Landlording in Canada. Michael Drouillard

mortgage helpers, basement suites and in some cases, illegal suites or unauthorized accommodation, since they are commonly prohibited by local bylaws) have gone from fringe to mainstream in the past few decades. There are now hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of homes in Canada containing one or more secondary suites. In some areas, it is even standard practice to build homes designed to contain a secondary suite. While municipal bylaws commonly prohibit them, more and more municipalities are choosing to look the other way when an illegal suite is brought to their attention. Secondary suites have become a reality on the Canadian real estate scene.

      On the other hand, a fair number of municipalities do not look the other way and will impose significant fines when illegal secondary suites are brought to their attention. Do you live in a municipality where enforcement against them is active? If so, I don’t think renting out a secondary suite is worth the risk and stress.

      Secondary suite landlords face a unique set of challenges, partly because single family homes with suites do not meet building code requirements for multi-family property. For example, excessive sound transfer between suites and determining how to collect utility payments when two or more families share an electric/gas meter might seem minor at first, but issues such as these might result in serious disputes between the landlord and tenant.

      There are other specific secondary suite- related issues to be discussed in this book. For instance, if you must evict the tenant living in your basement suite, what legal recourse do you have? Although some believe that secondary suite landlords don’t have the same legal rights as other tenants and landlords, know that legal secondary suite landlords and tenants are fully protected by provincial tenancy law.

      Before you advertise your secondary suite, consider these proactive recommendations to address common secondary suite challenges. While you may not find a perfect solution to every problem, it’s far wiser to plan than to do nothing at all.

      Ethical landlording tip: Would you live in your secondary suite? Some landlords carve suites out of sections of their home where there really shouldn’t be a suite at all. If your basement is below grade and windowless, for instance, then you have storage and workshop space, not potential living accommodation. Other landlords will convert a single family home into three, or even four separate rental units by illegally converting the garage, and even the crawlspace (I’ve seen ads on the Internet that blatantly advertise that tenants must be under six feet tall) into living space.

      It’s not acceptable for three or more families to share a single hot water tank and heating system. Turnover is almost always constant. Neighbours will be forced to deal with four times the amount of garbage, noise, and vehicles. Landlords who brazenly impose themselves on the limits of their neighbourhoods are behaving unethically.

      Excessive Sound Transfer

      In a legal multi-family apartment complex, the building code requires significant soundproofing between units. The soundproofing found between the floors of a single family home that contains an illegal secondary suite is usually inadequate. Even the best of tenants run the risk of being labeled noisy when there are inadequate sound barriers.

      If it’s impractical and costly to retrofit walls with soundproofing insulation, identify where the potential for sound transfer is greatest, and “spot fix” the problem. For instance, if the home consists of upper- and lower-level units, the upper unit should have wall-to-wall carpeting with thick underlay to minimize sound transfer. It would be problematic for the upper suite to have laminate or hardwood flooring. If this type of flooring is already in the upper suite and cannot be replaced, then make extensive use of area rugs at the very least. Consider requiring the upper suite tenant to use area rugs as a term of the rental agreement, but recognize that you may be expected to subsidize some or all of the cost.

      Sometimes only a door serves as separation between the primary living area and the secondary suite. Interior doors are ineffective at reducing sound transfer. If you replace the door with an insulated wall, you might contravene fire safety bylaws in your area. Consider replacing the door with an exterior grade, solid-core door instead.

      Include noise reduction practices in your rental agreement. For instance, the rental agreement should have a clause restricting the operation of stereo equipment and major appliances such as the washer, dryer, and dishwasher to daylight hours only.

      Keep in mind that if you want such clauses to be effective, the tenant will expect you to adhere to the same rules. Owning a secondary suite means a restriction on the freedoms you normally enjoy as a homeowner — this is part of the price that secondary suite owners pay for the benefit of the extra rental income.

      Another transfer issue relates to cooking odours. Ensure that your tenants have access to a high quality range hood and insist they use it while cooking. Also, if only a door serves as separation between the tenant’s suite and your own, then apply weather stripping to the door to make it as airtight as possible.

      Even if these measures are implemented, the soundproofing between one living area and the other will never be up to the standard found in a multi-family building. If you want to earn extra income from secondary suites, be prepared to tolerate occasional noise from the tenant’s home theater equipment or noise from people coming and going late at night.

      Many enterprising Canadians consider using the rental income produced by a secondary suite to subsidize the cost of the Canadian dream of home ownership. After a tenant moves in, every new noise or every new cooking odour is perceived as an assault on the quiet enjoyment of the home. Secondary suite owners must have realistic expectations. Landlords who own legal duplexes shouldn’t hear neighbours, or smell their cooking. But landlords who own single family homes that have been duplexed after the fact should learn to live and let live, or else find a different way to live the Canadian dream.

      Sharing Laundry

      If you must share laundry facilities with your tenant, are there certain days of the week that you want the machines reserved for yourself? This must be outlined in the rental agreement. Don’t restrict your tenant’s use of laundry facilities too much. Try for a schedule with some flexibility.

      Ambiguous Boundaries Between Exclusive-Use and Common Areas

      Tenants renting a secondary suite might be uncertain as to whether or not they’re entitled to exclusive use of any part of the yard. In a home with upper and lower suites, the tenant in the lower suite might assume that the backyard is for his or her own use, while the upper occupants may only use the balcony. Sometimes, tenants may consider the backyard to be their own personal storage area, or a place where they can leave debris. Yard disputes are foreseeable. They’re also preventable if your rental agreement is clear about the use of the yard and all common areas.

      Physical barriers such as fences or hedges could be installed to create exclusive-use areas. If it is impractical to install physical barriers, then boundaries must be created through terms in the rental agreement. For example, you could have a clause in the agreement specifying that while the interior of the secondary suite is for the tenant’s exclusive use, all other parts of the property are considered common-use areas. Your agreement would prohibit the tenant from leaving items on common property without the landlord’s permission.

      Parking problems are also foreseeable and preventable. Do you want your tenant to park on a certain part of the driveway and not elsewhere? Do you want to restrict the number of vehicles that the tenant may park on the property? Decide what you want ahead of time and clearly specify the parking rules in the rental agreement.

      If they’re located within the secondary suite, know that you cannot access the electrical panel, hot water tank or furnace without receiving the tenant’s consent to enter the home, or by serving written notice beforehand as required by provincial tenancy law. You could enter the suite if it’s an emergency, but the law has a narrow definition of “emergency.” Generally, it’s only an emergency if property or people are at immediate risk of harm. You and your tenants should agree beforehand to a contingency plan about what should happen in the event that a circuit breaker