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Buying a bungalow with a basement rental unit

emeraldsue2

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Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
18
Hi,

We are looking at buying our first property. Primarily we are researching bungalows with basements. To start, should we only focus on buying a bungalow with a legal basement apartment or should we consider bungalows with basement apartments labelled as 'in-law" suites.

How difficult is it to convert an "in law suite" to a legal basement apartment? We are focusing in Durham Region. All ideas and help appreciated!

Susan
 

ChristinaCatana

Ontario Realtor of the Year
REIN Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
34
You'll probably sleep better at night and you'll avoid potential problems if the city is ok with your basement unit.

Substantial renovations may be needed to convert an "in law suite" to a legal basement apartment. Does the "in law suite" have fire doors to separate units and common areas? Is the ceiling drywall thick enough for the City's requirements? What are the safety requirements for the furnace room?

Every City has slightly (or substantially) different requirements for their basement apartments. You also need to look into zoning to see if the property meets zoning requirements. Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa all have separate requirements. Although Pickering, Ajax and Whitby seem pretty similar last I checked.
 

Sherilynn

Real Estate Maven
REIN Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
2,803
You could try contacting your city's planning and development
department to find out whether the suite is legal. (Even if the seller
claims it is legal, I would ask to see the permits that prove it.)
Newer suites in Edmonton should have an occupancy sticker on the
electrical panel, and there could be a simple way to determine legality
in your region as well.



If the suite is not legal:

  • Learn your city's stance on suites. If they are pro-suite, then
    the P&D department will encourage safe development of suites and
    should be very helpful and cooperative. If they are anti-suite, you may
    find the whole process more trouble than it is worth.
  • Familiarize yourself with the fire codes and safe housing
    standards for suites in your area, so that you can better determine the
    feasibility of upgrading.
  • Find a contractor that has a lot of experience in upgrading suites to legalize.
  • Contact a mortgage broker and/or your banker and inquire about purchase + improvements mortgages. Then the upgrades would be added to your mortgage instead of out of pocket. (The cost would actually be reimbursed after the upgrades are complete, so it is initially out of pocket.)

    It cost us $14k to legalize and upgrade one suite and $30k for another. As far as I can recall, all of our numbers have been in that range.



    Of course, you could do just the bare minimum, but most times you will need new flooring or some other sort of upgrade to make the suite attractive. And sometimes the bare minimum is a lot more than you anticipate. In Edmonton, for example:

  • all areas that could be used for storage must be drywalled, so we had to drywall/tape/mud the entire crawl space of a 4-level split
    railings must meet strict height restrictions, cannot have any horizontals, and verticals must be a certain distance apart; so we had to replace 3 large, exterior metal railings at one suite
    there must be adequate parking on the property, so we had to jackhammer the edge off a concrete patio and convert it to a parking pad
    wood-paneled walls may need to be replaced if there is not adequate drywall behind them
    the list goes on and on
 
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