Burra Maluca wrote:
Len Ovens wrote:I thought it was interesting what the talking head said about permits. This one was build as a "temporary" building, a "summer cottage".
From what I remember, in the UK you didn't need permission for 'temporary agricultural dwellings', which is probably why the guy rents it out to an agricultural worker and gets payment in milk.
There are some similar things here. I was going through the building by-laws for the district we are looking for
land in (Strathcona) and found that if you have a "farm" you can build any "low occupancy" building you want with no permit. I need to do some more looking as it seems recreational cottages have different rules as well. This is certainly an area
people who are thinking of building need to look at closely. There are some parts of the country (Canada) where the smallest "house" you can build is 1200sqft! Huge... But what about a "bunkhouse" for hired help? a recreational cottage? or other "low occupancy" buildings? Most places will allow an "apartment" as part of a barn. The apartment still has to be built to code, but can be much smaller than 1200sqft. It would be good to find out if a "sanitary pit privy" (not
outhouse please) is a legal alternative to a septic field too. There are after all requirements as to how they are built... even if you don't need a permit. I don't know about the US or other countries, but in Canada, there is a country wide building code and a province wide code. However, on top of that there is the building by-laws of the municipality/district which determines when you need a permit and may also add to the code requirements (more so in big centres) such as height restrictions or set backs etc. It seems most of the by-laws are available on-line. Even for smaller districts.
Some of the strange building by-laws:
- largest free standing building with no permit 10sq meters (103sqft or so), but add an addition to you mobile home that is twice that size with no permit.
- Some places will allow one home and one mobile home, but not two homes. However, if the second home is built off site in modules and moved and assembled on that property... you may have a two story 2000sqft mobile home legally. I wonder how a home made from containers looks in this picture.
Anyway, all this to say, when dealing with legal stuff, using the right words is very important. It means being careful where you buy land (how is it zoned, what district is it in, what is the growth plan for the area). How much you buy is important too. In some places a "farm" is defined as having a minimum size even when zoned as ag. Seems to me 80 acres in Alberta as an example, while here there are farms on very small properties. It is questionable if farming for a
profit is possible on even 80 acres in Alberta using "normal" farming methods, but here on the coast, even 5 acres can be quite profitable. Anyway, spend time in research and look for a strange way of naming what you want to do that just might make it legal. In Canada, the building code is in all the libraries, or you can buy one. They seem costly, but in the over all picture the cost is probably quite reasonable. Taking weird
plans into the district office might go a lot better if all the odd stuff can have the words: "as per building code" with page and paragraph.