How to obtain record drawings for buildings in Canada

[charliealphabravo]

I was going to post this in response to the mall collapse but I decided to start a new thread.

If you live and work in Canada I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but as an American I was surprised how difficult it is do obtain construction drawings in Canada for buildings that I am investigating.

As I understand it, you must have the owner's permission to obtain drawings from the AHJ due to privacy issues. If the original owner is not cooperative or is a corporation going through bankruptcy or reorganization it can be impossible to get this permission. In that case you are essentially forced to do the equivalent of a FOIP request.

This seems overly protective to me and doesn't really facilitate inquiry by third parties. In the states I can request, even demand, the drawings for any building that I have an interest in or concern about except maybe sensitive facilities.

I'd be interested in other's experience and advice here.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I have the same problem in the US - but USUALLY they DON'T exist!!!!!!! or so they say....

 

[MiketheEngineer]

BTW - unless you paid for them - they are NOT yours!!

 

[BAretired]

The FOIP Act does not apply to private businesses, non-profit organizations or professional regulatory organizations operating in Alberta. In these cases, Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) will apply. For information about PIPA, visit the Private Sector Privacy website.

Are you referring to provincial government buildings in Alberta? In the case of Elliot Lake, wouldn't it be considered a private business? I don't know whether Ontario has similar legislation or not.

I have not had many occasions to ask for drawings of existing buildings, but when I did I had no difficulty in obtaining them if they were available. I did find that some public records (city, county, municipality building departments) did not go very far back, however.

BA

 

[charliealphabravo]

I was thinking of a 4-sty hotel that was experiencing severe settlement. There is a thread about it from last summer. I was told by the local authority that I could not obtain any documents on file without a written request from the owner. My only other alternative would have been to file some kind of FOI request with the AHJ.

 

[SkiisAndBikes]

Written permission from the owner is required for any building departments I have dealt with in the past. Not sure a FOI request would be successful. Especially unlikely anything tied up in litigation would be released to a curious third party.

Lately our company has been putting in a lot of requests to building departments for drawings, however, as we are working for the benefit of the owners we had their written permission and obtained the full coorperation of the building departments. It is amazing how quickly records are disposed of these days though. Our success rate in obtaining drawings from the building department is relatively low.