Accommodation & Rentals · 8 min read · Last updated
This is the short-term rental stream for renting out the whole place: bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and a separate entrance, including a secondary dwelling unit such as a separated basement apartment or a laneway house. It still has to be your principal residence, it cannot be held by a corporation, and you can hold only one operator licence. The feature that sets it apart from the partial dwelling stream is a Certificate of Compliance, both as an application form and as an inspection.
The City of Hamilton lists this under its “Establishments” category: “All or part of a dwelling unit used to provide sleeping accommodations to the travelling public for any rental period that is less than 28 consecutive days in exchange for payment or other remuneration; must be the operator's principal residence. Entire Dwelling is considered the rental of the entire home (ie. bedroom(s), bathrooms, kitchen and a separate entrance including secondary dwelling units (SDU)), subject to review of the application.”
Who needs this licence?
A short-term rental is all or part of a dwelling unit used to provide sleeping accommodation to the travelling public for any rental period of less than 28 consecutive days, in exchange for payment or other remuneration, and it must be the operator's principal residence.
The entire dwelling stream is the rental of the whole home: bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and a separate entrance, including secondary dwelling units. Classification is subject to review of your application, so the City decides which stream you are in based on what you describe, not on which box you would prefer.
A secondary dwelling unit means a unit completely separated from the principal dwelling, either fully detached, such as a laneway dwelling, or separated by a fire separation and a door restricting entry between the two units, with its own bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and dedicated entrance. A wet bar area in a basement does not make a separate unit. That test matters because it decides whether you need zoning verification.
Three hard restrictions apply. No STR operator licence is issued to a corporation. No more than one STR operator licence is permitted per operator. And in this stream specifically, you can only have one listing on an STR broker site. Together those rules are aimed squarely at keeping this a principal-residence activity rather than a portfolio business.
What documents do you need?
The package opens with the completed Business Licence Application Form and a completed STR questionnaire. The questionnaire is the document that determines your stream, so answer it carefully: entire dwelling and partial dwelling have different checklists and different costs.
A floor plan is required showing the square footage of the unit, the number of bedrooms, the number and location of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, evacuation routes and the location of safety equipment. A Zoning Verification Certificate is required only if the rental is a secondary dwelling unit.
This stream then requires a completed Certificate of Compliance application. That is the single largest difference from the partial dwelling stream, which uses a self-certification checklist instead. When you rent out an entire home, nobody is on site to notice a problem, so the City inspects the property against standards rather than relying on your own certification.
The guest and fire documents follow: a copy of your guest information package, a detailed fire escape plan using the template available on the City website, and a statutory declaration for compliance with the Fire Protection and Prevention Act and the regulations under the Fire Code, also available on the City website. Because the declaration is statutory, it must be sworn or affirmed.
Then the applicant-level items: proof of insurance for the rental use, host liability or commercial general liability of not less than one million dollars per occurrence; a minimum of two pieces of proof of principal residence, one being government-issued identification; approval of the property owner if you are not the owner; a criminal records and judicial matters check from the police service board in your city of residence dated within 36 days, with third party clearances not accepted; and a certified electrician inspection or ESA certificate confirming compliance with the Ontario Electrical Safety Code.
Zoning and premises requirements
Zoning verification is conditional on this licence, not automatic. You need a Zoning Verification Certificate only if the short-term rental is a secondary dwelling unit.
That is why the definition of a secondary dwelling unit is worth reading closely. A unit qualifies where it is completely separated from the principal dwelling, either fully detached, such as a laneway dwelling, or separated by a fire separation and a door that restricts entry between the two units, and it has its own bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and dedicated entrance. A basement wet bar does not create a separate unit.
If you are renting your principal dwelling itself, the zoning verification line and its fee drop away, and the guide shows a total without zoning for exactly that reason. If you are licensing a laneway house or a separated basement apartment, budget for the zoning line and start it early, since it can be the slowest step.
In place of a scaled premise plan, this licence relies on your floor plan, which has to show square footage, bedroom count, smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector locations, evacuation routes and safety equipment.
Inspections and approvals
Two things happen once your application has been received, and the licensing team circulates the requests.
- Fire administrative review. This is a review by the fire service rather than a full building inspection, which is why the fee schedule shows a fire administrative fee rather than a fire inspection fee. Your fire escape plan, floor plan detector locations and statutory declaration are what it examines.
- Certificate of Compliance inspection. This is an assessment of the property against the Property Standards By-law, and it is unique to the entire dwelling stream.
The presence of the Certificate of Compliance inspection is the practical reason this stream costs more and takes longer than the partial dwelling stream. Deficiencies identified in it have to be corrected before the certificate, and therefore the licence, can be issued.
There is no health inspection and no parking inspection on a short-term rental operator file, which distinguishes it from the Schedule 3 accommodation licences.
How much does it cost?
The application combines a processing fee, the licence fee, a fire administrative fee and a Certificate of Compliance fee.
The zoning verification or addendum fee is added only for secondary dwelling units, and the guide prints separate totals with and without it so the difference is visible.
The licence fee in this stream is several times the partial dwelling licence fee, and the Certificate of Compliance is an additional line that the partial dwelling stream does not carry at all. If you are weighing whether to rent the whole home or just a room, that gap is the main financial difference between the two routes.
HST applies to some lines and not others: the processing fee, fire administrative fee and Certificate of Compliance carry HST on top of a set fee, while the licence fee and the zoning line are shown without it. Renewal adds a renewal fee to the licence fee and fire administrative fee. A lapsed licence attracts a reinstatement fee. All amounts are set by the City in its fee schedule and confirmed during the application.
How to apply
Check the three restrictions first. You must be an individual rather than a corporation, you may hold only one operator licence, and in this stream you can have only one listing on an STR broker site. If any of those is a problem, the rest of the process will not fix it.
Confirm the dwelling is your principal residence and gather the two pieces of proof, one of which must be government-issued identification. If you rent the home rather than own it, get the property owner's approval in writing at this stage.
Work out whether you are licensing a secondary dwelling unit. If you are, order the Zoning Verification Certificate early. In parallel, prepare the floor plan with detector locations and evacuation routes, download and complete the fire escape plan and statutory declaration templates from the City website, and arrange the electrical inspection or ESA certificate.
Complete the STR questionnaire and the Certificate of Compliance application, arrange host liability or commercial general liability insurance for the rental use, and order the criminal records and judicial matters check so it is dated within 36 days of filing.
Submit the whole package with the application form and pay the processing, licence, fire administrative and Certificate of Compliance fees, plus zoning where it applies. The licensing team then circulates the fire administrative review and the Certificate of Compliance inspection.
Renewals and staying compliant
Declarations A and B are completed at each renewal, and an ESA certificate or electrical inspection certificate is required every three years. That three-year electrical cycle is easy to forget because it does not line up with the renewal rhythm, so diarize it separately.
The renewal charges are a renewal fee, the licence fee and the fire administrative fee. The Certificate of Compliance is not part of the standard renewal line-up here, though the certificate itself remains an obligation attached to the property standards regime.
If your circumstances change, the licence may not survive the renewal. Moving out of the dwelling ends the principal residence basis, transferring the property into a corporation is not permitted, and adding a second listing conflicts with the one-listing restriction in this stream. Renew before the licence lapses, since a late licence carries a reinstatement fee.
Quick quiz: test what you learned
Three questions, all answered in this guide. Click an answer to check it.
1. What does the entire dwelling stream require that the partial dwelling stream does not?
The police check, fire escape plan and principal residence proof are on both streams; only the entire dwelling stream carries a Certificate of Compliance application and the inspection that follows it.
2. Can a corporation hold a Hamilton STR operator licence for an entire dwelling?
Schedule 32 states plainly that no STR operator licence is issued to a corporation and that no more than one licence is permitted per operator.
3. When is a Zoning Verification Certificate required for an entire dwelling short-term rental?
The checklist and the fee schedule both tie the zoning verification line to secondary dwelling units, so renting the principal dwelling itself does not trigger it.
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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.