Retail & Second-Hand · 5 min read · Last updated
If your business leases or rents mobile signs to other businesses, you need a licence under Schedule 26 of By-law 07-170. It has the lightest checklist of any licence in this group: three items, no police check, no inspection. The requirement that does the real work is the one about putting your own name on every sign you send out.
The City of Hamilton lists this under its “Establishments” category: “By-law 07-170, Schedule 26. Please see By-law for DEFINITION, REQUIREMENTS and RESTRICTIONS. Certification all mobile signs have the name and phone number of the licensee affixed to the mobile sign in a clear and visible location.”
Who needs this licence?
This licence is for the business that leases or rents mobile signs out to others. It sits in Schedule 26 of By-law 07-170, and the by-law itself carries the definition, requirements and restrictions that go with it.
What sets this licence apart from most of the others in the by-law is what it does not ask for. There is no criminal record check on the checklist, no zoning verification, no premise plan and no inspection. It is a three-item file.
In exchange, one obligation runs continuously rather than once at application: every mobile sign you put out has to identify you. That is the substantive condition, and it is the thing an officer can check on any street on any day, without visiting your premises.
What documents do you need?
Item one is the completed business licence application form. Item two is a valid business registration, corporate profile or master business licence dated within one year of the application, which shows the City that the entity applying is currently registered.
Item three is the certification that all your mobile signs have the name and phone number of the licensee affixed to the sign in a clear and visible location. This is the item unique to this licence, and it is worth understanding why the City asks for it: a mobile sign sits on someone else's property, often temporarily, and the identification is how a complaint about a sign reaches the business responsible for it.
Because the file is short, there is little room for gaps. A stale business registration is the most common reason an otherwise simple application stalls.
Zoning and premises requirements
This licence's checklist does not include a Zoning Verification Certificate, and no zoning verification charge appears in its fee structure. That is unusual in this by-law and it reflects what is being licensed: the business of leasing signs out, rather than a place the public visits.
Zoning still applies to property in the ordinary way. The yard or premises you run the business from is subject to the zoning for that address like any other use; it is simply not a document this licensing checklist asks you to file.
Signs you lease out are placed on other people's property. Treat the placement rules that apply to those sites as a separate question from your licence, and ask Licensing and By-law Services if you are not sure how the two interact.
Inspections and approvals
No inspection is listed on this licence's checklist. There is no fire, health, parking or building inspection to arrange, and no inspection fee in the fee structure.
That absence changes where the compliance effort goes. Instead of a scheduled visit to your premises before the licence issues, the check on this business happens in the field, on the signs themselves.
The practical version of this is simple: if every sign in your fleet carries your name and phone number in a clear and visible location, you are meeting the requirement the by-law puts on you. If some do not, the certification you signed is the document that will be revisited.
How much does it cost?
The fee structure here is as short as the checklist: a processing fee for opening and reviewing the application, plus the licence fee. HST applies to the processing fee; the licence fee is not subject to HST.
There is no zoning verification charge and no inspection fee on this licence, which is why the fee schedule shows a single total rather than the with-zoning and without-zoning pair you see on premises-based licences.
Renewal is charged as the licence fee. If the licence lapses, reinstating it costs a reinstatement fee with HST added.
The City sets these amounts in its fee schedule and confirms what applies to you at the time you apply.
How to apply
Get a current business registration, corporate profile or master business licence, dated within a year, and complete the application form.
Before you certify the sign identification requirement, walk your inventory. Confirm that each mobile sign carries the licensee's name and phone number, affixed in a clear and visible location, and fix any that do not. Certifying first and labelling later is the wrong order.
Submit the application with the processing fee and licence fee. There are no inspections to schedule and no zoning certificate to wait on, so this file moves quickly compared with the premises licences in the same group.
Set up a routine for new signs entering the fleet, since the identification requirement applies to all of them, not just the ones you owned when you applied.
Renewals and staying compliant
Renewal for this licence requires Declaration B to be completed. Unlike the personal licences in the by-law, there is no requirement to attend in person with photo identification and no photo card to reprint.
The renewal charge listed is the licence fee, and there are no recurring inspection charges to plan for.
The sign identification obligation carries on unchanged between renewals. If you have replaced or repainted signs during the year, check them before you renew rather than assuming last year's labelling survived.
Renew before the expiry date. A late licence has to be reinstated and reinstatement carries its own fee with HST.
Quick quiz: test what you learned
Three questions, all answered in this guide. Click an answer to check it.
1. What must appear on every mobile sign you lease or rent out?
The checklist requires certification that all mobile signs carry the licensee's name and phone number affixed in a clear and visible location.
2. Which inspection does the mobile sign leasing or renting licence require?
This licence has a three-item checklist with no required inspections and no inspection fees in its fee structure.
3. What has to be completed when you renew this licence?
The renewal requirements for this licence are limited to completing Declaration B.
Skip the paperwork
Tell Permits2Go about your business and it assembles the licence application for you — document checklists, e-signatures and a guided workspace for Hamilton, with more cities on the way.
This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Licensing requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality — always confirm the current rules with the City before you apply.