eCheck Digital Building Permit Review Tool

Terms of Use 

1. Introduction 
In its efforts to enhance the efficiency of development and building permit application processing, the City of Burnaby (referred to as “the City” "our", “us” or "we" below) is licensing the use of an automated digital zoning compliance tool and platform (licensed by us from Archistar Pty Ltd. (“Archistar”), a third party licensor) called eCheck which allows us to digitally evaluate your digital architectural drawings, plans, and/or supporting materials (“Content”) against applicable by-laws, regulations, and rules.  Our objective of incorporating eCheck into the permit issuance process is to use digital tools and services to facilitate quicker feedback to building permit applicants and enhance overall customer service.   

2. Application of Terms 
These terms (the “City Terms”), along with Archistar terms of use located at https://www.archistar.ai/terms-ca/ (the “Archistar Terms”, and collectively with the City Terms, the “Terms”)  are binding and apply to any use of the Archistar eCheck platform (“eCheck”) by you. By using eCheck, you irrevocably agree to these Terms (which may be amended from time to time by us or by Archistar, as applicable). If you accept these Terms on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you warrant that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms.  

3. Your Account 
To access and use eCheck, you will be required to create an Archistar eCheck account (an “Account”) in accordance and compliance with section 2 of the Archistar Terms 

4. Disclaimers 
eCheck is an evaluative digital tool that is used for informational purposes only. Your use of eCheck is at your sole risk. eCheck and the materials therein are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. You acknowledge that you have been advised by us to undertake your own due diligence with respect to eCheck. We make no representations or warranties, either express or implied, of any kind with respect to eCheck, its operation, content, information or materials.

We expressly disclaim all representations and warranties, express or implied, of any kind with respect to eCheck, its use, its results or reports, including but not limited to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability or suitability of any of the content or data found on eCheck, title and non-infringement, and those arising by statute or otherwise in law or equity, or from a course of dealing or usage of trade. We provide links to other websites that are not under our control. We do this as a convenience and for reference only.

Your eCheck report(s) and results should not be construed or interpreted by you as approval, and do not mean that we will necessarily approve your Content (upon your receipt of results, or in the future), or that we will issue a building permit. We retain all rights and sole discretion to approve or reject any Content once you formally apply for a permit, which will only be issued by us in accordance with applicable laws (including by-laws, regulations, and rules).  

5. Ownership of Intellectual Property 
When you upload your Content to eCheck, you represent and warrant that you have all legal rights to upload the Content to eCheck and accordingly, grant to each of the City and Archistar a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the Content to:  

• Check and report on compliance with applicable regulations
• Complete data fields on related permit applications in review
• Inform how we design, apply, analyze, update, and report on policies and regulations 
• Train and improve eCheck’s performance and ability to scan and interpret drawings, including detection of features like doors, windows, and room types

Additionally:

• The City does not indemnify you for any loss arising from or relating to your use of eCheck, including any claim of infringement of intellectual property rights, unless we are required by law to do so.
• You are responsible for ensuring that you do not, in using eCheck, infringe or violate any other person’s intellectual property rights, misappropriate confidential information, or breach any laws.
• You have no right to use our trademarks or brands unless explicitly provided for in a separate trademark licence agreement.
• ARCHISTAR and eCheck are trademarks of Archistar.

If you are the owner of the drawings, you will retain all ownership of copyright and other existing intellectual property rights that you have in your Content.  There is no transfer of ownership in such Content to either Archistar or the City by your use of eCheck.

6. Restrictions on Use of eCheck 
You agree with the City and Archistar that you will only use eCheck for the strict purposes of uploading your Content and in accordance with all applicable laws.  You represent and warrant to the City and Archistar that all Content you upload to eCheck are in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.  You acknowledge and agree with the City that:

• all Content accessed through your use of eCheck is at your own risk and that you are solely responsible for any resulting damage or loss to you or any other party; and
• we do not make any guarantees that there will be no loss of your Content or that eCheck will be error-free. You should download and backup your Content prior to terminating your Account.

Whenever you upload any Content or any other materials to eCheck, you will not with respect to such Content or other uploaded content, knowingly:

• upload, create, transmit, distribute, or store obscene, offensive, objectionable or inappropriate content;
• use eCheck to transmit content which contains a computer virus or other code, files, or programs designed to disrupt or interfere with the functioning of eCheck;
• upload, create, transmit, distribute, or store verbal, physical, written or other abuse or unsolicited commercial communications (including threats of abuse or retribution or spam) to any person or cause harm to any person in any way; or
• upload, create, transmit, distribute, or store material that violates trademark, copyright, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of others or violates the privacy or other personal rights of others.

For greater certainty, the City shall not be responsible for, or have any liability arising out of, any Content that does not comply with these Terms.

7. Personal Information
Any personal information that you provide while using eCheck will be held by Archistar in accordance with its privacy policy located at https://www.archistar.ai/privacy/ and pursuant to the terms of section 6 of the Archistar Terms.
Personal information collected will also be held by the City of Burnaby in accordance with its privacy policy located at https://www.burnaby.ca/privacy-statement.

8. Indemnity
You hereby defend, hold harmless and indemnify the City and its elected officials, officers, employees, volunteers and agents (collectively, the “Indemnified Parties”) from and against any and all claims, demands, proceedings, suits, losses, damages, costs and expenses of whatsoever kind or nature, including reasonable legal fees. suffered or incurred by the Indemnified Parties arising out of or in connection with:

• i.    any breach by you of the Terms; 
• ii.    your use or misuse of eCheck;
• iii.    in respect of any claim made or legal or regulatory action brought against the Indemnified Parties arising out of or relating to your conduct that is a misuse of eCheck or breach of the Terms;
• iv.    decisions made by you or actions taken by you when using or relying upon eCheck; and/or
• v.    allowing others to use any content that is made available via eCheck.

9. Limitations
a. Without limiting any other term of the Terms, we are not responsible for: 

• i.    Third party Internet, electronic, hardware, software, network or other computer-related failures, malfunctions or errors;
• ii.    Any disruptions, damages, losses, failures or errors that are caused by events or occurrences that are beyond our control; or
• iii.    Typographical, processing, mechanical or human errors.

b. Subject to the express provisions of the Terms, eCheck is provided by Archistar strictly on an “as-is” and “as available” basis, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, the City and Archistar exclude all implied and statutory warranties, terms, conditions or undertakings that eCheck will be:

• i.    Available at any particular time;
• ii.    Secure or error-free;
• iii.    Fit for any particular purpose; or
• iv.    Will meet any standard or specification.

c. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we hereby expressly disclaim all implied or statutory warranties, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, title, reliability, accuracy, completeness and quiet enjoyment. 

d. Notwithstanding any other clause of this Agreement, to the extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability, including in tort (including negligence), contract and otherwise, for any loss of or damage to data, loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of privacy, loss of enjoyment, damage to reputation and goodwill, and loss of business, and any consequential, indirect or special loss or damage.

e. Our liability under these Terms will be reduced proportionally to the extent to which any loss was caused or contributed to by any negligence or other wrongful act or omission of you.

10. General
a. This Agreement contains the entire agreement between the parties with respect to its subject matter. 

b. No failure to exercise or delay in exercising any right, power or remedy under the Terms operates as a waiver. A single or partial exercise or waiver of the exercise of any right, power or remedy does not preclude any other or further exercise of that or any other right, power or remedy. A waiver is not valid or binding on the party granting that waiver unless made in writing.

c. You are not an agent or employee of us.  We are not an agent or employee of you. Nothing contained or implied in the Terms means that you are a partner, agent or legal representative of us for any purpose, or creates any partnership, agency or trust. 

d. The City may amend the City Terms, and Archistar may amend the Archistar Terms, each at any time in their sole discretion. If you do not agree to such amendments, then you must stop using the Services; if you continue using the Service after the date on which any such amendments come into force, you will be deemed to have agreed to such amendments.

e. Any provision of the Terms which is prohibited or unenforceable in any jurisdiction is ineffective as to that jurisdiction to the extent of the prohibition or unenforceability. That does not invalidate the remaining provisions of the Terms nor affect the validity or enforceability of that provision in any other jurisdiction.

f. The City Terms and, to the extent permitted by law, all related matters including non-contractual matters, are governed by the laws of British Columbia, Canada.  In relation to such matters, each party irrevocably accepts the exclusive jurisdiction of courts with jurisdiction in British Columbia and waives any right to object to the venue on any ground. 

We are aware of some address search issues, especially with numbered streets in southeast Burnaby (e.g. “18th Avenue”) and streets with a north extension (e.g. “Ellesmere Avenue North”). If you encounter an error looking up an R1-zoned residential property with the address search function, you can still pan the map to the property manually and click on the lot to access zoning information.

As an early user, your feedback is valuable. If you encounter any issues using Explore, please report them to [email protected]. We will be making continuous improvements during our pilot—thank you for your patience.

eCheck will enable you to fix any problems and address design issues in advance, reducing errors, requiring fewer revisions, and speeding up approval. The eCheck report shows which zoning rules apply to your project, whether your design passes or fails each rule, and offers tips to fix any issues. The eCheck system follows strict security protocols to protect your information and the files being uploaded, and the copyright holder of the plans maintains the ownership rights.

It is important to note that eCheck doesn't replace professional designers and expertise. It checks objective zoning rules, not ones that need judgment. Applicants are strongly recommended to retain experienced qualified design professionals who are familiar with the Burnaby Zoning bylaw. As this is a pilot program, City staff will provide close quality control of reviews, and will continue to fully review drawings for Building Code compliance.

During our pilot, you can participate by opting in to the eCheck pilot program during your application. This can be done for online applications via My Permits Portal.

To be eligible for eCheck, your architectural plans should include a cover sheet/technical data summary, topographical and survey plans, site plan, floor plans, and elevations. Please refer to the Drawing Requirements – R1 SSMUH Information Guide for further details. 

If you are the owner of the drawings, you will retain all ownership of copyright and other existing intellectual property rights that you have in your drawings. There is no transfer of ownership in such drawings to either Archistar or the City of Burnaby by use of the eCheck platform. 

Archistar and the City of Burnaby may use your drawings to train and improve eCheck’s performance and functionality to scan and interpret drawings, such as recognizing and detecting features like doors, windows, and room types. For greater clarity, drawings will not be used to create new building plans.

The purpose of eCheck is to provide faster feedback on any drawing deficiencies, and speed up the City’s review times. The intent is to increase efficiency and support and facilitate quicker issuance of  building permits. Currently, the use of eCheck is voluntary. If you prefer not to use eCheck, you can still proceed to submit your building permit application directly to the City’s Building Department.