Case Law Review

Permit Conditions

We are often asked what should be done to satisfy the duty to inspect when an owner has built without a permit or completed construction without the required inspections. A Quebec case, Alfred/Plantagenet (Canton) v Peladeau (2001) 17 MPLR 237, may provide some insight into the legal effects of the standard answer: require the owner to obtain an engineer’s certificate that the building conforms to the bylaw and codes. The judgment is in French, so the following is from the English version of the headnote.

The building inspector refused the engineer’s certificate submitted by the owner for the structures built without permits and required the owner “as built” plans. On the owner's refusal, the municipality then applied to the court for an order requiring the owners to comply with the provincial building code and with the BI’s order to demolish the unpermitted structures or authorize the municipality to demolish them.

The court held that the municipality was required to accept the engineer’s certificate stating that the structures complied with the requirements of the building code, on condition that the engineer was ready to commit in writing to the municipality to be directly responsible for all defects and complaints that could arise against the issued certificate. The owners were to pay the costs incurred to obtain the necessary documentation. The court found that the BI’s distrust of the owner contributed to the imposition of conditions that the owners could not meet, although there was no evidence that as built drawings was an onerous condition.