Custom Home Builder in Langley

Langley is two municipalities. The Township of Langley takes in Walnut Grove, Willoughby, Brookswood, Fort Langley, Aldergrove and Murrayville, and the City of Langley is a separate city. Each has its own permit office, zoning bylaw, application package and fees, and its own way of booking inspections.

In the Township, applications made since March 8, 2024 fall under the 2024 BC Building Code, which brought changes to radon gas, framing and structural requirements, and BC Energy Step Code compliance has been required on every new residential permit since January 1, 2019. The City asks for a Step Code checklist and report with its application. Electrical permits come from Technical Safety BC in both.

A Township application for a new single-family dwelling includes a title search no older than 30 days, plans signed and sealed by a structural engineer, Schedule B letters for the structural, geotechnical and lot grading and stormwater work, CSA F280 heating and cooling calculations and the Step Code documentation. Before fill can come onto the property, a civil engineer has to seal a stormwater management plan, and that fill can be used only on the building site.

Where the Tree Protection Bylaw applies, the Township's Permits, Licences and Inspections Division has to review and accept the application before any permit is issued. The first inspection comes before construction starts and checks the waste containers, the tree protection fencing and the siltation control. Every inspection after that is requested through eInspections by 3:30 pm on the business day before, and we book each one for you.

The City adopted Zoning Bylaw No. 3300 on March 9, 2026, replacing its 1996 bylaw. In the R1 zone a house can rise to 9.0 m, or 9.8 m for three storeys under a sloped roof, and cover up to 36% of the lot, with front and rear setbacks of 6 m. An R1 lot can also take a carriage home of up to two storeys and 6.8 m behind the house, as long as the registered owner lives on the lot.

The City's new single-family application asks for a title search no older than 48 hours, sealed drawings with the engineer's Schedule B and proof of insurance, and, on an existing property, a BC Land Surveyor's topographic survey that takes in neighbouring elevations up to 3 m past the property line. Every contractor and trade on site needs a valid City business licence. Inspections run from forms and the service connection through rough plumbing, slab and framing to final, each booked by 3 pm the day before.

Permit fees follow construction value: a $200 application fee, then, for work valued over $500,000, $5,286 plus $10 for every $1,000 above $500,000. The fee doubles if work starts before the permit is issued.

About 75% of the Township sits in the Agricultural Land Reserve, where provincial rules and Township bylaws both apply. On a vacant ALR parcel you can build a principal residence of up to 500 m² of total floor area, about 5,380 sq ft, without an application to the Agricultural Land Commission. A larger house needs ALC approval through the Township first.

Under the ALC's residence rules, a parcel can also take one additional residence without an application where local bylaws permit it: only one residence can stand when construction begins, the two cannot be attached, and on parcels of 40 ha or less the principal residence must be 500 m² or less and the additional one 90 m² or less. The additional residence can be a garden suite, a manufactured home or a single-level carriage house above the principal residence's detached garage, and the Township has its own permit type for an ALR second dwelling under 90 m².

Fill for a principal residence needs no approval if the area affected is 1,000 m² or less, and construction and demolition waste, asphalt, glass and treated wood can never be used as fill. In the Township's rural zones a house can be up to 9 m tall, and the RU-1 zone allows no more than two single-family dwellings or mobile homes on a lot, subject to the ALC Act.

A house with indoor plumbing and no community sewer has to connect to an onsite system, and only an Authorized Person, either a professional engineer or a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner, can design, install or inspect one. The Township's permit application needs a Fraser Health Record of Filing, or a referral form showing a filing in progress, with the record in before the permit is issued. A new or replacement house has to connect to a system that meets current standards, and extra bedrooms or a change to the house's footprint trigger the same referral.

The Authorized Person files the Record of Sewerage System with a $200 non-refundable fee, the system has to be built within two years of filing, and a Letter of Certification follows within 30 days of completion. Fraser Health treats running a system with no Letter of Certification on file as an offence.

In the Township, a house on a private well needs a potability certificate and test results no older than six months with the permit application. Most of the Township's flowing artesian wells are in the Nicomekl-Serpentine, West of Aldergrove and South of Murrayville aquifers, and under the provincial advisory for the Township the well owner has to bring in another registered driller or qualified professional if the first driller cannot control the flow. Fraser Health advises keeping any source of contamination at least 30 m (100 ft) from a well, and Township well owners can join the Private Well Network for 20% off bacteria and general chemistry tests at Element Materials Technology.

BC's Homeowner Protection Act requires every new home to be built by a licensed residential builder and covered by home warranty insurance, and the home has to be enrolled before a building permit can be issued. In a custom-home contract the licensed builder registers and enrols the home, so we file the New Home Registration Form that the Township or the City checks with your application.

On a custom detached home, Travelers 2-5-10 coverage starts on the date you take occupancy, or on the date of the first occupancy permit if that comes earlier. We also hold a WorkSafeBC account in good standing.

If you already have an architect or designer, we build to their drawings. Complete drawings let the trades price exact specifications, and they let you choose a fixed price.

Interior design on the Modern Country Estate is by Maria DeCotiis Interior Design. Both Langley permit offices ask for drawings sealed by an engineer, with the Schedule B letters behind them, so the engineers join the team before the application goes in.