2022 R13 – Tiny Home Building Standard

Whereas part of the solution to the critical lack of affordable and available housing in the province is increasing the diversity of housing available, and tiny homes, which are a compact, potentially movable, home with all the amenities of a dwelling unit is one way to expand the variety of housing available, but which currently do not have a specific building code or descriptive building code standards which creates a variety of barriers to their adoption;

And whereas establishing minimum standards to address health and safety is essential to recognizing tiny homes as dwelling units and will provide opportunities to address other barriers such as zoning regulations, financing, and insurance:

Therefore be it resolved that UBCM advocate to the Province for the creation of a specific tiny house building code or descriptive building standard that is distinct from the current BC Building Code or CSA/CMHC standard;

And be it further resolved that UBCM advocate to the Province should incorporate the changes into Part 9 of the BC Building Code thereby establishing separate standards for tiny houses as allowable permanent dwellings, and thus permitting them to be constructed where local government official community plans and zoning bylaws deem them appropriate.