Illegal Basement Suite Issue

[masoncgy]

My wife's aunt & uncle rent a basement suite in Panorama Hills, which I always believed was an illegal suite, but of course, the landlord stated otherwise.

Long story short, this afternoon her aunt found a note from the City's building & development department on her door, so obviously someone has snitched and the city now wants to deal with it.

Her aunt is signed into a 1 year lease, expiring at the end of July, to rent this suite. They were planning on moving out at the end of the lease, but a couple of questions on this:

- Will the remainder of the lease be honored?
- What sort of process does the City undertake in dealing with an illegal suite?

Thanks for any information you folk can provide.

[bubbley]

i believe first step will be inspection, then rectify any issues. I thought panorama hills is a newer area, you would usually find illegal suites in older homes...very odd...why do you think its an illegal suite?

[Toma]

Originally posted by masoncgy
My wife's aunt & uncle rent a basement suite in Panorama Hills, which I always believed was an illegal suite, but of course, the landlord stated otherwise.

Long story short, this afternoon her aunt found a note from the City's building & development department on her door, so obviously someone has snitched and the city now wants to deal with it.

Her aunt is signed into a 1 year lease, expiring at the end of July, to rent this suite. They were planning on moving out at the end of the lease, but a couple of questions on this:

- Will the remainder of the lease be honored?
- What sort of process does the City undertake in dealing with an illegal suite?

Thanks for any information you folk can provide.

I had an "Illegal Suite", got the notice, they come personally to inspect, then make a decision from there.

If they deem it indeed "illegal", you have several options.

They give you a deadline for each.

1) If you chose to lie down and let them tell you what you can do in your own house, they will probably be satisfied if you remove the kitchen and the 220 to the stove.

2) You can fight the Nazis, and force them to obtain a court order to force you to remove it.

3) You can do what I did, and go through the lengthy procedure of obtaining a development permit and attempting to legalize the suite.

So, as it stands, unless the city has been there for the inspection and made a ruling, nothing changes for your aunt.

[HHURICANE1]

You can't enforce a contract for something illegal. If the suite is indeed illegal then the lease is void. The city could make them move and fine the homes owner.

[bspot]

Originally posted by bubbley
i believe first step will be inspection, then rectify any issues. I thought panorama hills is a newer area, you would usually find illegal suites in older homes...very odd...why do you think its an illegal suite?

It's illegal because there is no way a lot in Panorama is zoned R2 or RC/2.

This is why basement suites are always closer to downtown where the zoning has been changed.

[masoncgy]

Originally posted by bspot
It's illegal because there is no way a lot in Panorama is zoned R2 or RC/2.

Yes, this is exactly why I believed it was illegal... too new of a community to have zoning that permits basement suites.

At any rate, the best course of action is for my aunt to let the landlord deal with the city on the matter. It would seem by the time the shit hits the fan in terms of deleting the kitchen or bringing the place up to code, she'll be moving out.

[Ed the SOHC]

Originally posted by Toma


I had an "Illegal Suite", got the notice, they come personally to inspect, then make a decision from there.

If they deem it indeed "illegal", you have several options.

They give you a deadline for each.

1) If you chose to lie down and let them tell you what you can do in your own house, they will probably be satisfied if you remove the kitchen and the 220 to the stove.

2) You can fight the Nazis, and force them to obtain a court order to force you to remove it.

3) You can do what I did, and go through the lengthy procedure of obtaining a development permit and attempting to legalize the suite.

So, as it stands, unless the city has been there for the inspection and made a ruling, nothing changes for your aunt.

Toma, was your "illegal suite" in a R2 zone?

[Kloubek]

I always thought that contracts were null and void if they were based on something illegal. But that might be something to do with the criminal code, which this would not all under....

[Toma]

Originally posted by Kloubek
I always thought that contracts were null and void if they were based on something illegal. But that might be something to do with the criminal code, which this would not all under....

Yeah, it's not really "illegal", hence my quotes.

It's a city bylaw, and a questionable one at that...

They lose in court from time to time, so it pays to stand your ground.

I have a light daytime workload, and did the drawings myself, so I spent the $600 and had it approved for redevelopment.

[mr2mike]

I bet they snitched because of a parking issue and there's no parking in the area. This is one of the things the city looks at before they zone something R2.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by masoncgy
At any rate, the best course of action is for my aunt to let the landlord deal with the city on the matter. It would seem by the time the shit hits the fan in terms of deleting the kitchen or bringing the place up to code, she'll be moving out.

If she's moving out in a month, there's nothing to worry about. It's the landlord's problem.

I'm surprise they did an illegal suite in Panorama Hills. Street is already tight and filled with cars. You will pissed off a lot of people having extra cars parking on the road.