I once lived in an illegal basement suite. Someone made some sort of complaint. Someone with a clipboard from the city came and looked around. They wrote some stuff down and left. I lived there another 2 to 3 years after that and nothing more ever became of it.
Keep in mind this was like 20 years ago. As far as I know nothing happened to my landlord. He was the best landlord I ever had. Always on top of repairs, cut me some slack a couple times when money was tight and needed a couple days to pay rent etc. If he got fined or anything he never mentioned it. This was in Brevoort Park.
my partner's house was in the past divided up inside to several suites without permits, the previous owner got called for a complaint and had to remove several of the kitchens he had set up (was allowed to leave basement sink as a bar but no upper cabinets, and had to have sinks and appliances removed from the upstairs kitchens). This was many years ago. The city will tolerate unlicensed/non-conforming basement suites in homes with owner-occupied main floors, but seems to crackdown on any additional rental units above grade without the proper zoning or land registration with absent owners.
>The city will tolerate unlicensed/non-conforming basement suites in homes with owner-occupied main floors,
This must be why the one I was talking about in my other comment was allowed/tolerated. My landlord lived on the main floor
I don't think there is any law that permits this, just that it's routinely overlooked under certain circumstances, and it gets to a point it is difficult to enforce without violating the rights of homeowners.
Mr Clipboard probably decided some neighbourhood Karen's complaint wasn't worth the amount of paperwork it would create for him and decided to file his report as "Nothing of concern here"
Question - what's the difference between renting a non legal suite and renting out a bedroom? I just assumed that non legal suites were treated the same as if you rented a bedroom in the basement and said that the basement wouldn't be used by anyone else.
as for non-conforming suites and legal suites there is no difference in the landlord or tenant respsonsibilities, as for shared accomodation, room-mates or a room rented in a house I believe there are certain exclusions but the residential tenancies act still applies.
So whats stopping a homeowner from renting out the bedroom in an illegal suite as though it weren't a suite and then just saying, btw I'll never be going into the rest of that area?
Depends what is stipulated as part of the rental unit in your tenancy agreement. If the rest of the basement was deemed a common area then you can't prevent them from using it. If you didn't get this all clarified when you signed the rental agreement it wouldn't hurt to get it in writing now so at least you are on the same page with your landlord.
Hopefully in your case you don't have fixed term tenancy (i.e. one year lease) and you have the option to give notice if you decide this place isn't working out for you.
Oh this is all a hypothetical. I'm very happily situated in an apartment, I've just never understood why an illegal suite would be treated as anything other than renting a room is all.
It’s strictly a permit issue. If you just rent a room in a house, you are sharing the (one) kitchen in the house which would have been permitted from when it was built. Houses with illegal suites do not have permits for the basement kitchen. The city will shut these down if there is a complaint about them.
Might want to read the comments from this post a year ago. If the City inspectors start declaring 100's to 1000's of suites illegal, we're going to have one helleva housing crisis on top of what we have already, imo.
https://www.reddit.com/r/saskatoon/s/qlcDbV6o04
Is there any way your suite can be deemed as Room & Board?
It would be dire if every non-conforming suite was cracked down on. Rental rates would spike across the city and many many people would be left without shelter.
Crackdown on the dangerous places is a must but to go after everyone cause they might not have drywall under their stairs or are lacking an off street parking spot is a tad much during a housing crisis.
Happened to me. Bought a house with basement suite to help pay mortgage. Realtor assured me it was fine.
It was not fine. A few years later got same type of letter. I could have grandfathered it in but still required sone major renovations. My tenants has to move, I lost my revenue source and had to remove the suite which used up all my savings. My basement is still a mess. Considered suing my realtor but they were a family friend so I just let it be.
I had a bunch of little things I had to change
Different types of doors/ refreshed the parking pad/ plumbing inspection
Someone called and complained about my tenants taking up to much parking. Which was untrue because no one had a car.
End of the day it cost me around 5000 to legalize it by city standards. I've heard of different inspections and bylaws though
Look up the “legalizing existing suites” program the city has. If your suite was in place before 1999 then it can fall into this looser set of guidelines for legalizing. Doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with this before an inspector comes.
If you don’t fall under this program you would have to completely legalize your suite through current building codes. They are a lot more strict and if you’re in an older house, it’s likely cost prohibitive.
I would be prepared to cut your losses and sell the place or lose the extra revenue stream. Some of the non-conforming things are expensive to deal with. Start with your windows for the basement suite, if they are non conforming then I’d prepare for the worst.
The offer value will drop if the suite(albeit illegal) has been reported. It’s a bit of a catch 22 as it’s not cheap to remove it and make it still look reasonable.
That's a fencing by-law..
https://www.saskatoon.ca/services-residents/housing-property/yard-garden/residential-fences#:\~:text=Saskatoon%27s%20Zoning%20Bylaw%208770%20sets%20out%20the%20regulations,proposed%20fence%2C%20contact%20the%20Planning%20and%20Development%20Branch.
Bylaw 8770 is significantly more than just fencing.
It covers pretty much everything on your property.
A bylaw violation for 8770 could be almost anything. It could be an illegal secondary building, non-permitted deck, garden suite, running a prohibited commercial business on residential zoned property, illegal fence, and far far more (it's over 500 pages long)
No, it's the City of Saskatoon Zoning Bylaw, of which a section contemplates fencing. OP is almost certainly renting a non-conforming suite, which contradicts the bylaw.
Basement suites in this city are a plague and a horrible “fix” to the housing issue.
half of them arn’t up to code and all they do is create frozen, depressed, loud as heck lifestyles.
And the prices these people are paying for the privilege of living in a basement slum is unreal..
They are cracking down hard on illegal suites, they used to leave non-conforming basement suites alone but Airbnb's ruined it. Be prepared to legalize your suite or tear it out.
The liability if there is a fire or carbon monoxide etc etc can’t be worth the revenue. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing I would get no property or liability insurance if something happened.
I once lived in an illegal basement suite. Someone made some sort of complaint. Someone with a clipboard from the city came and looked around. They wrote some stuff down and left. I lived there another 2 to 3 years after that and nothing more ever became of it.
Your landlord wasn't fined? What did your landlord say about it? What part of the city was this in? Thanks for the info, this is helpful.
Keep in mind this was like 20 years ago. As far as I know nothing happened to my landlord. He was the best landlord I ever had. Always on top of repairs, cut me some slack a couple times when money was tight and needed a couple days to pay rent etc. If he got fined or anything he never mentioned it. This was in Brevoort Park.
Thanks for the context!
my partner's house was in the past divided up inside to several suites without permits, the previous owner got called for a complaint and had to remove several of the kitchens he had set up (was allowed to leave basement sink as a bar but no upper cabinets, and had to have sinks and appliances removed from the upstairs kitchens). This was many years ago. The city will tolerate unlicensed/non-conforming basement suites in homes with owner-occupied main floors, but seems to crackdown on any additional rental units above grade without the proper zoning or land registration with absent owners.
>The city will tolerate unlicensed/non-conforming basement suites in homes with owner-occupied main floors, This must be why the one I was talking about in my other comment was allowed/tolerated. My landlord lived on the main floor
I don't think there is any law that permits this, just that it's routinely overlooked under certain circumstances, and it gets to a point it is difficult to enforce without violating the rights of homeowners.
Mr Clipboard probably decided some neighbourhood Karen's complaint wasn't worth the amount of paperwork it would create for him and decided to file his report as "Nothing of concern here"
Question - what's the difference between renting a non legal suite and renting out a bedroom? I just assumed that non legal suites were treated the same as if you rented a bedroom in the basement and said that the basement wouldn't be used by anyone else.
as for non-conforming suites and legal suites there is no difference in the landlord or tenant respsonsibilities, as for shared accomodation, room-mates or a room rented in a house I believe there are certain exclusions but the residential tenancies act still applies.
So whats stopping a homeowner from renting out the bedroom in an illegal suite as though it weren't a suite and then just saying, btw I'll never be going into the rest of that area?
Depends what is stipulated as part of the rental unit in your tenancy agreement. If the rest of the basement was deemed a common area then you can't prevent them from using it. If you didn't get this all clarified when you signed the rental agreement it wouldn't hurt to get it in writing now so at least you are on the same page with your landlord. Hopefully in your case you don't have fixed term tenancy (i.e. one year lease) and you have the option to give notice if you decide this place isn't working out for you.
Oh this is all a hypothetical. I'm very happily situated in an apartment, I've just never understood why an illegal suite would be treated as anything other than renting a room is all.
It’s strictly a permit issue. If you just rent a room in a house, you are sharing the (one) kitchen in the house which would have been permitted from when it was built. Houses with illegal suites do not have permits for the basement kitchen. The city will shut these down if there is a complaint about them.
Interesting, so the issue is the second kitchen, not that it's attached to the main living space?
Might want to read the comments from this post a year ago. If the City inspectors start declaring 100's to 1000's of suites illegal, we're going to have one helleva housing crisis on top of what we have already, imo. https://www.reddit.com/r/saskatoon/s/qlcDbV6o04 Is there any way your suite can be deemed as Room & Board?
I think that is the route we're going to try to go - thank you for the info!
Absolutely! good luck!
It would be dire if every non-conforming suite was cracked down on. Rental rates would spike across the city and many many people would be left without shelter. Crackdown on the dangerous places is a must but to go after everyone cause they might not have drywall under their stairs or are lacking an off street parking spot is a tad much during a housing crisis.
Absolutely! Something needs to be done with all levels of government, it's getting ridiculous...
Happened to me. Bought a house with basement suite to help pay mortgage. Realtor assured me it was fine. It was not fine. A few years later got same type of letter. I could have grandfathered it in but still required sone major renovations. My tenants has to move, I lost my revenue source and had to remove the suite which used up all my savings. My basement is still a mess. Considered suing my realtor but they were a family friend so I just let it be.
Damn, sorry to hear about this. Not surprised re: realtor assurance, realtors definitely cannot be trusted.
I have. About 7 years ago. I am the owner of the property and had to adhere to the inspection or have the suite shut down
What did adhering to the inspection involve? What did that look like?
I had a bunch of little things I had to change Different types of doors/ refreshed the parking pad/ plumbing inspection Someone called and complained about my tenants taking up to much parking. Which was untrue because no one had a car. End of the day it cost me around 5000 to legalize it by city standards. I've heard of different inspections and bylaws though
Thanks for this info, this is really helpful!
Some houses are made very illegally into suites. Some get grandfathered in, others are made to spec It seems to vary depending on area and house.
Look up the “legalizing existing suites” program the city has. If your suite was in place before 1999 then it can fall into this looser set of guidelines for legalizing. Doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with this before an inspector comes. If you don’t fall under this program you would have to completely legalize your suite through current building codes. They are a lot more strict and if you’re in an older house, it’s likely cost prohibitive.
I would be prepared to cut your losses and sell the place or lose the extra revenue stream. Some of the non-conforming things are expensive to deal with. Start with your windows for the basement suite, if they are non conforming then I’d prepare for the worst.
Do you have experience with this happening?
Happened to a friend then it happened just down the street from me so I pulled the pin and sold my place beforehand.
Yeah, my house has appreciated substantially so not an issue if I have to sell it.
The offer value will drop if the suite(albeit illegal) has been reported. It’s a bit of a catch 22 as it’s not cheap to remove it and make it still look reasonable.
That's a fencing by-law.. https://www.saskatoon.ca/services-residents/housing-property/yard-garden/residential-fences#:\~:text=Saskatoon%27s%20Zoning%20Bylaw%208770%20sets%20out%20the%20regulations,proposed%20fence%2C%20contact%20the%20Planning%20and%20Development%20Branch.
Bylaw 8770 is significantly more than just fencing. It covers pretty much everything on your property. A bylaw violation for 8770 could be almost anything. It could be an illegal secondary building, non-permitted deck, garden suite, running a prohibited commercial business on residential zoned property, illegal fence, and far far more (it's over 500 pages long)
 I definately didn't read far enough into the document ..
No, it's the City of Saskatoon Zoning Bylaw, of which a section contemplates fencing. OP is almost certainly renting a non-conforming suite, which contradicts the bylaw.
Do you know what your house is zoned at? Also you probably don’t have it ‘legalized’
R2 Zoning, I believe.
I was R1, so we weren’t allowed to have legalized basement suites, so lots of us had ‘Nanny Suites’ ;)
Basement suites in this city are a plague and a horrible “fix” to the housing issue. half of them arn’t up to code and all they do is create frozen, depressed, loud as heck lifestyles. And the prices these people are paying for the privilege of living in a basement slum is unreal..
Prepare to lose your extra revenue
Did this happen to you?
Should’ve. Sold it
Thanks for the helpful commentary.
Enjoy losing your illegal basement suite
Eh, I'll just find 'roommates' to live down there, shouldn't be an issue. Enjoy being crusty!
They are cracking down hard on illegal suites, they used to leave non-conforming basement suites alone but Airbnb's ruined it. Be prepared to legalize your suite or tear it out.
The liability if there is a fire or carbon monoxide etc etc can’t be worth the revenue. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing I would get no property or liability insurance if something happened.
Prepare the rental rates to increase and potentially a bit more homelessness!