Can I run a daycare from a house in BC?
Yes, with a licence for 3 or more children not related to you; a licensed day care of up to 8 that meets a house's fire and health rules can't be stopped by zoning limits.
Opens the lot's report at this answer. If an address isn't found, try the PID, the 9-digit parcel number on the land title or assessment notice.
What the answer means
The two home programs are Family Child Care, up to 7 children, and In-Home Multi-Age Child Care, up to 8, both in the licensee's own home. Once licensed, a day care for no more than 8 that meets a house's fire and health rules is free of zoning rules limiting how many it cares for or treating it as a business.
- When a licence is needed
- A community care facility is a premises where a person provides care to 3 or more people not related to them by blood or marriage, and care includes supervising a child under 13 in a prescribed program (Community Care and Assisted Living Act s. 1). So care for 1 or 2 children not related to you, besides your own, needs no licence (our reading of the definition); 3 or more is a facility that needs one.
- The two home programs
- Family Child Care is a program in which the licensee, a responsible adult, personally provides care in their own home to no more than 7 children; In-Home Multi-Age Child Care is one in which the licensee personally provides care in their own home to no more than 8 children of various ages (Child Care Licensing Regulation s. 2 (1) (e), (h)).
- Ages in Family Child Care
- Each home program cares for one group. In Family Child Care, with a child under 12 months there are no more than 3 under 48 months, only one of them under 12 months; with none under 12 months, no more than 4 under 48 months, only 2 of them under 24 months. The licensee's own children aged 12 or older don't count toward the group (Schedule E, s. 1 (4) and its table).
- Why zoning can't stop a small one
- A licensed community care facility used as a day care for no more than 8 people in care, or as a residence for no more than 10 people with no more than 6 in care, from which those in care can get out safely in a fire, and which meets the provincial and local fire and health rules for a single family dwelling house, is free of any provincial or local rule that would limit how many it accepts or the types of care, or that applies to it only because it isn't used as a single family dwelling or is run as a charity or a commercial venture (Act s. 20). That includes zoning and other bylaws of a municipality or regional district (s. 1).
- When the house falls short
- If the council won't vary its fire or health rules for a house that doesn't meet them, the applicant for the licence can ask the minister for arbitration; an arbitrator weighing the public interest may dismiss the request or exempt the house, and an exemption binds later owners too (s. 21).
- Bigger than a home program
- A group child care centre, or more children than the home programs allow, falls outside s. 20 (our reading): the zone has to permit it, or it takes a rezoning or a temporary use permit, and the building has to meet the Building Code for that use. See running a business from home.
- Next door
- The same rule means a small licensed day care or group home can open in a house on any street where houses are allowed, whatever the zoning says about businesses (our reading of s. 20).
- What it means for a buyer
- The law above binds the Province and local governments, not a strata corporation, a landlord or a mortgage lender, so a strata bylaw, a lease or an insurance policy can still say no or ask more (our reading). A home insurer usually needs to know about care for children who aren't yours (our reading).
Our summary of the Community Care and Assisted Living Act (SBC 2002, c. 75, ss. 1, 20, 21) and the Child Care Licensing Regulation (B.C. Reg. 332/2007, s. 2, Schedule E), read on BC Laws 2026-10-22. The licensing office decides each application: this isn't legal advice.
Sources (read 2026-10-22; summarised in our own words unless noted): Community Care and Assisted Living Act, SBC 2002, c. 75 (ss. 1, 20, 21); Child Care Licensing Regulation, B.C. Reg. 332/2007 (s. 2; Schedule E).
Before you buy: who to ask
- Your health authority's community care licensing office
- Could this house be licensed for the program I mean to run, and what would an inspector want changed first (exits, outdoor play area, fencing)?
- The local government
- Do your fire and health rules for a single family house raise anything for this one, and does a larger centre need a rezoning here?
- The seller or their agent
- For a strata or rented home: do the strata bylaws or the lease allow child care?
- Your insurer
- Will you cover the house with child care in it, and on what terms?
Look up the lot above: its report counts the licensed child care facilities near it and names the zone.
See also licensed child care nearby, a business from home, a suite or a second home, strata, home insurance and fences.