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Business License for Lodging in Calgary

xguo

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Hello, Everyone,
I have a student house in Calgary. I recently got a letter from the city requiring me to get a license for lodging. I called the Planning department, I was asked to change my residential building into a commercial building. Can anyone who has experience in this help me? Do I have to change the whole building into a commercial building?
Many thanks in advance!!
Shanpei
 

Matt Crowley

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Did you install kitchens? You will need to decommission or you will get shut down.

“dwelling unit” means one or more rooms used or designed to be used as a residence by one or more persons and containing kitchen, living, sleeping areas and includes access to sanitary facilities; (COC site)
 

Thomas Beyer

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What about a single family house rented to, say, five students at $500/room with shared living room, kitchen and yard ? You need a license for this now in Calgary ?
 

xguo

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Did you install kitchens? You will need to decommission or you will get shut down.

Thanks for your reply. sorry, I was out of town and didn't get back to you as soon as possible. There's only one kitchen in the house. I was told any house with more than 3 rooms are considered lodging house and need a license. I just wonder whether there's anybody here have gone through this process and can give me some advices? Really appreciated.
 

Matt Crowley

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Probably a disgruntled past tenant or upset neighbor reported you.

That is what I see from the Calgary Bylaws as well, Section 41 (http://www.calgary.ca/CA/city-clerk...Bylaws/32m98-BusinessLicence.pdf?noredirect=1)
lodging-house.jpg

Quite annoyingly, it looks like you will have a one-time license application fee of about $200 and a renewal fee of about $150 / year. Part of the licensing process is going to require having some inspectors come through your house: fire, health, and planning department will be involved.

Part of the concern with rooming houses is there is a legitimate fire issue with these homes and is a real concern . The Calgary fire deparment encourages citizens to report rooming houses:

"But without the anticipated surge of tips, city officials have little idea about the vast majority of rooming houses or other unsafe rental units, said Brad Lorne, deputy chief of the fire department.
"They're in every neighbourhood of the city -- we just don't know where they are," he said. "We need to have a way to find out where they are. The 311 system, we hope that helps."" Source: (http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=897a4e47-9879-41f7-9eb7-950c3521592b)
.... further in the article:

"A licensed "lodging house" in Calgary is one in "the business of providing sleeping or lodging accommodation for compensation, with or without meals, for four or more persons." They need fire department, health and land-use approvals."​

Your options are:
1) Go through the process and pay the fees to the city for running a lodging house. You may need to temporarily shut down but this is something you need to confirm with the city. Pay the annual renewal fees. Some upgrading of the home may be necessary to meet city requirements, but not definitely. You are going to be dealing with the safe housing department which is more concerned with safety than meeting every last building code requirement.
2) Rent to only 3 or fewer tenants
3) Sell house
Not an option:
Ignore notice from city / continue operating clandestinely as a 3+ person rooming house. They will shut down your house and have authority to impose some very hefty fines. If the suite has some fire / mold problems they will gladly slap some big penalties on there as well.
 

xguo

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Thank you so much for your detailed reply! I have no problem to have safe housing department to check my house and pay the license fee as long I'm clear about the requirements for fire and health. It's hard to get some detailed guidelines from the city. I called them a couple of times. I was suggested to hire an architect to design a commercial building. This kind of scaring me. I have no clue how much further development cost down the road. In addition, will this impact the property tax rate and garbage collection rate if it's being turned into a commercial building? Thanks again.
 

Matt Crowley

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From the looks of bylaw, no. The lodging zoning says it is specifically not for hotel/motel or apartment building operator. (Meaning it is not for commercial properties)

lodging-house.jpg


I really hear you pain about talking to the zoning / planning department. Contrary to what you may have heard, they are not going to really help you or work with you. They are there to enforce the rules. They expect you to have a perfect, working knowledge of these bylaws and to come to them only once you are ready to pay fees for permits. A lot of the planning officers at the desk and on the phones are straight out of the planning program and know very little about the bylaws and how they are applied. It can be a frustrating process with a lot of inconsistency.

You don't need to be scared, you just need to follow the rules. Just be aware that your file might be in the "questionable landlord" bin by virtue of investigation with the safe housing committee so they are probably going to be dragging their feet when it comes to providing you with answers. Your best defense here is to become knowledgeable about their concerns. The City of Calgary website is pretty frustrating to navigate but you need to become an expert on what a lodging house is.

You probably will not be turned into a commercial building because of zoning restrictions. Sounds like you spoke to someone just being flip with you. It is a totally ridiculous idea.

Honestly, you don't need to panic. Worst case, you empty out the house and rent it to one tenant. Problem solved with the planning and zoning department. I know it is a cash flow concern as well but that is what the research on a lodging house is going to help you with.

Do not expect the city to help you with this problem. Calling an architect is a waste of a conversation but calling a professional planner might be worth your time and investment. You want to search for something like "urban planner Calgary" or "municipal planning Calgary". Urban planners are experts on zoning and often coordinate that aspect of the development for (large scale) professional developers. Someone like CityTrend. Keep in mind that there is (most likely) not big money in providing permitting for lodging houses so even they may not be overly familiar with the zoning rules.
 

xguo

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I really appreciate you taking time answering my questions. Your encouragement makes me feel much more comfortable now. I will share back my experiences once I've gone through the process. :)
 

SokalskiT

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So does this mean if 4 roommates are living together you have to follow this bylaw??
 

xguo

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Yes, if you are renting out 4 or more rooms, you need a license of lodging.
 

ShahAktar

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Hi Xgua,
I received a similar notice from City. Could you please share with me what finally you did to handle the city requirements? Was there anything required for zoning related change? Sharing of your experience will help me a lot. If you want I can talk to you off-line. Thanks
 

Tina Myrvang

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Hi Xgua,
I received a similar notice from City. Could you please share with me what finally you did to handle the city requirements? Was there anything required for zoning related change? Sharing of your experience will help me a lot. If you want I can talk to you off-line. Thanks
This is an old thread, it is not current.
 

Thomas Beyer

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Challenge the city. Usually 2 people per bedroom are allowed. So if your house has 3 BRs then six students shouldn't be a problem.

They have an issue with two full kitchens though and as such may ask you to remove it.

How many bedrooms does your house have, how many kitchens and how many students ?
 

ShahAktar

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There are 7-students in 7-rooms. One in each. I don't mind to take the license or maintain other requirements. Only and big problem I can see if there is any issue of zoning. Please advise.


Is there anybody who came across the similar situation? I am curious how the problems have been handled finally.
 

Thomas Beyer

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The number of bedrooms matters as does the number of kitchens, as does the number of cars and the number of parties. Likely a neighbor complained. Many cities shut these houses down, while lamenting "we need more affordable housing".
 

ShahAktar

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Thanks for your response. Do you have any advice how to handle the situation in a smart way? I don't think applying for Lodging house will bring anything positive.
 

Thomas Beyer

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Thanks for your response. Do you have any advice how to handle the situation in a smart way? I don't think applying for Lodging house will bring anything positive.

Eliminate cars, noise and excess kitchen. No more than two people per legal bedroom.
 
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