If you think the state of your Etobicoke real estate is no one's business but your own, you're wrong. Whenever you modify your property significantly the city is going to want to know you're not doing anything crazy or dangerous. After all, they're the ones who will have to rescue you if your house collapses or burns down. Therefore in an effort to save homeowners from their own bad decisions, cities and counties require homeowners to apply for building permits.

Not every project will require a building permit. Staging townhomes for sale in Mississauga, for instance, is not something you need a permit for because you're only rearranging furniture and repainting the walls. Its only when structural modifications such as kitchen remodels, additions (including decks, fences, and swimming pools), plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, demolition, roofing, and work on the heating and cooling systems will require a permit. If you're just putting down a new floor, you should be okay without one. Some projects will require more than one permit.

The safest thing to do is to take your plans down to your local city building department and speak to an employee. He or she will be able to tell you which permits you need to apply for, such as a digging permit for your new sewage pumps or a sidewalk permit for paving your driveway or a restoration permit for a listed historical building. They will also be able to give you the proper application forms. However, if you already know what you need, many cities will allow you to apply for permits online.

In a lot of cases, the building permit process is just a formality to make sure the city is aware of and making money on any construction that happens within its borders. However, you may run into a situation where your application for a permit for your London, Ontario real estate is rejected. This is usually because your plans would break a zoning law or building code, so you will have to go back to the drawing board and modify the plans.

How much your building permit will cost depends on the size and scale of the project as well as where you live. However, it's a give that your permit will cost you less than your legal fees if you do unauthorized renovations and it comes to light when you put the property on the Toronto real estate listings. Always be safe and go by the book.

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