Buying a Home Next to a Farm in Ontario: What the Right-to-Farm Law Means for You

What Ontario's right-to-farm law actually says

Ontario's rules for farm and neighbour disputes come from the Farming and Food Production Protection Act, 1998. The province describes it as protecting farmers who follow normal farm practices from nuisance complaints about seven things: odour, noise, dust, light, vibration, smoke and flies.

A normal farm practice is one carried out in a way that is consistent with proper and acceptable customs and standards for that kind of farming, or that uses newer technology in line with proper advanced farm management practices. In plain terms, if the farm next door is doing what a reasonable farm of that type does, the smell of manure in spring or the sound of equipment at harvest is not something you can make go away by complaining.

That is the part buyers coming from the city often do not expect. In a subdivision, a neighbour making a lot of noise at 11 p.m. is a by-law problem. Next to a farm, the same noise during harvest may simply be farming.

What the law covers, and what it doesn't

Here is the quick version of where the protection starts and stops, based on the province's own summary of the Act.

The key line is the first one. The protection is not a blank cheque. It applies to normal farm practices, and whether something is normal depends on the practice and the location.

If a problem comes up after you move in

The process is set out by the province and by the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board, and it runs in steps.

• Talk to the farmer first. Many issues, like the timing of an activity or where equipment is parked, can be sorted out directly between neighbours.
• Call Ontario's agriculture ministry. Its Agricultural Information Contact Centre, at 1-877-424-1300, is the next step. Ministry staff try to resolve the issue between the two sides.
• Apply to the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board. If it still is not resolved, you can apply for a hearing. The Board says this conflict resolution step through the ministry has to happen before an application will be considered, and that it does not charge participants for hearings.

After a hearing, the Board can decide the practice is normal and dismiss the application, decide it is not normal and order the farmer to stop, or find it would be normal with specific changes and order those changes. The Board also notes that its decisions are specific to the location and circumstances, so the same practice can be ruled normal on one farm and not on another.

The other farm rule that can affect your plans

The right-to-farm law is about living next to a farm. A separate set of provincial setbacks, called Minimum Distance Separation, or MDS, can affect what you are allowed to build or create near one.

According to the province, MDS I applies when new development is proposed near existing livestock barns, manure storages or anaerobic digesters, and MDS II applies when a livestock facility is built or expanded near existing development. The purpose is to reduce land use conflicts and odour concerns. Municipalities are responsible for applying these setbacks in land use planning and, depending on the situation, in building permit reviews.

For a buyer, this matters if your plans for the property go beyond living in the house as it is. If you are thinking about severing a lot, building a new home on vacant land or adding another dwelling, ask the township's planning or building department how MDS applies to that property before you firm up, not after.

What to check before you buy next to a farm

This is the part where a little homework goes a long way. When I am working with a buyer looking at country properties, these are the questions worth answering before the offer is firm:

• What kind of farm is it? A hay or cash crop field and a livestock operation with a barn and manure storage are very different neighbours. Look at what is actually there, not just the zoning.
• Where are the barns and manure storage? Note which way they sit from the house and the outdoor living space. Distance and prevailing wind both matter.
• Visit more than once. One sunny showing tells you very little. If you can, go back at a different time of day, and keep in mind that spring and fall field work and harvest are when activity tends to be most noticeable.
• Talk to the neighbours. People who already live on the road will usually tell you what a normal week sounds and smells like.
• Ask the township about your plans. If you want to build, sever or add a second dwelling, ask how zoning and MDS apply to that lot before you commit.
• Think about the rest of the rural package. A farm next door often comes with a well, a septic system and no natural gas line. I covered those in wells and septic systems in Eastern Ontario and heating a home off the gas grid.

Why this comes up so often in Eastern Ontario

A lot of the homes buyers look at between Ottawa and Brockville sit right on the edge of active farmland. That includes rural Ottawa, North Grenville around Kemptville, and townships like Elizabethtown-Kitley outside Brockville. Some are severed lots with a house, a big yard and a working field on two or three sides.

For a lot of buyers that is exactly the appeal. The open view is part of what they are paying for. It just helps to understand that the field is a business, not a park, and that Ontario law is set up to keep that business running. Buyers who go in knowing that tend to be much happier with the move.