Residents > Planning & Building > Second Units
Second Units

Second Units

The City of Mississauga has repealed the current Second Unit Licensing By-law (By-law 204-13) and replaced it with Second Units Registration By-law (By-law 114-16) enacted and passed June 8, 2016.

What is a Second Unit?

A second unit is a self-contained living unit within a detached, semi-detached house or townhouse. As part of the registration process, the second unit must comply with the Ontario Building Code, Ontario Fire Code and the Mississauga Zoning By-law.

Property Owners are required to complete a second unit registration application and submit it at the Planning and Building Customer Services Centre on 3rd Floor, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga during regular business hours, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There is no fee to register a second unit. However, there may be other fees associated with second units such as building permit fees and fire inspection fees as part of the required steps in the registration process. (Note: Not including any required design drawings and renovation costs.)

Homeowners who have already obtained a second unit license will be automatically registered.

If you have a second unit and your property does not appear on the registration list, you will need to register the second unit via one of the streams below;

  • Unregistered Second Units built on or before July 14, 1994

  • Unregistered Second Units built after July 14, 1994

  • New Second Units

Process Streams

UNIT EXISTING BEFORE 1994

Unregistered Second Units built on or before July 14, 1994

Complete the application form (link below) and the affidavit form (link below), signed and sealed by a lawyer.

Bring both documents to the planning and building customer service centre during normal business hours.

We will take the application and affidavit. We will validate the information and forward the documents to the fire prevention and life safety.

They will contact you to arrange for an inspection.

Telephone:  905-896-5908
Email us:  fire.prevention@mississauga.ca

300 City Centre Dr., 2nd floor
Counter hours - 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

You will require a current Electrical Safety Certificate.

Once inspection has been completed, Fire and Emergency Services will issue the following;

  1. A clearance letter allowing the second unit to be registered, or

  2. A Fire Inspection Order outlining the work required to make the second unit compliant. A building permit may be needed to undertake this work. If a building permit is required, sign-off by the Building Inspector is needed prior to registration. If a permit is required, please see information under New Second Units.

UNIT EXISTING AFTER 1994

Unregistered Second Units built after July 14, 1994

Homeowners with unregistered second units built after July 14, 1994 will need to provide the following prior to registration.

Required documents

  1. Proof of ownership (Tax Bill, Title of Property, or Tax Assessment Notice)

  2. A Building Permit Notice signed off by all inspectors.

If you did not obtain a building permit, no longer have your permit, or are unclear of all nevessary requirements, please visit the Planning and Building Customer Services Centre Counter on the 3rd Floor, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, during regular business hours, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. tospeak to a Permit Technician. You can also check online, by address for permits at mississauga.ca/portal/services/property

REGISTERING A NEW UNIT

New Second Units

Homeowners planning to construct new second units are required to complete the building permit process.

For those that already have a complete building permit for a new second unit, please completed the registration application and submit it at the Planning and Building Customer Services Centre on 3rd Floor, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga during regular business hours to be added to the Second Unit Registry.

Please note that architectural and HVAC drawings demonstrating compliance to the Ontario Building Code and Zoning By-law for the proposed second units in digital format are required before proceeding to the next steps:

  1. Visit the online services, ePlans at https://eplans.mississauga.ca/portal and make a Building Permit Application (BPA) request.

  2. When the building permit application is accepted and processed, it will automatically create the Second Units Registry

  3. Once a building permit has been issued and all necessary inspections have been completed, the Second Unit Registry will be updated to Registered status.

Building Permit information/requirements are available at mississauga.ca/portal/residents/completeapplications. You can also call the City's Citizen Contact Centre at 3-1-1.
pcomapp01:8850