What are Vancouver's current ADU rules?
✓ Verified against code · August 20, 2026
Vancouver's rules changed on July 31, 2026, when a wholly new Title 20 took effect under Ordinance M-4533. Two ADUs per lot are allowed, at up to 1,000 sq ft each, with no off-street parking and no owner-occupancy requirement. Be careful where you read this: the major code aggregators were still serving the superseded code weeks after the change, so a guide or search result describing Vancouver's ADU rules may be describing a code that no longer applies.
Citation: Ordinance M-4533; VMC Title 20
How current is this?
Vancouver’s ADU rules run under VMC Title 20 (2026 Unified Development Code) (Ordinance M-4533). Vancouver replaced its entire Title 20 in Ordinance M-4533, adopted June 1, 2026 and effective July 31, 2026 — three weeks before this verification. Both major code aggregators are still serving the superseded code: vancouver.municipal.codes states it is current only through an ordinance from December 2025. The only current text is the city's own PDF, which is where every rule below was read. Anything permitted between June 2025 and July 2026 fell under interim ordinance M-4517, not this code. We verified this answer against primary sources on August 20, 2026, and every change we catch is logged in the changelog.
More Vancouver ADU questions
- How tall can a detached Vancouver ADU be?
- Do I need parking for a Vancouver ADU?
- Can I sit a Vancouver ADU on the alley line?
- What do impact fees cost on a Vancouver ADU?
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Not legal advice — lot-specific overlays can change the answer for your parcel. The citation above points at the governing code section; check it, or ask the city to confirm.