Permits, notifications and the ESA: how electrical inspections work in Ontario
Electrical work in Ontario runs on a paper trail that most homeowners only meet mid-renovation. It is simpler than it looks, and knowing how it works is the easiest way to protect yourself, both from bad work and from problems that surface years later at sale time.
The notification, in plain terms
Most electrical work in Ontario, from a new circuit to a panel replacement, must be reported to the Electrical Safety Authority before or as it begins. That filing is called a notification; people say permit and mean the same thing. It is what puts the work on the ESA's radar so an inspector can review it, and it ends in a certificate saying the installation was checked against the Ontario Electrical Safety Code.
Who files it
When you hire a Licensed Electrical Contractor, filing is their job, included in the work. Only two parties may legally do electrical work in your home: a Licensed Electrical Contractor, or you personally in a home you own and live in. A homeowner doing their own work files their own notification and meets the same inspection. What is never legal is paying an unlicensed person to do it, however handy they are, and the gap tends to surface at the worst time: an insurance claim or a sale.
What an inspection is actually like
The inspector reviews the work against the code, sometimes on site, sometimes by photo review for routine jobs. On a renovation, rough-in gets reviewed before the drywall closes and the finished work after. A contractor who plans the notification into the schedule makes this invisible to you; the certificate simply arrives. If a contractor suggests skipping the filing to save money, that is not a discount, it is a liability transferred to you.
Why the certificate keeps mattering
Insurers ask for it after claims involving electrical causes. Buyers' lawyers and home inspectors ask for it at resale, and unpermitted work discovered during a sale becomes your negotiation problem. The certificate is cheap insurance against both, which is why the honest practice is treating it as part of the job, not an add-on.
Verifying a contractor takes two minutes
Every Licensed Electrical Contractor in Ontario has an ECRA/ESA licence number, and the ESA's website lets you look any of them up. A legitimate contractor prints the number on quotes and answers the question without flinching. Ours is on every page of this site. If someone hesitates to give theirs, that hesitation is the answer.