Sunroom and Veranda: The Extension Permit in Quebec

A sunroom gets shopped for like a piece of furniture: a model, a frame colour, an installation date. The Régie du bâtiment du Québec classifies it differently. For the board, “the construction of a sunroom is an increase in floor area.” That one word changes the permit, the distances to respect, the structure that has to be calculated, and the tax bill that will follow.

A sunroom or a veranda is an extension

The RBQ is explicit: because the sunroom forms an integral part of the building, a new installation has to comply with the requirements of the Code de construction du Québec, chapter I, Bâtiment, and the board specifies that the Code’s requirements apply even when the work is an addition to an existing building.

Ville de Laval says the same thing on the municipal side: adding a sunroom or a veranda requires a permis de construction-amélioration, a construction and improvement permit, before the work begins, and “this type of addition is considered an extension of the main building.” The city in fact lists it among its examples of an extension, alongside adding a second storey and an attached garage.

The sentence that should decide everything. The RBQ writes that there is no acquired right where compliance with the regulations is concerned, and that a sunroom that did not comply with the regulations in force when it was built will have to be modified or demolished. Time regularizes nothing.

Three season or four season: the line that changes the permit

Laval defines the solarium as a glazed room with no permanent insulating component, and the véranda as an uninsulated glazed room, seasonal, generally unheated, often built on an existing deck.

Heating is the real border. The RBQ provides that when the sunroom is heated, its doors and windows must comply with the Code’s requirements on resistance to intrusion and air leakage. And if the permit application was filed after August 30, 2012, or if construction began after November 28, 2012, the heated sunroom has to comply with part 11 of the Bâtiment chapter, insofar as the building area after the work is no more than 600 square metres, the height no more than 3 storeys and the building houses only dwellings. Beyond that, it is the National Energy Code for Buildings 2015 as amended for Quebec.

Setbacks, lot coverage and floor area

A heated sunroom adds floor area, and that area counts toward what the lot can carry. Montreal sums up the standards for an extension in one line: respect the maximum lot coverage of the building on the land. The city adds that to extend an area or a height, you may be limited depending on the intended use, in particular under acquired rights.

Distances, for their part, are read by-law by by-law. In the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles, the Info-permis sheet on permanent shelters gives benchmarks: the shelter cannot be installed in a yard located in front of a facade facing a public road, it must respect the setbacks in the zoning by-law, and it cannot be erected less than 1.5 metres from a lot line. Its maximum height is 3 metres from the floor of the projection, and 5 metres from the ground. Above 12 square metres, or under 80% glazing, the project goes to the site planning and architectural integration committee. Those numbers belong to that borough: they hold neither for Anjou, nor for Laval, nor for your street.

A sunroom permit in Laval, an extension permit in Montreal

In Laval. The published fee is $92 for the first $20,000, plus $2.50 per $1,000 bracket or part of a bracket. The announced timelines are 30 days for a three season sunroom and 50 days for a four season one, and the city specifies that the clock only starts once every required document has been received. On the list: a scale site plan, a certificate of location prepared, mandatorily, by a land surveyor, a complete architectural plan, a foundation plan. Before any of that, check in Info-règlements whether your address is subject to a PIIA, a site planning and architectural integration programme. For an extension to a single family dwelling, Laval also requires a plan signed and sealed by an architect under section 16 of the Loi sur les architectes where that applies, and a structural plan signed and sealed by an engineer.

In Montreal. There is no single rule: the city refers you explicitly to the borough. The common analysis fee is $9.80 per $1,000 of work, and several boroughs post a minimum of $167.40 for a residential building. The basic documents: a certificate of location, a scale plan of the proposed siting, a building data sheet and structural plans prepared by an engineer. In Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles, you also need a document signed by a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec confirming that the structure can support the loads and live loads provided for in the Code. The fine for a first offence there runs from $100 to $300 for a natural person, double for a legal person. And the constraints winter puts on a renovation permit add to those timelines.

Structure, snow loads and the contractor’s licence

This is the part the owner sees least and the inspector sees first. The RBQ is precise: footings must be frost-proof, and the roof structure must be designed to resist the various loads described in the Code, including wind and snow, whether it is of a conventional type or not. Load bearing elements must have the fire resistance required for the building, combustible construction is permitted only if the building itself may be so, and the sunroom must be fitted with the same fire protection equipment as the building, which can mean sprinklers.

The licence is not optional either: the RBQ writes that building a sunroom requires a general or specialized contractor’s licence. How to verify it: choosing a renovation contractor.

The notice of alteration to the roll, and the added value nobody quantifies

Montreal puts it in black and white: the Loi sur la fiscalité municipale, the municipal taxation act, provides that property assessment rolls must be kept up to date to reflect the changes made to properties, and extension work is among the work that can bring a rise in value. Conversely, regular maintenance such as redoing the roof or painting will probably have no effect.

Two details change the budget. The update is retroactive to the date of the change or the date the work ended, without going back further than the fiscal year preceding the current one. And you receive a notice of alteration explaining the changes and the reasons. To contest it in Montreal, the deadline is the later of May 1 following the coming into force of the roll and the sixtieth day following the sending of the notice; fees start at $90 up to $500,000 of value, and the next recourse goes to the real estate division of the Tribunal administratif du Québec, Quebec’s administrative tribunal. The procedure is in contesting your municipal assessment, and the effect on the bill in property taxes in Montreal and Laval.

On added value, no official source quantifies it. No Quebec public body publishes a recovery percentage for a sunroom. What is documented is the other side: the value on the roll goes up, so the taxes do too. And that value is established according to the market 18 months before the roll comes into force, that is July 1, 2024 for the Montreal 2026-2027-2028 rolls. It is not a resale price, and a home value estimator remains a starting point.

Insurer, certificate of location and seller’s declarations

The Bureau d’assurance du Canada recommends notifying your insurer before the work starts, so it can adjust the protections for the duration of the project, and points out that you always need an amount of insurance that reflects the real value of the house. If you carry out the work yourself, an endorsement can cover your materials, but no contractor may then be directing the site.

The certificate of location is the point where an undeclared sunroom blocks a sale. The OACIQ points out that the seller must provide a certificate describing the current state of the premises, that a certificate more than ten years old has to be redone because of the prescription in article 2917 of the Civil Code, that you should count on four to six weeks on average to obtain a new one, and that the notary must review it at least twenty days before the deed is signed. I see that timeline blow up notary dates every spring.

The Déclarations du vendeur sur l’immeuble form, the seller’s declarations on the property (DV 00001, version 06/2022), closes the loop. Section D14.4 asks whether significant work has been carried out and, if so, whether the required permits were issued for each of those jobs. Section D2.11 does not name the sunroom, but it covers the addition or modification of, in particular, porches, decks “or others,” which is exactly the projection a sunroom gets built on, and a positive answer can require a new certificate of location. The detail is in the seller’s declaration in Quebec.

Frequently asked questions

My three season sunroom is not heated. Do I still need a permit? In Laval, yes: the city requires a permis de construction-amélioration for a sunroom as for a veranda. In Montreal, the answer depends on the borough and on the type of structure, an unheated permanent shelter going through a certificate of authorization in Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles.

Does a sunroom raise my municipal assessment? Montreal names extension work among the work that can bring a rise in value, and the update is retroactive to the date the work ended. You will receive a notice of alteration. How much, only your city’s assessor can say.

I bought a house with a sunroom added by the previous owner. What do I check? The permit or certificate of authorization issued by the municipality, and the presence of the sunroom on the certificate of location. If it does not appear there, the land surveyor will have to redo one, and compliance becomes your problem: there is no acquired right in this area.

Can I build it myself? The RBQ writes that building a sunroom requires a general or specialized contractor’s licence. Validate your case with the board and your insurer before you buy anything.

To go further, read choosing a renovation contractor in Quebec and contesting your municipal assessment in Quebec.

Considering a sunroom and wondering what it changes at resale? Write to me: we look at the certificate of location and the zoning for your address before the work starts.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges