Modular Homes & Garden Suites in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario

Getting your building permit in Kawartha Lakes

An eligible lot still needs a building permit before anything is delivered. Here's how Kawartha Lakes's process actually works — verified against the Kawartha Lakes building department's own pages.

How do you apply for an ADU building permit in Kawartha Lakes?

Through City of Kawartha Lakes online application portals, Building and Septic Division — 180 Kent Street West, Lindsay; 705-324-9411 ext. 1288; buildingpermits@kawarthalakes.ca (septic: septicpermits@kawarthalakes.ca) (application portal ↗). Two separate online forms, in order: first the ARU Registration Application Portal, then the building-permit portal for 'Residential (up to 3 storeys and/or 600 m²) — New, Replacement, Additions, Detached Additional Residential Units'. The City runs its own forms — this is not Cloudpermit. Paper applications are accepted at 180 Kent Street West or the Coboconk Municipal Service Centre, but attract a $15 records-scanning fee and service-centre drop-offs are subject to a processing delay. Kawartha Lakes's building-permit page ↗

1. Contact the Building and Septic Division to start — they oversee ARUs (705-324-9411 ext. 1288).
2. Confirm what your lot allows: up to 3 ARUs on a fully serviced urban lot (Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Lindsay, Omemee), up to 2 in rural areas, and only 1 — inside the house, never a detached suite — on the Oak Ridges Moraine. A suite can be no larger than the floor area of the main dwelling, and on private services the lot must be at least 0.4 ha (≈ 1 acre).
3. Submit the online ARU Registration application with a site plan, the ARU floor plans, and the primary dwelling's floor plans. You are invoiced the $157 registration fee after you apply. Each ARU on the lot is registered separately.
4. Apply for the building permit through the separate Residential portal, with drawings prepared by you or a qualified designer (Schedule 1 — Designer Information).
5. On a private-services lot, apply for the sewage-system review or permit — Kawartha Lakes is its own Ontario Building Code Part 8 authority, so there is no health unit in the loop.
6. Book the mandatory inspection — a Building Inspector, sometimes with a Fire Prevention Officer, who needs access to every dwelling unit. Once it passes you receive a letter of registration and a municipal address is assigned to the suite.

What does a Kawartha Lakes ADU permit application need?

• ARU Registration: a site plan showing lot configuration and lot-line dimensions, the primary dwelling, all accessory structures, parking location and dimensions, walkways to the ARU, and the service connections or well and septic
• ARU Registration: labelled floor plans for the ARU and the primary unit — entrances, room uses and sizes, ceiling heights, window sizes with openable-area calculations, total ARU floor area (common areas shaded)
• Building permit: Applicable Law Checklist, Schedule 1 — Designer Information, and the architectural and structural drawings
• Building permit: Mechanical Ventilation Design Summary and Energy Efficiency Design Summary (SB-12)
• Building permit: Lot Grading and Drainage Plan, Municipal Service Connection Approval, and an Entrance Permit Application where a new entrance is proposed
• On a private-services lot: an Application for Sewage System, plus a review of the existing system's capacity
• A conservation authority permit where the lot is in a regulated area — the permit portal has an upload field for it

How much does an ADU building permit cost in Kawartha Lakes?

From Building By-law 2024-219 (Schedule A) and Consolidated Fees By-law 2018-234 (Schedule E-2), at the rates effective January 1, 2026. A new detached ARU is charged $23.25 per m² of floor area with a $271 minimum — so a ~56 m² (≈600 sq ft) backyard suite works out to roughly $1,300 — plus a one-time $157 ARU registration fee per unit. On a private-septic lot allow $244 for the review of your existing system (credited toward the upgrade if one is needed) and $975 for a new Class 4 septic. The number that dwarfs all of these is development charges: a qualifying ARU is exempt by statute, against the $24,131 (rural) to $69,537 (urban Lindsay) a new single-detached house pays in 2026. All figures are estimates — confirm the current rates with the Building and Septic Division (705-324-9411 ext. 1288).

A qualifying additional residential unit is exempt from development charges by statute — s. 2(3.2) of the Development Charges Act (Bill 23). Worth understanding precisely: the City's DC By-law 2025-139 does not itself contain an ARU exemption clause, it defers to the Act (s. 5.01), and the City publishes no plain-language 'ARUs are exempt' statement. The exemption covers ONE residential unit in a building ancillary to the house — so a single detached backyard suite is exempt, but a SECOND detached unit (which the City's urban zoning does allow) appears to fall outside it and would owe the full charge. The onus is on the owner to satisfy the Chief Building Official that relief applies (s. 5.09), so confirm your project before counting on it. In 2026 a new single or semi-detached house pays $69,537 (Urban-Lindsay), $66,916 (Urban-Other), $61,929 (Urban-NWT), $26,084 (Rural-Ops) or $24,131 (Rural-Other); rates index every January 1.

How long does an ADU building permit take in Kawartha Lakes?

Ontario's Building Code requires a decision on a complete house-class application within 10 business days. The City states a building permit is issued within 10 business days of a complete application package. Two things commonly add time before that clock starts: on a private-services lot the septic capacity is only reviewed once the building-permit application is in — after you have already registered and paid for drawings — and a lot in a conservation-authority regulated area needs that permission first. The City does not publish a timeline for the registration review or for booking the mandatory inspection.

Registration: Registration is mandatory under By-law 2020-162 — an unregistered ARU is illegal — and costs $157 per unit. Note an ordering wrinkle worth raising with the City: the May 2025 ARU Guide says to apply for registration BEFORE the building-permit application, while By-law 2020-162 s. 2.03 says the owner obtains the building permit with satisfactory final inspections completed prior to registration. The two reconcile if you read registration as applied for first and finalized after the work passes inspection — which is how the City's own step-by-step guide reads — but confirm the sequence with the Building and Septic Division. Units already registered under Lindsay By-law 97-169 or By-law 2014-305 are deemed compliant.

Worth knowing before you apply

• It is two applications in two different online forms — the ARU Registration portal first, then the separate Residential building-permit portal. A single ARU needs both, and a second suite on the same lot needs its own registration package.
• ARUs are not permitted in seasonal dwellings — cottages or cabins. Only a single detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling can host one, which rules out a large share of waterfront lots.
• On the Oak Ridges Moraine only one ARU is allowed and only INSIDE the single detached dwelling — a detached backyard suite is not permitted there at all, nor in the ORMCA/ORMLA/ORMEP zones, floodplain, water setback or other hazardous lands.
• On a private well and septic the capacity review happens at the building-permit stage, and the City's own guide warns that in many cases the existing system will not be adequate and a new or upgraded system will be necessary — budget for that possibility before you commit to drawings.
• Short-term rental trap: By-law 2023-111 allows only one licence per PREMISES, and 'premises' is defined as the property, not the unit — so a lot with a house and a backyard suite can hold one STR licence between them, not one each. The ARU guide does not mention this.
• The development-charge exemption covers one unit in an ancillary building. A second detached unit — which urban zoning permits — appears to fall outside it, and at 2026 rates that is a five-figure difference. Confirm with the Chief Building Official.
• Five conservation authorities have jurisdiction somewhere in Kawartha Lakes (Kawartha, Otonabee, Ganaraska Region, Lake Simcoe Region, Central Lake Ontario) plus the Oak Ridges Moraine plan area — and the City's ARU material names none of them. Check which one regulates your lot before you design.
• If the property fronts a provincial highway, an MTO Building and Land Use Permit may be required, and any new entrance definitely triggers one.
• Worth asking about: the City's fee schedule prices a Pre-Approved Model at $7.50 per m² against $23.25 for a standard build — a repeat model that already holds PAM approval is reviewed at roughly a third of the permit fee.

Fees and timelines are estimates from Kawartha Lakes's published schedules, verified July 26, 2026. Rates and processes change — always confirm current requirements with the building department before you apply.