I thought I would bring this everyones attention. As your all aware this is now the second landlord in calgary who will be facing charges related to fatalities in their rental property. I`m not sure if many of you have delt with the development and permitting department but if you are working on one of your rental properties they will not give you any permits to do electrical, plumbing, or heating work (Gas fitting aswell but they won`t even give home owners a permit to do work with gas).
This concerns me since it forces a choice between cost and safety, if the city doesn`t give a permit to do the work then there is no required inspection to insure the work was done properly or built to current safety codes.
An inspection is a double take and why they restrict it to licensed professional is beyond me. Since it effectively the cuts the property owner out the loop despite the fact that they will be the ones who always get named on a lawsuit or for criminal charges.
I spoke with my alderman today and i mentioned my concern and he was suprised that the city wouldn`t give any permits to the property owners. If there is doubt in you aldermans mind refer him to the following link on the city of calgary web page.
http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_780_229_0_43/http%3B/content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Business/Planning+and+Building/Home+Building+and+Renovations/I+Want+to+Build/Basement+Suite/Application+Requirements+-+Basement+Suite.htm
The last item on the page:
"The heating, electrical, plumbing and gas installations must be done by licensed contractors, who are responsible for obtaining their own separate permits."
Maybe together if we can let enough alderman know this is a problem we can get the city to take some action in recifying this problem. We shouldn`t have to pay someone $70/hr just so we can get the work inspected to insure we provide safe rental accommodation for our tenants.
Cheers,
Ryan
This concerns me since it forces a choice between cost and safety, if the city doesn`t give a permit to do the work then there is no required inspection to insure the work was done properly or built to current safety codes.
An inspection is a double take and why they restrict it to licensed professional is beyond me. Since it effectively the cuts the property owner out the loop despite the fact that they will be the ones who always get named on a lawsuit or for criminal charges.
I spoke with my alderman today and i mentioned my concern and he was suprised that the city wouldn`t give any permits to the property owners. If there is doubt in you aldermans mind refer him to the following link on the city of calgary web page.
http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_780_229_0_43/http%3B/content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Business/Planning+and+Building/Home+Building+and+Renovations/I+Want+to+Build/Basement+Suite/Application+Requirements+-+Basement+Suite.htm
The last item on the page:
"The heating, electrical, plumbing and gas installations must be done by licensed contractors, who are responsible for obtaining their own separate permits."
Maybe together if we can let enough alderman know this is a problem we can get the city to take some action in recifying this problem. We shouldn`t have to pay someone $70/hr just so we can get the work inspected to insure we provide safe rental accommodation for our tenants.
Cheers,
Ryan