A tenant improvement permit in Vancouver is not a single document. Fitting out a leased commercial space normally takes a building permit for the construction, separate trade permits that your licensed electrician, plumber, gas fitter and sprinkler contractor apply for in their own names, and an occupancy permit that has to be issued before anyone moves in.
The City also runs three different ways to get that building permit, and which one your project takes is decided by the building and by the scope of work rather than by preference. TIPs is a dedicated stream for office tenants in eligible commercial buildings. Field review covers small renovation projects that need a building permit but not major upgrading. Larger or more complex work goes through full plan review.
We plan commercial tenant improvements with the permit path and the build on the same schedule, because the approvals decide when the trades can start and when you can legally put staff in the space.
Which Permits a Vancouver Tenant Improvement Needs
A fit-out touches walls, power, drainage, gas and sprinkler coverage, and each of those systems has its own permit and its own inspector. The building permit governs the construction, and everything else runs alongside it.
Depending on the space and the business, a commercial fit-out can involve a building permit, a development permit, electrical, plumbing, gas and fire sprinkler permits, an occupancy permit, health approval for food premises, and a business licence.
Where the Line Sits Between a Refresh and a Permit
Not every change to a leased space is a permit event. The City publishes a list of work that does not require a permit, and the items that generally apply to a commercial space are replacing fixtures, cabinets or flooring, and painting. Above that line sits the work that does need one: renovating or fitting out a new or existing commercial space, and any renovation that moves interior walls or existing plumbing, electrical or gas lines.
So the boundary is simple. Finishes and fixtures sit below it, and moving walls or moving services sits above it.
The Trade Permits Are Separate Applications, and Your Trades Pull Them
Plumbing, electrical, gas and fire sprinkler are separate permits from the building permit, and the trade contractors normally apply for them rather than you. An electrical permit has to be applied for by a licensed electrical contractor holding a valid City of Vancouver or inter-municipal business licence, and the exception that lets a homeowner pull their own is limited to owner-occupied detached houses. Plumbing applicants need the same licence, and a permit is required to install, change or upgrade any part of a plumbing system, though repairs and same-location replacements are not permit work.
Vancouver also issues its own electrical and gas permits, as one of only ten municipalities in British Columbia holding that authority instead of Technical Safety BC. There is a ceiling on the gas side: in a non-detached building the City issues gas permits where the meter is at 2 psi or less and the total connected load is 409,600 BTU/hr or less, and anything above those limits goes to the provincial safety authority instead.
When Sprinkler Work Needs Its Own Permit
Since 23 January 2024, simple sprinkler repairs and head or valve replacements have not needed a permit in Vancouver. Any change to system piping still does. The permit is applied for by a licensed fire sprinkler contractor, and it is only valid once the building permit has been issued.
For an installation of fewer than 20 heads a plan sketch is enough, and sealed engineering drawings, calculations and an engineer’s letter are optional. Everything else needs sealed engineering drawings and calculations together with a Schedule B from a fire protection engineer. In our experience this is the requirement that arrives late: moving one partition can move three heads.
When a Development Permit and a Change of Use Enter the Picture
Changing the land use of an existing commercial space is its own permit trigger, separate from the renovation work, and the City publishes a dedicated Change of Use Development Permit checklist for those applications. A development permit is not automatic on every fit-out, and projects in the TIPs stream proceed on the building permit alone.
When a change of major occupancy is genuinely in scope, the job changes character. Turning office space into an assembly or health care use reopens questions the building settled decades ago: exiting, fire separations, washroom counts and ventilation, all against the current by-law.
Health Approval and Your Business Licence
Two of the approvals that stop the doors opening are not building department permits at all. Under provincial regulation, food premises cannot be constructed or altered until the plans and specifications have been approved by a health officer, and a food service establishment cannot operate without a permit. That approval belongs in front of construction, not at the end of it.
Every business in Vancouver also needs a licence to operate, and the City reviews the proposed location against building, zoning and, where relevant, health requirements. The construction can be flawless and the business still cannot legally open.
The Three Routes to a Vancouver Building Permit
Vancouver runs three ways to a building permit for interior work: TIPs, field review, and full plan review. Every commercial tenant improvement lands on one of them.
What the route decision governs is how the building permit gets reviewed, what has to be in the submission package, and whether a building inspector comes to the space before the permit exists. It is settled by the building and by the scope of work rather than by preference, so it is not something you can pick late.
The route is worth settling before the drawings are finished, because it sets the shape of both the submission and the calendar behind it.
| Route | Who it is for | How qualifying is decided | How the permit is issued |
| TIPs | Office tenants doing minor interior renovations in eligible commercial buildings | Your building is on the City’s TIPs list and your scope avoids the exclusions | A field review inspection, then the permit within 1 to 2 business days |
| Field review | Small renovation projects that need a building permit but not major upgrading | The City describes the work it covers and asks you to describe your proposal | One site visit, then the permit once the inspector approves the work |
| Full plan review | Projects larger or more complex than the streamlined routes cover | No eligibility test, and the development permit question is settled first | Intake, fees on acceptance, staff review with conditions, then issuance by email |
The TIPs Fast Track and Who It Is Actually For
The Tenant Improvement Program, which the City shortens to TIPs, is a dedicated stream for office tenants in eligible commercial buildings to get their building permit for minor interior renovations faster. In this stream the building permit is the approval, and no development permit is required.
The stream is built around the ordinary office fit-out, which is why planning an office layout, power and data early does more than settle where the desks go: those decisions are what keep a project inside the stream.
Eligibility Starts With the Building, Not the Project
The first test is the address, not the drawings. The space has to be in a commercial office building that is on the City’s TIPs list, and inclusion is automatic for any commercial office building constructed under a building permit applied for after 31 January 2007.
Read that date carefully, because it is the permit application date and not the year the building opened. On a large tower the two can sit years apart. If the building’s permit was applied for after 31 January 2007 it is on the list automatically, and if it is older, check the address with the City before planning around the stream, because an older building is not in by default.
The Work That Takes a Project Out of the Stream
The exclusion list is the part to read first. TIPs cannot be used for assembly occupancies where the occupant load increases, exiting is affected, or kitchen or bathroom work is involved. It is out for a change in major occupancy, balcony enclosures, floor area additions including mezzanines, and most major renovations. It is out for interconnecting floors, upgrading existing systems, fire alarms, sprinkler systems and seismic upgrading. Most exterior alterations are excluded too, with minor repairs such as deck resurfacing, stair repairs, cornice repairs and small storefront changes named as the exception.
Those exclusions tell you what the stream is. It is an office stream, so a restaurant, clinic, retail or warehouse fit-out is not what it was built for, and sprinkler or fire alarm scope takes an office project out of it as well. A project that lands on this list has not run out of options, and field review is the next route to raise with the City.
How a TIPs Application Moves Through the City
Confirm the building is eligible, build the package against the City’s TIPs checklist, then submit and pay through the online portal. Applications are handled in the order they arrive, and the City aims to complete an initial review and contact the applicant within 5 to 10 business days.
What comes back is a list of conditions to satisfy. Once those are cleared the applicant books a field review inspection, the inspector attends the space, and the permit issues within 1 to 2 business days once it passes. Everything goes in at the time of application, because the City does not accept incomplete submissions. One more date: the permit goes void if work has not begun within 6 months of issuance, which is a Vancouver building permit rule rather than a TIPs quirk.
Field Review, the City’s Other Streamlined Route
Field review is the City’s other streamlined route to a building permit. Vancouver describes it as part of an alternative permit-issuing process for small renovation projects that do not require major upgrading but do require a building permit, so the route is described by the work it covers rather than by the building. It has its own submission list and its own ending, and neither looks much like full plan review.
The Work Field Review Covers
The published examples of qualifying work are concrete: moving interior walls and partitions, relocating or installing plumbing, electrical or gas lines, making structural repairs allowed by zoning, creating new spaces permitted by zoning, and building hard landscaping features such as fences or retaining walls. The first two are what a tenant improvement mostly consists of.
Anyone unsure whether their project qualifies for a field review is asked to contact the Development and Building Services Centre and describe the proposal. That call is worth making before the drawings are finished, because the answer changes what you have to submit.
What You Submit for a Field Review Application
The required submission is specified: the building permit application form, an owner’s undertaking letter in the form of Schedule E-1 or Schedule E-2, drawings showing the proposed work, a completed field review submission checklist, and documentation showing compliance with Parts 10 and 11 of the Building By-law.
Schedule E-1 is the owner’s undertaking and Schedule E-2 is the owner’s and the tenant’s, which is the one a tenant improvement usually reaches for, so the landlord has to be at the table early enough to sign. The checklist is a single City document covering both the field review route and TIPs minor renovations, and a completed copy is itself one of the required submissions.
An Inspector Sees the Space Before the Permit Is Issued
After the application is processed, one site visit takes place, and once the inspector approves the proposed work the permit is ready to be issued. The TIPs sequence ends the same way, with a booked field review inspection standing between the conditions list and the permit.
The general version is the thing most people have backwards. On the City’s streamlined routes a building inspector comes to the space before the permit exists. Full plan review does not work that way, and its published sequence runs on paper from intake through to issuance by email. The space therefore has to be accessible, safe and legible on the day, because an inspection met by a locked door is a rebooking.
What Actually Drives the Time on This Route
There is no fixed turnaround published for this route, and the City is specific about why. Processing time varies with the volume of applications already in the queue, the completeness of the application, the site and project specific requirements, and customer response times.
Two of those four belong to you. A package that arrives whole and a design team that answers in days rather than weeks will beat an identical project whose drawings trickle in. That is the part of the schedule a tenant can actually manage.
Full Plan Review, the Route Everything Else Takes
Full plan review is the route with no eligibility test and the most steps, and it is where a larger or more complex fit-out goes. It has a shape you can plan against, as long as you plan against all of it rather than the submission date alone.
The Development Permit Question Comes First
The City’s first move on this route is deciding whether a development permit is needed at all. Large-scale projects, and projects seeking zoning relaxations, need a separate development permit before applying for the building permit, which is also where the change of use trigger lands.
This is the point where a lease signed against a fixed opening date starts to hurt. A development permit sits in front of the building permit rather than beside it, so it does not compress and it does not overlap. It gets discovered early only because somebody asked the question at the space-selection stage, when the answer could still change which space you take.
What Happens at Intake, and When the City Asks for Payment
Intake is a completeness gate, not a place in line. The City assesses the application package, may request additional documents, and once it determines the package is complete it requests payment of the fees. That order is the useful part: payment lands before the technical review rather than at issuance, so being accepted is not the same as being approved. An incomplete package does not start a clock, because the City does not accept incomplete applications.
Vancouver charges separately for the building permit and for each trade permit, the occupancy permit is its own item, and the current amounts come off the City’s fee schedule, which is reissued each year.
The Conditions List Is a Round Trip
After intake, staff teams conduct a detailed review of the plans and documents, then provide a list of any conditions and items to be addressed before a permit can be issued. That list is a round trip, not a verdict, and almost every commercial application of any size gets one.
The clock keeps running while the list sits with the applicant, which is exactly what the City means by customer response times. The length of that leg is set by how fast your side turns the list around, so a design team that demobilized at submission is the thing that stretches it.
How the Permit Arrives and What Has to Be on Site
The permit arrives by email. On approval the applicant is emailed instructions to download and print the permit and the approved drawings, and the paper matters after that: one printed copy of the City-approved permit has to be available for viewing at the jobsite for City inspectors, together with one paper set of approved drawings carrying the City accepted stamp.
The 6-month rule applies here as on the fast track, so work has to begin within six months of issuance or the permit becomes void.
How Long the Review Has Been Taking
There is one published figure worth knowing, and it comes with a year attached. In July 2024 the City reported that it was issuing commercial renovation permits 45 percent faster than before, with a median processing time of 32 days against 56 days in 2022. That is a 2024 median across all commercial renovation permits rather than a current target or a tenant improvement number.
Plan this route in weeks rather than days, and get the current expectation for your own application before you commit to a rent-commencement date. Readers who have been through the residential side arrive with the wrong reference point, because how long permits take for a new house in Vancouver is a different process with different queues.
Drawings, Seals and the Professionals Who Sign for Them
Some requirements do not care which route you are on. These are the ones that decide how early the design team has to be retained.
Whether Your Drawings Need a Professional Seal
For most commercial tenants the answer is yes. Letters of Assurance are legal documents that identify the responsibilities of architects, engineers and other registered professionals for design and field review, and the Province requires them for Part 3 buildings and some Part 9 buildings under both the BC Building Code and the Vancouver Building By-law. Most commercial buildings that host a tenant improvement are Part 3, so named professionals take responsibility in writing for your drawings.
Smaller scopes are lighter. An installation of fewer than 20 heads needs a plan sketch, with the sealed set optional. Anything beyond that needs sealed engineering drawings, calculations and a Schedule B from a fire protection engineer, which makes the threshold a layout decision as much as a fire protection one.
The Four Letters of Assurance and When Each One Is Due
There are four schedules and they arrive in order. Schedule A confirms the owner has retained a coordinating registered professional, and it goes in with the building permit application. Schedule B establishes a registered professional’s responsibility for specified components and for the field review of them, and it is due before construction begins on each of those components.
Schedules C-A and C-B close the loop. They confirm after completion that the coordinating professional and the professional of record each met their obligations, and they come before the occupancy permit. These are legal documents naming individuals, which is why the architect and engineers are retained at the start rather than found at submission.
Who Carries the Code Review on Your Project
On a Part 3 commercial building the code work is carried by the registered professionals who sign the Letters of Assurance, and on a straightforward office fit-out that is the whole answer.
Where a project reaches into exiting, fire separations or occupancy classification, a code consultant usually comes in alongside them to test the approach before it is drawn. Whether your project needs one is a question to settle with your architect at the drawing stage rather than at submission, because a code question raised after the package is in becomes a condition on the list instead of a design decision.
After the Building Permit: Trades, Inspections and the Order They Happen In
The building permit is not the finish of the paperwork. It is the start of a second set of clocks, and they run through construction rather than before it.
What Has to Be in Place Before the First Trade Starts
The sequencing rule is specific about which trades wait. An electrical permit will not be issued until after the building permit has been issued, a gas permit may not be issued until then either, and a sprinkler permit is only valid once the building permit or development building permit has issued. The same holds on the fast track, where the TIPs building permit has to be issued before trade permits can be applied for or construction can begin.
So a schedule that has the electrician starting on day one is already wrong. One duty lands even earlier: before demolition, salvage or renovation work begins, a qualified person has to inspect the building and worksite to identify hazardous materials, under provincial health and safety regulation.
The Trade Permits Run on Their Own Clocks
Each trade permit has its own service target. The City aims to issue 95 percent of simple electrical permit applications that need no plan review within 5 business days, and 95 percent of those requiring plan review within 25 business days. Plumbing applications that need no plan review are targeted for the next business day. Most gas permits are issued electronically the same day, and those needing staff review are typically completed within 2 business days. All trade permit applications are processed in the order received.
The 25-business-day electrical plan review is the one that surprises people. It does not start until the building permit has issued, so treat it as a schedule item.
How Inspection Bookings Work, and What Triggers a Re-Inspection
Inspections are booked, not summoned. A request received before 2pm on a business day is aimed at the following business day, and cancelling needs notice by 2pm on a business day before the scheduled inspection or charges apply.
A re-inspection is triggered by a short and predictable list: the site is inaccessible or unsafe, the work is incomplete or has progressed past the inspection point so it has to be uncovered, earlier deficiencies have not been fully corrected, or the work is not ready at the scheduled time. An additional fee applies and has to be cleared before another inspection can be requested. Every failed inspection costs at least a day, because the next slot is a booking rather than a callback.
The Code Your Vancouver Fit-Out Is Built To
In British Columbia the BC Building Code is not the whole answer, because Vancouver is governed by its own building by-law. The current edition is the 2025 Vancouver Building By-law, By-law No. 14343, adopted 20 May 2025 and generally in effect since 15 September 2025. It is based on the 2024 BC Building Code with Vancouver-specific provisions, and it is published in two books, one covering general construction and one covering plumbing systems, the plumbing book based on the 2020 National Plumbing Code with Vancouver options.
The by-law also carries the administrative provisions for permitting, inspections and enforcement, which is why it decides your permit and not just your drywall. Its seismic design requirements under Parts 4 and 9 apply to a permit submitted now, so on the rare fit-out that reaches into structure that is a design input your engineer works to.
Occupancy Is What Gates Your Opening Day
If you have a moving date circled, occupancy is the gate that decides whether you keep it. Finishing construction and being allowed to use the space are two different events, and the gap between them is where opening dates go missing.
The Final Inspection Is Not the Finish Line
Work under a building permit is complete when the final inspection is passed. Passing it does not by itself permit occupancy. An occupancy permit has to be issued before anyone occupies space in a commercial or multi-unit residential building, and the requirement reaches newly created space, major renovations, and a change to the proposed use of a space.
The error we watch happen is a scheduling one. Tenants plan the move around the final inspection date and then find a second approval sitting behind it.
Apply at Least 3 Weeks Before You Plan to Move In
The City directs applicants to submit the occupancy permit application at least 3 weeks before the date they plan to occupy. That number works backwards: your opening date sets the application date, which sets the date the deficiency work has to be substantially done by.
That last stretch of deficiency work sits directly between you and the opening date, so it belongs in the schedule as real time rather than in a negotiation at the end of the job. The by-law does let the Chief Building Official allow part of a building to be occupied while construction continues, on conditions, and that permission can be withdrawn if they are not met. That is a decision the City makes about a building, not a lever a tenant can build a schedule on, so set the opening date behind the occupancy permit rather than beside it.
Outside Vancouver the Rules Change, Not Just the Counter
A Lower Mainland tenant comparing spaces in two cities is comparing two different processes. Burnaby applies the BC Building Code while Vancouver applies its own by-law. Burnaby routes tenant improvements through either a fast track or a full plan review, decided by its plan checkers, with only simple and straightforward applications considered for fast tracking.
The difference in kind matters. Vancouver publishes an eligibility test on the building and the scope for its TIPs stream, while Burnaby’s fast track is a staff judgment on the application, submitted on paper at a counter with three complete sets of drawings and an owner’s undertaking. The trade permits split differently as well, because Richmond issues gas permits, Surrey issues electrical ones, and Technical Safety BC handles the other half in each. Take your timeline from the city the space is actually in, and if that city is not Vancouver, the renovation permit requirements in BC are the starting point instead.
Getting a Fit-Out Permitted Without Losing the Opening Date
A permit path is a scheduling problem more than a paperwork problem. The route decision, the trade permit sequence and the inspection bookings either get built into the schedule at the start or get discovered in the middle, and it is the second version that moves an opening date.
That is the part we take on as your tenant improvement contractor. The application, the conditions list, the trade permit order and the 3 weeks at the occupancy end are sequenced against your rent-commencement date rather than against the construction alone. Our contracts are fixed price, so permit-driven scope decisions get priced rather than absorbed as change orders, the build schedule is detailed with trades pre-booked, and a client portal keeps you looking at where the application and the inspections actually stand.
If you have a space in mind or a lease on the table, get in touch with Bali Brothers Construction and we will walk the permit path with you before the drawings are finished.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Sign a Lease With a Fixed Opening Date Before I Have a Permit?
You can, but the permit path can be planned rather than promised. The time depends on the queue, on how complete your package is, on what the site and the project need, and on how fast you answer the City. The route is not yours to choose either. The one fixed point at the far end is the occupancy permit, which the City asks for at least 3 weeks before the date you plan to be in, so build the rent-commencement negotiation around that.
Does a Restaurant Fit-Out Qualify for the TIPs Fast Track?
No. Kitchen work in an assembly occupancy is named in the program’s exclusions, and the stream was built for office tenants rather than food service. A restaurant also carries an approval the building department does not handle: under provincial regulation, food premises cannot be constructed or altered until a health officer has approved the plans and specifications, and the establishment cannot operate without its own permit.
How Do I Know if My Building Is on the TIPs List?
The test is the date the building permit was applied for, not the year the building opened. Any commercial office building constructed under a building permit applied for after 31 January 2007 is automatically on the City’s list. Those two dates can sit years apart on a large tower. An older building is not on the list by default, so its eligibility is a starting question rather than a safe assumption.
Who Applies for the Permits, Me or My Contractor?
Both, in different places. The licensed trades pull their own permits, and electrical, plumbing and sprinkler applicants have to hold a valid City of Vancouver or inter-municipal business licence to do it. The building permit application is normally assembled and submitted on the owner’s or tenant’s behalf by the design and construction team.
Do Tenant Improvement Drawings Need an Architect’s or Engineer’s Seal in Vancouver?
Usually yes. Most commercial buildings that host a fit-out are Part 3 buildings, and Letters of Assurance are required for Part 3 buildings under the Vancouver Building By-law, so named architects and engineers take responsibility in writing for the design and the field review of it. Smaller scopes can be lighter: a sprinkler installation of fewer than 20 heads needs only a plan sketch, while anything larger needs sealed engineering drawings, calculations and a Schedule B from a fire protection engineer.
What Happens if the City Comes Back With Problems on My Application?
You clear them, and that is the normal path rather than a bad sign. Staff review the plans and documents and then issue a list of conditions and items to be addressed before a permit can be issued, which is a round trip and not a refusal. The clock keeps running while the list sits with you, because customer response times are one of the things the City names as driving how long a review takes.
Is Passing the Final Inspection the Same as Being Allowed to Open?
No. The final inspection completes the work under the building permit, and a separate occupancy permit has to be issued before anyone occupies space in a commercial building. The City asks for the occupancy application at least 3 weeks before the date you plan to occupy, so those 3 weeks belong in the schedule rather than in the move-in week.