Secondary (Legal) Suites
A secondary (or legal) suite is a complete living unit with its own kitchen, sleeping area, and washroom facilities contained within another dwelling. The two dwelling units (the primary residence and the secondary suite) and any common spaces make up a single real estate entity that cannot be stratified or otherwise legally separated from the other.
Secondary suites are permitted in most single detached and some side-by-side attached homes across British Columbia and come with many benefits such as providing homes for aging parents, adult children or other family members, helping to pay a mortgage or investing in existing property and contributing to more long-term rental housing in communities.
Local government zoning and planning requirements, as well as certain building codes, and building permit requirements would dictate if a secondary suite can be built on a property and what building codes would apply. In the City of Vancouver (municipality), the Vancouver Building By-laws (VBBL) will apply. Elsewhere in BC, the British Columbia Building Codes (BCBC) is applicable.
There are very rigid building code and building permit requirements for converting an existing space into a secondary (or legal) suite. The newer the single-family dwelling containing the space for conversion, the easier it may be to do so. The older the single-family dwelling, the greater the number of requirements. There are also different types of secondary suites as shown in the graphic below.
Types of Secondary Suites
Secondary Suites in Surrey – What Actually Applies
Surrey follows the BC Building Code rather than the Vancouver Building By-Laws, and it has one requirement that catches out more homeowners than any other rule in Metro Vancouver.
Every secondary suite in Surrey must be registered. Registration is separate from the building permit. You complete a Secondary Suite Declaration Form and submit it to Property and Payment Services. If the City becomes aware of an unregistered suite, a $1,000 fee is billed to the property for each one. You can check whether a suite is already registered using Surrey’s Secondary Suite Fee Web Inquiry tool.
Where suites are permitted: one secondary suite per single family, semi-detached or duplex dwelling, including within small-scale multi-unit housing zones and Comprehensive Development zones. Suites may also sit in a triplex or fourplex, or in a separate structure on the same lot. A secondary suite is not permitted inside a coach house or garden suite.
Check your title before you design anything. Surrey reviews every suite application for legal restrictions such as Land Use Contracts and Building Schemes, which prohibit suites outright on certain properties. This is a Surrey-specific step and it is worth resolving before spending money on drawings.
Coach houses and garden suites: minimum 35 m2, maximum 75 m2, and excluded from floor area ratio. On lots zoned RA, R2, R2-O and R3 that sit below maximum FAR, the size can rise to 120 m2. Coach houses must be attached to a garage, and smaller lots zoned R3, R4, R5, R5-S and R6 need lane access to build one. Without lane access, a garden suite is usually the alternative.
Budget for the deposit. A non-refundable flat fee is collected at application review, and a damage deposit of $2,500 may be required on work valued over $20,000.
If your Surrey or South Surrey home was built suite-ready, the electrical panel for the suite may already be installed. Contact the Building Division to check whether a Suite Ready permit was issued – it can save a meaningful amount of work. We handle this across South Surrey, Cloverdale, Newton, Fleetwood and Guildford.
For Comparison – The Stricter Vancouver Requirements
Homeowners often ask how Surrey compares to Vancouver. The City of Vancouver applies the VBBL, whose basic guidelines for creating a secondary occupancy include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Permitting: a development permit and a building permit, with separate electrical, plumbing and gas permits, and no more than one suite per home.
- Size and position: at least 400 sq. ft. and never larger than the main dwelling, with the floor no more than 6′ below outside grade and 6′-6″ of headroom over exit routes and 80% of the suite.
- Fire and smoke: interconnected, hard-wired smoke and CO alarms with battery back-up in each bedroom, plus sound plaster or 1/2″ gypsum board and self-closing solid-core doors between the two units.
- Exiting: bedroom windows with at least 3.77 sq. ft. of unobstructed opening and no bars, exit doors that are never locked from outside, and a 3′-wide hard path from the street to the suite for emergency responders.
- Electrical and plumbing: a service sized for the whole house, the required outlets in kitchen, bedrooms and living area with GFCI protection near water, properly installed and vented fixtures, and a strapped hot water tank.
- Parking: on-site spaces for both the main house and the suite.
As a general rule, Surrey applies the BC Building Code, which regulates the same things less restrictively than the VBBL. The steps that more often trip up Surrey owners are the non-code ones – title restrictions and suite registration. Specifics will vary with each property, so we confirm the code, title and registration requirements for yours before design begins.
The graphic below shows a pictorial summary of the different code requirements for secondary suites (and legal basements).
Summary of the different code requirements for secondary suites.
