Yes — and in Ontario, starting first is a real legal risk, not a formality. Building without a permit is a Building Code Act offence carrying fines up to $50,000 for a first conviction.
Short answer
Yes, and you should. Ontario’s own guidance states that someone “charged and found guilty of an offence under the Building Code Act, 1992, such as building without a permit, can be fined up to $50,000 for a first offence and up to $100,000 for subsequent offences.” That exposure sits with whoever did the work, not just the owner who commissioned it, and permit review is measured in days — 10 for a house, 30 for a complex building — so the wait has a defined end.
Ontario’s own guidance is unambiguous: “You must obtain a building permit before you construct any new building over ten square meters in area” or place a structure such as a mobile home on a property, and before most renovations, use changes, or sewage-system work. Someone “charged and found guilty of an offence under the Building Code Act, 1992, such as building without a permit, can be fined up to $50,000 for a first offence and up to $100,000 for subsequent offences.” That exposure sits with whoever did the work, not just the owner who commissioned it — refusing to start is the safer default, not an overreaction.
A permit isn’t supposed to be an open-ended wait. The same guidance states: “The timeframe on a permit application for a house is 10 days. For a more complex building, such as a hospital, the timeframe is 30 days.” Once an inspection has been called for, “the municipal building official is required to carry out the inspection within two working days of being notified” — five working days for a sewage system. If an owner is pushing you to start before the permit clears, those statutory review windows show the wait is measured in days, not months.
A building permit and an electrical permit are not the same approval. The Electrical Safety Authority requires that “electrical work must be reported to the Electrical Safety Authority by filing a notification of work before the work starts,” and “whoever is doing the electrical work must be the one to file” it. A general building permit being in hand doesn’t cover electrical scope — that notification is a separate, trade-specific requirement, and ESA itself flags a contractor asking someone else to file it in their name as a sign of unlicensed work.
Put the refusal in writing, cite the outstanding permit, and reference the statutory review timeline so the owner knows the wait has a defined end. That same paper trail protects you if the owner later claims you caused the delay — the same habit that matters when you log any other site decision in the daily record.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether AI pays for itself here.
