Richmond’s Building Approvals Department revised Building Bulletin 22 on July 28, 2025. It summarizes fire-safety and related requirements for secondary suites. For existing suites, City review and inspection may require upgrades, and work done without plans or permits may need to be exposed. The bulletin says it is incomplete guidance: the current B.C. Building Code, zoning bylaw, and other applicable rules control.

Confirm that the bulletin fits the housing form

The bulletin describes a suite’s location differently across single-detached, two-unit, small-scale multi-unit, and town housing, and says the technical standards differ by building type. It does not treat a suite in a detached accessory building as a secondary suite under this guidance. Confirm the property’s zoning, housing form, and current code path with Richmond; do not transfer a rule for one type of building to another.

Treat fire and alarm options as conditional

Building-22 discusses fire separation between the principal dwelling and suite, separation around shared exit spaces, smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms, and sound transmission. Its separation options depend on alarm interconnection and whole-building sprinkler conditions. Those summaries are not a design recipe: the bulletin is not a complete construction standard, and its alternatives must be checked against the current code and the actual building. Ask the City or a qualified designer which details, plans, and inspections apply to the specific suite.

Diagram separating topics Building Bulletin 22 describes from project-specific matters it does not decide.

The bulletin identifies review topics; current code and Richmond determine the requirements for an individual suite.

Four questions to confirm with Richmond: the building and zoning scope, required drawings and records, conditional fire and alarm details, and inspection or possible exposure work.

Use these as questions for the City; they are not an approval sequence or a construction specification.

Confirm the current technical conditions

Before using a summary in Building-22, confirm which fire-separation, alarm, shared-exit, egress, and sound requirements apply to the actual suite and which plans or inspection evidence Richmond needs. The bulletin warns that it is not a complete construction standard; it does not establish that an existing suite complies or may be occupied. For general life-safety questions, see the ADU fire separation and egress guide; for conversion and existing-work boundaries, see conversions and professional inspections.