- Surrey business licensing — online application portal; Business Licensing is now at the Surrey Operations Centre, 6651 148 Street, 604-591-4370
- Home-based business regulations — a service business run from home, or from a vehicle, licenses as home-based; no visible storage of equipment on multi-family lots
- Metro West Inter-Municipal Business Licence — Surrey is a participating city (our guide)
- BC Registries — register a sole proprietorship · CRA — when to register for GST
Surrey's licence is valid for one year from the application date. Applying in person has historically issued the licence immediately for straightforward home-based businesses; the city has recently noted processing delays, so build in time.
Surrey's growth is the business case. The city adds tens of thousands of residents every few years across wildly different sub-markets: dense high-rise growth in Surrey City Centre and Whalley, established family neighbourhoods in Fleetwood and Guildford, semi-rural acreage in Cloverdale and Port Kells, and the affluent coastal pocket of South Surrey. New homes need everything — cleaning, yards, coatings, repairs — and new subdivisions arrive faster than service businesses form to serve them.
For a launching operator, Surrey offers the region's best demand-to-competition ratio. The competitive field skews informal — plenty of operators with no web presence — which means a professionally launched business can rank, get reviewed, and own search terms here faster than anywhere west of it.
Business licensing in Surrey
Surrey names trades individually in its fee schedule, so the category is usually obvious. Trades it doesn't name land under Contractor — General or Miscellaneous, both $377.
| Fee | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| BC Registries — name request | $30 | Up to three names |
| BC Registries — sole proprietorship | $40 | Or $350 to incorporate |
| City of Surrey — Contractor — General | $377 | Annual |
| City of Surrey — application fee | $50 | Non-refundable, one time |
| Metro West Inter-Municipal Business Licence | $300 | Twelve months, not pro-rated. |
The $50 application fee is worded in the bylaw as applying to online applications.
Read off Business Licence By-law 13680, Schedule A, consolidated to Bylaw 21963 (13 April 2026) on 22 September 2026: the fee schedule itself, alongside the City of Surrey licence page. Municipal fees change every year, so we confirm your exact figure before anything is filed and pass it through at cost.
The renewal clock
A Surrey licence runs one year from the date it was issued, so your renewal date is your own start date rather than a fixed month.
Working in more than one city
The Metro West Inter-Municipal Business Licence is $300 and covers Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Delta and New Westminster on one licence, for trades contractors and others in the construction industry, contractors who maintain, repair or inspect land and buildings, and in-home health-care providers. Twelve months, not pro-rated. The bylaw is worth two minutes before you pay it. Surrey sits in two inter-municipal schemes: Metro West at $300 reaching west into Vancouver and Burnaby, and the Fraser Valley IMBL at $250 reaching east to Langley, Abbotsford, Mission and Chilliwack. If your work crosses the Fraser in both directions, price both before choosing.
Running it from home in Surrey
Nearly every business we launch starts in a spare room and a driveway, and each of the five cities licences that differently. Surrey’s rules, as written:
- Home occupations may use no more than 25% of one floor of the house — the tightest floor-area cap of the five.
- Only immediate family living in the dwelling may be employed.
- Nothing about the business may be visible from outside — no stored materials, no illuminated sign.
- On multi-residential property, vehicles and equipment for the business may not be stored on or near the lot.
From City of Surrey home-based business regulations — read it in full. Breaching one of these is how a licence gets refused after you have paid for it, which is why we read them before we file.
What works in the Surrey market
Strong Surrey niches: epoxy garage coatings (new builds with pristine garages across Cloverdale, Clayton, and Grandview), landscaping (large-lot neighbourhoods), pressure washing and gutter work, junk removal (constant renovation and turnover), and painting — Daniel-the-Surrey-painter is our flagship example for a reason.
Launched in Surrey in about 10 business days
Registration, Surrey business licence filing, brand, website, online booking, payments, Google Business Profile, and 30 days of support — from $997. You do the work you're great at; we build the company around it.
Book a free launch callSurrey startup FAQ
How much is a Surrey business licence?
Fees are category-based under Surrey's current schedule, with many small service businesses in the low hundreds per year. We confirm your trade's current fee when preparing your application.
Is Surrey a good place to start a service business?
On demand-versus-competition, arguably the best in Metro Vancouver. Population growth continuously mints new customers while much of the existing service supply remains informal and hard to find online — exactly the gap a professional launch exploits.
I'd serve Surrey, Langley, and Delta — how does licensing work?
Working regularly across municipalities generally means being licensed in each, which is where the Metro West Inter-municipal Business Licence often becomes the economical route for trades businesses. We assess your actual service area and file accordingly; final requirements rest with each municipality.
What each trade charges, and what Surrey charges it
Surrey is the one city here that names trades individually in its fee schedule, so cleaning and detailing are cheaper to licence than the contractor rate. Nine trades we launch, priced by the engine behind our public calculators and calibrated to 2026 Metro Vancouver rates, next to what Surrey charges each one to licence. Click a trade to price a job of your own.
| Trade | Market range | Surrey licence |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | $40–$75 an hour | $230 |
| Painting | $40–$100 an hour on site | $377 |
| Landscaping | $35–$80 an hour per visit | $377 |
| Pressure washing | $50–$160 an hour | $377 |
| Mobile detailing | $40–$95 an hour | $289 |
| Handyman | $70–$145 an hour | $377 |
| HVAC | $110–$190 an hour | $377 |
| Epoxy flooring | $6.50–$13 a square foot | $377 |
| Junk removal | $42–$68 a cubic yard | $377 |
Your own prices are yours to set; these are what the market is doing. What you actually take home depends on how full your calendar is and how you run the business, which is not something anyone can promise you from a table.
Start a specific business in Surrey
Other cities
Trade guides for Surrey: Handyman · Hvac · Mobile Detailing · Epoxy Flooring · Pressure Washing · Junk Removal · Cleaning · Painting · Landscaping