Toronto Basement Flooding Subsidy 2026: The City Now Pays Up to $6,650. Here's How to Claim It

If you're reading an article that says Toronto's basement flooding subsidy tops out at $3,400, it's out of date. The City almost doubled the program in 2026. A single-family home can now get up to $6,650 back for flood protection work, and the new amounts apply to anything finished on or after November 12, 2025.

We get asked about this program a lot, often by someone who already paid for the work and isn't sure they qualify. So here is what it covers, what trips people up, and the order to do things in so you don't leave money on the table.

What the City pays for

Every item is paid at up to 80% of your invoice, capped per item:

• Home plumbing assessment: up to $500. A licensed plumber checks how your house connects to the sewer and tells you where the flood risk is. You don't have to act on anything they recommend.
• Backwater valve: up to $1,600 per valve, two valves maximum. Covers the valve, the install and the alarm.
• Sump pump: up to $2,250, one pump. Covers the pump, the install and the alarm.
• Battery backup for the sump pump: up to $300 more.
• Severing and capping the foundation drain (your weeping tile's connection to the city sewer): up to $400.

Add it all up and the ceiling is $6,650 per property. Most homes don't need every item, but a backwater valve plus a sump pump alone can bring back as much as $3,850.

Who qualifies

The house has to be a single-family, duplex, triplex or fourplex inside the City of Toronto, and you have to be the registered owner. Other GTA cities set their own rules, so if you live in Mississauga, Vaughan or Markham, check with your own city.

Three things disqualify more people than anything else:

1. Your downspouts are still connected to the sewer. The City requires them to be disconnected, or for you to hold an exemption, before it will pay. We wrote a separate guide on downspout disconnection in Toronto because it catches so many people.
2. Your contractor doesn't hold the right City licence. The company doing the work needs a valid City of Toronto business licence as a plumbing contractor, plumbing and heating contractor, drain contractor or building renovator at the time of the job. Ask for the licence number before anyone digs.
3. Your front yard paving doesn't meet the zoning bylaw. If the front yard was paved over past what the bylaw allows, that can hold up the claim.

You also can't owe the City outstanding taxes.

The paperwork that actually gets you paid

This is where claims stall. The City wants:

• An electronic invoice from the licensed contractor with their name and address, your address, the date the work was finished, a cost for each device listed separately, and the total marked paid in full.
• The plumbing assessment form, if you're claiming the assessment.
• Photos of the sump pump discharge outside, if you're claiming a sump pump. The discharge has to land on a permeable surface like grass or garden at least two metres from the foundation. Piping it onto the driveway won't pass.
• The building inspection approval for a backwater valve. A backwater valve needs a building permit, and it has to be inspected before the floor is closed over it.

If your invoice lumps the pump and the battery backup into one line, ask the contractor to reissue it itemized. The City will not split it for you.

Timing

For work finished on or after November 12, 2025 you have two years from the install date to apply. Older work had a one-year window, so if you did something in early 2025, check your date now.

Processing takes up to ten weeks. Money is paid first come, first served out of the budget City Council approves each year, so applying early in the year is safer than applying late.

The order we'd do it in

1. Disconnect the downspouts first. It costs little, it's required, and it often fixes more than people expect.
2. Book the plumbing assessment. Half the value is knowing whether your problem is sewer backup, which a backwater valve stops, or groundwater through the walls, which it does not.
3. Do the work with a licensed contractor who pulls the permit and books the inspection.
4. Apply as soon as you have the paid invoice and the inspection.

What the subsidy won't fix

A backwater valve stops the city sewer from pushing up through your floor drain in a big storm. It does nothing for water coming through a cracked wall or seeping in where the wall meets the floor. That's groundwater, and the fix is waterproofing the wall and giving the water somewhere to go, usually new weeping tile and a sump.

If your basement gets wet after ordinary rain rather than only in major storms, the valve alone won't solve it. We've been fixing Toronto basements since 1979 and we'll tell you honestly which kind of water you've got. For a quick number on the waterproofing side, try the cost calculator.

The full rules are on the City of Toronto program page. Program details can change with each year's budget, so check there before you file.