna, New Brunswick:
Nicky and Judy : Tiny, Nova Scotia
Lydia, Saskatchewan: La Casita
UNKNOWN, Bridge Studio, Newfoundland:
Tracy, Ontario: AWESOME TIME LAPSE Kayla, British Columbia:
Jack in the Box: Turtle Island Tiny Houses: Builder (They recently relocated their business to) British Columbia
Forest Trek Cabins, Edmonton Alberta, Builder: (Lots of skill here and some fancy looking sheds and a cottage too, but no tiny houses YET. Let me know if you give them a try. Readers, I am sure I missed a lot, please let me know of any houses and links that you know about. A thousand sets of eyes are always better than one.
The Canadian lawn chair, dead of winter, Canada
Categories: Community, Open your eyes, Tiny house
Tags: Canada, Canadian, Canadian Tiny house, List of tiny houses, Tiny House, Tiny house in Canada
33 Comments
Minimum 400 Square Feet
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
Categories: Building code, Community, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny house
24 Comments
Ontario Tiny House Legalization…
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!
Ontario Tiny House By-Law Questions
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.
Categories: Building code, Community, Neighbours, Ontario, Tiny house
153 Comments
Tiny House Ontario 