Process · 7 min read · Last updated
Experienced permit consultants don't start by asking how to get a permit — they ask what could stop one from being issued. These are the five questions professionals put to municipal building departments before a single drawing is finalized, and why each one can save a project weeks or months.
1. “What constitutes ‘applicable law’ for this specific property?”
Why they ask: under the Ontario Building Code, a building department cannot legally issue a permit while the project offends any applicable law — even if the structural drawings are perfect. Every external agency with veto power has to be identified up front.
What they're digging for: whether the property falls under:
- Conservation authorities — hazard lands, floodplains, regulated wetlands and slopes.
- Heritage registries — designated properties or heritage conservation districts.
- Environmental requirements — e.g. a Record of Site Condition for formerly commercial or industrial land.
- Source water protection policies near municipal wellheads and intakes.
Surfacing these before submission prevents an application from being frozen the day it lands. (Zoning itself is the first and biggest applicable-law gate — our zoning guide covers it.)
2. “Are there active Site Plan Control agreements or restrictive covenants on title?”
Why they ask: a design can match the zoning by-law perfectly and still be stalled by an invisible agreement attached to the land.
What they're digging for: Site Plan Control agreements, registered easements, utility corridors and subdivision agreements — any of which can dictate building placement, grading, access or landscaping. Expanding a footprint or altering parking on a site-plan-controlled property may require amending the agreement first; drawing a site plan across a registered easement is a guaranteed rejection.
3. “Do you offer conditional, partial or phased permits for this project type?”
Why they ask: on larger or schedule-critical projects, waiting for one comprehensive permit can kill the construction calendar — the goal is crews on site as early as legally possible.
What they're digging for:
- Phased permits — excavation and shoring, or foundations, starting while upper-floor structural and architectural review continues.
- Conditional permits — construction beginning under a formal agreement while final approvals (say, a conservation authority sign-off) are still in process. Municipalities have discretion here, and policies differ widely.
4. “What are your exact drawing, formatting and e-submission standards?”
Why they ask: most Ontario municipalities now intake permits through digital portals (Cloudpermit, CityView and custom systems), and each enforces strict compilation rules — a formatting miss can trigger an automatic rejection and weeks of lost queue position.
What they're digging for:
- Single multi-page PDF, or drawings split by discipline (architectural, structural, mechanical)?
- Are certified digital seals from engineers or architects required, and through which verification platform?
- File naming conventions, sheet sizes, scales and vector-PDF requirements.
5. “What is your real review backlog — and is there a fast-track or peer-review option?”
Why they ask: the legislated review windows (10–30 business days by building type — see how the clock actually works) describe the law, not the queue. Staffing and application surges mean actual turnarounds drift.
What they're digging for: the current real turnaround time, plus alternatives: expedited streams some municipalities offer for simple project types, and — in some jurisdictions — third-party peer review, where a qualified external firm reviews the plans for a fee and the city signs off on that review, bypassing the internal queue.
The consultant's strategy: while an owner asks “how do I get a permit?”, a consultant asks “what is going to stop this permit from being issued?” Focusing on the edge cases, formatting rules and municipal bottlenecks is how a package sails through the system.
New to all of this? Start with the owner-level version: the five questions every owner asks about building permits. And this pre-flight checking — the right forms, the right format, the right municipality-specific requirements — is exactly the legwork Permits2Go automates.
Skip the paperwork
Describe your project in plain English and Permits2Go finds, fills and assembles the exact municipal forms you need — for Toronto, Mississauga and municipalities across Ontario.
This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Permit requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality — always confirm the current rules with your local building department before you design or build.