How long does it take to get a building permit in Toronto?

The official review periods, with their conditions

Toronto identifies the following streams. The standards for the non-Express streams apply to complete applications. Express is described as a goal for eligible applications after they have been taken in. Confirm the applicable stream rather than selecting the shortest period from the table.

Complete and incomplete are meaningful distinctions

For the listed non-Express streams, Toronto describes a complete package as including the signed application, plans and specifications, an issued Zoning Applicable Law Certificate, confirmation of applicable-law compliance and paid fees. It says an application without that certificate is incomplete and that incomplete applications have no review timeframe.

Toronto’s zoning certificate service reviews the submitted proposal before the building permit application and currently offers online applications. Its current guide sets out the documentation and route. Confirm that the certificate and declarations used with the permit submission relate to the proposal you are actually filing.

For planning purposes, maintain a readiness register rather than assuming the date a file was uploaded is the date every completeness condition was met. Give each outstanding item an owner and a status: requested, being prepared, submitted or confirmed. This helps distinguish a preparation delay from time in the City’s review process.

A notice or resubmission is another part of the schedule

The City’s status glossary distinguishes review underway, an examiner waiting for responses and a response accepted back into the review queue. It also distinguishes completed review from issuance when approvals or fees are still outstanding. Those labels describe different next actions.

If you receive a notice, identify the latest notice and the document revision needed to answer it. Estimate the time for preparing that response with the person doing the work. Avoid automatically adding the original review period to every response; ask Toronto Building about the file’s actual stage and next review.

Keep correspondence, response dates and drawing revisions together. When a contractor asks for a start date, explain which items are still unresolved rather than reporting only the age of the application. This is an organizational approach, not a prediction of the City’s decision.

Build an end-to-end schedule without confusing the milestones

Create a sequence with separate stages for defining the scope, preparing the proposal, completing the application, City review, answering notices, issuance and construction inspections. Beside each stage, record who controls the next action and what evidence marks it as complete.

For example, a homeowner can agree a date for delivering survey information to the designer, while the designer estimates drawing preparation. The City review period becomes relevant only under the appropriate stream and conditions. A notice requiring revised information adds a task that needs its own plan.

Before construction that requires a permit, locate the required issued approval. Toronto’s work-without-permit guidance explains that starting early can result in delays and additional consequences. Once the permit is issued, inspection scheduling and closing the permit remain separate tasks; they are not included in the application review benchmark.

Your next steps

1. Confirm the project’s review stream and eligibility.
2. Ask whether the package is complete under that stream.
3. Track outstanding information, notices and responses separately.
4. Treat issuance, construction and inspections as their own milestones.

Common questions

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