How municipal by-laws can affect your life

Your local municipality is one of the major influences that affects your present or future home. A by-law is a law passed by a municipality to create the rules under which it will operate and to achieve a variety of purposes.

The planning department in a municipality will recommend to its council issues such as growth patterns and traffic handling, which help generate the long-term planning goals that will regulate the various uses of different lands and will generally establish everything relating to land-use that you could think of. Council will then enact a by-law to give efficacy to those intentions. As an example, one such by-law is a zoning by-law. These are laws that regulate land-use within the municipal boundaries. In other words, what will the city allow on this lot. A house? A factory? Or a highrise condo building? What will be the setbacks? The density or the height restrictions? The city uses zoning by-laws to execute its land-use planning intentions.

When buying a resale home there are many things to check out — zoning and other city by-laws are among them. What does that mean? Here are some examples. What if that beautiful deck in the backyard was constructed without a building permit? What if you want to build an extension? In both cases, by-laws will have a significant impact. In the first issue, you may end up with an order that says the deck must be removed after you buy and in the second you may be prevented from putting on the extension because it may be to close to the lot setbacks or maximum coverage. The next and most obvious question must then be, how do I protect myself?

One way is through a land survey. When you make the offer, make sure it says there is a current survey available, or a survey showing all structures on the property to be provided by the vendor. Don’t let anyone tell you that this is covered by title insurance — without a survey, there can be other problems. Check to determine on the land survey whether all of the structures on the property are actually on it. If they do not appear, you will need to find out whether they were legally constructed. Then ensure your lawyer speaks to you about what you want to do with the property before the offer is final.

This is extremely serious. I once had a dentist come to me after he had seen another lawyer and had purchased a condominium that he thought could be used for his dental practice. It turned out that although it was zoned commercial, a dental office was not allowed. It took months and many thousands of dollars to sort out the mess.

One of the best things to do when purchasing a resale home is to go to the municipal zoning department and ask to purchase the zoning by-law. You can study your area and the particular zoning requirements that apply to the property you are purchasing. You can also determine through examining maps and zoning designations what is allowed around you. At the same time, ask to see the “Official Plan” which is the master blueprint for properties in your municipality. Also, remember that there may be more than one layer, so you may have to check regional levels as well (for example – Clarington has its own rules but is part of the Region of Durham and the Region’s decisions will affect a homeowner in Clarington).

What happens if you encounter a zoning issue and want to overcome it? Normally, and provided the issue can be resolved through a variation minor in nature, an application can be made to the local Committee of Adjustment, and the Committee is empowered in law to grant variances that are minor in nature.