The BC Owner Builder Exam
One hundred questions, ninety minutes, and until recently very little guidance on what to study. Here is what people who have sat it report, and what it actually requires of you.
What the exam is and why it exists
The Owner Builder Authorization Exam has been required since 4 July 2016 for anyone wanting to build their own home in British Columbia. It is administered through BC Housing Licensing and Consumer Services, formerly the Homeowners Protection Office.
The intent is reasonable: to confirm that an owner builder actually understands what running a residential construction project involves, and to discourage people from permitting a build as an owner builder and then handing the whole thing to a contractor. Whether the rollout matched that intent is a separate argument. If you are sitting it next month, what matters is what is on it.
Confirm the current format, fee and requirements directly with BC Housing. This page describes reported experience, not official policy, and details change.
What to actually expect
Collected from clients and owner builders who have sat the exam. Treat it as experience rather than official guidance.
- Ninety minutes for one hundred questions goes quickly. There is not much room to sit and deliberate on any one of them.
- The language can be tricky. Read each question carefully, because more than one answer will often look plausible.
- You are not given a date by which you will be told whether you passed.
- You are not told your actual score.
- You are not told which answers you got wrong.
- You can reapply and rewrite the exam.
- The questions are not identical every time it is written.
- Couples applying together have reported writing the exam together, which follows from everyone in the home being an owner builder under a single permit.
- One person reported their exam leaned heavily toward the building envelope and the regulations.
You do not have to swing a hammer
A common misunderstanding: being an owner builder does not mean building the house with your own hands. You can hire a professional for every single aspect of the project. What the authorization requires is that you are genuinely managing it, working with your contractors, the building department and the inspectors.
That is worth understanding before you decide the exam is not for you. In our experience owner builders consistently go beyond what the BC Building Code requires, because it is their own home and they take considerable pride in it. A panelized package suits that approach particularly well, since the engineering and the structure arrive resolved and you manage the assembly rather than the fabrication.
Help with the preparation course
We have previously partnered with Owner Builder Training to provide the Owner Builder Authorization Exam Preparation Course, which covers the Homeowner Protection Act and Regulation along with the steps involved in building a home.
Course availability, the fee and any reimbursement against a package purchase all need confirming before this is published. Ask a Build Specialist for current terms.
Go to BC Housing for anything definitive
BCIT also runs more in-depth construction courses for anyone who wants to go further than exam preparation.
Owner builder questions
No. An owner builder does not need to pick up a tool. You can hire professionals for every aspect of the project. What the authorization requires is that you are genuinely managing it, working with the contractors, the building department and the inspectors, rather than permitting the build and handing it over.
Third party providers run preparation courses covering the Homeowner Protection Act and Regulation and the steps involved in building a home. BCIT also runs more in-depth construction courses for anyone who wants to go further than exam preparation. Ask a Build Specialist about current options.
Couples applying together have reported doing so, and it follows logically from everyone in the home being an owner builder under a single permit. One permit is issued per home, so a second owner builder permit would not be granted separately to a spouse. Confirm with BC Housing rather than relying on reported experience.
You can reapply and rewrite it. Bear in mind that you are not told your score or which answers you got wrong, so there is limited feedback to work from, which is an argument for preparing properly rather than relying on a second attempt.
It removes a substantial part of what you would otherwise be coordinating. Design, engineering and the structural package arrive resolved and sequenced, so you are managing assembly and trades rather than fabrication and material supply. See exactly what arrives, or how the process runs.
Get new house plans as they are released
We add plans through the year and photograph the homes once they are finished. Both go out by email before they go anywhere else.
- New and updated house plans
- Completed builds, with photographs
- Occasional guidance on cost, code and building conditions
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We work with owner builders constantly.
Tell a Build Specialist what you are planning. We will talk through the package and what you would actually be managing on site.