Yes. Any drone weighing 250 grams or more must be registered with Transport Canada and flown by someone holding a valid pilot certificate, and the rules apply to the flight itself rather than to the invoice. A friend shooting your listing as a favour is held to exactly the same standard as a hired professional, which means an uncertified flight over your client's property is not a saving. It is an uninsured risk sitting on your listing.
Do You Need a Certified Drone Pilot to Photograph a Listing?
Yes. A pilot certificate and a registered aircraft are required for any drone from 250 grams up to 25 kilograms, which covers every drone used for real estate work.
One wording correction, because it causes real confusion when you go to check. Canada does not issue a drone "licence". Transport Canada issues a Pilot Certificate, and the aircraft is registered separately. A photographer who says they have their drone licence is usually describing the right document under the wrong name. The two things worth confirming are the certificate and the registration.
Both are mandatory for the equipment that produces listing-quality images. There is no version of a professional real estate shoot in Canada that sits outside these requirements.
What Happens if an Uncertified Pilot Flies Your Listing?
The regulatory penalty falls on the pilot. The consequences that reach your listing are insurance, delay, and the media itself.
Start with insurance, because it is the exposure most agents underestimate. Liability coverage responds to a legal flight. When an uncertified pilot flies an unregistered aircraft over a client's property, any coverage that might have applied is likely void, and the cost of what goes wrong lands on whoever is standing closest: the property owner, your seller, or you. A drone into the roof is the cheap version of that sentence. A drone into a person is not.
Then the practical costs, which are more likely and still expensive. A flight questioned or shut down partway through is a shoot you rebook against a listing date that does not move. Images from a flight that should not have happened are images you may end up pulling from an active listing. Neither is worth carrying to save a booking fee.
There is a simpler version of this for sellers, and it is worth saying to them plainly: the person flying a camera over your house should be able to show you that they are allowed to.
Does It Matter That They Are Doing It as a Favour?
No. Canadian drone rules are set by what you fly, how you fly, and where you fly. Payment does not appear anywhere in the test.
This is the misunderstanding that creates most of the risk above, and it is worth being precise about. There is no separate "commercial drone licence" in Canada. The category of operation, and therefore the certificate required, is determined by the aircraft and the circumstances of the flight.
"Pilot certificates reflect the category of operation, determined by what you fly, how you fly, and where you fly."
Source: Transport Canada, Find your category of drone operation
So a colleague offering to shoot your listing for nothing, a seller's nephew with a new drone, and a hired professional are all flying under identical requirements. Nobody is doing you a favour that exists outside the regulations. If the aircraft is 250 grams or more and the pilot holds no certificate, the flight is not legal, and the fact that no money changed hands is not a defence.
Drones under 250 grams are exempt from registration and certification, and that is the one place the answer changes. Read the exemption for what it is: it applies to the aircraft, not to the job. The prohibition on operating in a way that endangers aviation safety still stands, staying clear of airports and heliports still applies, and maximum take-off weight includes the battery and anything attached, so an accessory can push a drone over the line. It is also not the equipment a listing is shot on.
What Certification Should Your Photographer Hold?
A Pilot Certificate for Basic Operations at minimum, which covers most residential listing shoots. Advanced is required for controlled airspace or for flying near or over people.
Two of the conditions that define Basic operations are the ones that affect your booking, because they are decided by the address rather than by the photographer:
- Airspace. Basic operations are limited to uncontrolled airspace, more than 5.6 kilometres from the centre of a certified airport and 1.9 kilometres from a heliport. London International Airport puts part of the city outside that.
- Distance from people. Basic requires the drone to stay more than 30 metres horizontally from any person, and never to fly over one.
"If you do not meet any of the above conditions, you are conducting advanced or complex operations."
Source: Transport Canada, Basic operations
A property inside the airport radius, or under controlled airspace, needs an Advanced-certified pilot holding an RPAS Flight Authorization for that specific place and time. A shoot that genuinely requires flying close to or over people needs Advanced as well.
"If conducting advanced operations, you can fly in controlled airspace, fly closer than 30 metres to bystanders, and fly over them. You need permission from air traffic control to fly in controlled airspace."
Source: Transport Canada, Advanced operations
What this means in practice is that the certificate is not the whole answer. The address is. An operator who works your market should be able to tell you which category the property falls into before anything is booked, rather than discovering it on the driveway.
What a Certified Operator Does That Someone With a Drone Does Not
The certificate is the entry requirement. What you are actually buying is the planning and the paperwork behind the flight.
The difference between a certified operator and a capable hobbyist is mostly work you never see, and all of it happens before the drone leaves the ground:
- The airspace is checked against your address, not against the general area, so the category and any required authorization are settled before a date is confirmed
- The aircraft is registered, with its registration number marked on it as Transport Canada requires
- Liability insurance is in place and can respond, because the flight it covers is legal
- The flight is planned around people and property, with a launch point and path that hold the required distances on a residential street
- The certificate is carried on site, which Transport Canada requires and which makes it produceable if anyone asks
None of that shows up in the photographs. All of it is the reason the photographs exist without a problem attached. It is also why price is a weak signal on its own: a quote well under the market usually means one of these steps was skipped, and the savings are only real until the day they are not.
How Do You Verify It Before the Shoot?
Three things, all of which a legitimate operator can produce in a single email.
- The Transport Canada pilot certificate, and which level it is, Basic or Advanced
- The drone's registration, whose number is marked on the aircraft itself
- Proof of liability insurance covering drone operations
Pilots are required to have the certificate available while flying, so producing it is not an imposition. Treat hesitation as the answer. For the wider set of checks worth making before you book, including deliverables, turnaround, and what happens when weather cancels, how to choose a drone photographer covers the whole list.
Booking a Certified Drone Pilot in London, Ontario
Forest City Aerial flies Transport Canada certified, Basic Operations, across London, Ontario and the surrounding communities including St. Thomas, Woodstock, Tillsonburg, Aylmer, Ilderton, Kilworth, Komoka, Lucan, Delaware, Dorchester, Mount Brydges, Thorndale, Belmont, and Port Stanley. Every aircraft is registered, every flight is planned against the airspace at the address, and real estate drone photography is delivered fully edited and MLS-ready within 24 hours.
Send the property details and we will confirm what the address needs before anything is booked.
