# Toronto City Home Inspection



## jasspayne (Dec 8, 2016)

Hello Everyone,

I am looking for some help via this forum. I have a 4 bed room house in Toronto that I have rented to 4 students. It has a finished basement that I use it for my personal office space as I work remotely. However, I do not really live overnight at this house. I live a couple of block down in my separate house with my family. 

They have been some complaints that there are a lot of rooming houses around my neighborhood and that he city inspectors are on a hunt to crack them down. I recently revived a notice from the city that they want to check my property (probably someone complained that I have students living in my house)

Do I need to be worried with this inception? What is the scope of these inspectors.

These 4 students that I mentioned above:

a) Are all on one lease 
b) The all know each other form High-school and are going to the same university. 
c) Rent comes in one one email transfer.
d) I claim the rent on my taxes.

Any advice / help on the topic would be highly appreciated.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Lots of illegal rooming houses out there and some have fires with loss of life. 

Even if all are on one lease, that doesn't change your responsibility as a landlord to ensure the safety individuals (who are not part of a family unit) but living under on roof.

Anytime you rent a house that doesn't have all the proper fire detection and emergency access in case of fire, and a fire occurs accidently (cooking stove, wiring, circuit overload etc), or possibly set by one of the renters whio just didn't think of the danger of what he/she was doing, 
and somebody is seriously injured or killed by the fire, *you will be in very serious trouble with the city and
your insurance company*, even if you have fire insurance, and have NOT declared the house as rental/rooming house, paid the rooming house license fee to the city, and the additional liability and loss
premiums. 

The city inspectors will check the house thoroughly to see if it meets current fire safety standards first.
*If it doesn't *, you could get fined and an iMMEDIATE order by City Bylaw inspectors to stop renting it out until all the necessary bylaw requrements are met. 



> A* rooming house can include a house*, apartment or building where *four or more people that pay individual rent share a kitchen and/or washroom.*
> 
> In order for the property to be used as a* rooming house, it must be zoned as such, located within the former city of Toronto* or Etobicoke boundaries and *licensed by the City*.



You better read this!
http://www.toronto.ca/311/knowledgebase/07/101000038007.html

AND THIS:
http://www.toronto.ca/311/knowledgebase/45/101000051845.html


> For Zoning and Rooming House Licensing purposes, the general definition of a rooming house is a *building lived in by more than 3 unrelated persons, operated for remuneration/financial gain and providing shared accommodation, without exclusive use of sanitary and kitchen facilities for more than 3 unrelated persons. *
> 
> For the* Ontario Fire Code, the same basic definition above applies except there must be more than 4 unrelated* persons.


 Here is one example of an illegal rooming house with a woman living in the basement that got trapped in
the basement when the fire broke out and died as a result. Besides the stiff fines, the LIABILITY lawsuit, that no doubt would follow, would more than likely bankrupt the landlord. 



> A Provincial Offences Court has announced a conviction and levied a fine of *$60,000 plus a $15,000$ victim surcharge against the owner of an illegal rooming house* at 189 Sheridan Ave., Toronto, in which a tenant died in a fire


http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...89RCRD&nrkey=80CAF4E8BF5DCBA785257EAD004312DE


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## jasspayne (Dec 8, 2016)

Thank you for your response. I am very cautious about safety. Hence I have fire and monoxide alarm everywhere. Fire extinguishers, Insurance knows that I rent out the upper level of the property. Nothing has been hacked into a room i.e. all was just the way the house was built as is up-to code.

The only issue is a have a group of 4 students ( who know each other) renting the upper level of the house. I use the finished basement for my personal use (office space)

Appreciate your help on the matter.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

jasspayne said:


> Thank you for your response. I am very cautious about safety. Hence I have fire and monoxide alarm everywhere. Fire extinguishers, Insurance knows that I rent out the upper level of the property. Nothing has been hacked into a room i.e. all was just the way the house was built as is up-to code.
> 
> The only issue is a have a group of 4 students ( who know each other) renting the upper level of the house. I use the finished basement for my personal use (office space)
> 
> Appreciate your help on the matter.


It's good that you have fire extinguishers and CO/smoke alarms on every floor. 
If you are NOT renting out a room in the basement, next to heating elements, that will look better for you when the Bylaw inspectors come to inspect your place.

The most important thing when renting a house not designed as a multiple rooming unit, is to ensure that everyone inside has an escape route in case of fire. No fire escape egress blocked or boarded up.

Windows can also be used as escape routes in case of a fire starting which could be blocking the front door or back door fro escape, not to mention smoke inhalation which usually is the cause of death.

As a landlord, with your insurance accepting rental liability, you need to instruct each individual what their fire escape route is in case of fire. 

If you are renting bedrooms in the upper floors of the house, this is very important. While you may have taken measures to ensure your rental house meets the present fire code, it needs to be inspected *and registered with the city for your protection* (against any lawsuits from injury to one or more of your tenants) and to ensure your fire insurance underwriter is satisfied with your situation as well.

Liability lawsuit lawyers are everywhere these days, just hungry for a case where something occurred that
was not checked out by the landlord. Renters can do stupid things while living in your rental unit.
While you can't prevent serious situations from occurring, taking the necessary steps will keep you
from paying out tens of thousands, in case something does happen. 

Things like the state of the electrical wiring...if it still has knob and tube, you better be careful because many fire insurance companies will not allow insurance on units that still have the old knob and tube wiring.

Heating units (gas furnaces/hot water tanks) can also be a source of carbon monoxide, so CO monitors have to be there on every floor including the basement if used for an office by you. Same with fire detectors.
These are cheap to install these days, but someone has to change the batteries on these once a year. 

Lots of rules and regulations these days, because people in the past just rented out houses to students and didn't worry about safety or liability issues until something serious happened.


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## Mortgage u/w (Feb 6, 2014)

I may be wrong but here is my view:
The fact that you have only 1 lease with 4 people on in may not constitute the property as a rooming house. Yes they are students but as per the lease, they are simply 4 people who are living together - no different than 2 couples renting a house to live together. Again, I may be wrong....but you have one great argument should the inspector challenge you.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Mortgage u/w said:


> I may be wrong but here is my view:
> The fact that you have only 1 lease with 4 people on in may not constitute the property as a rooming house. Yes they are students but as per the lease, they are simply 4 people who are living together - no different than 2 couples renting a house to live together. Again, I may be wrong....but you have one great argument should the inspector challenge you.


This is true, but the problem may be that he is renting out just part of the house. If you rent out a basement apartment, for example, there are other legalities that can apply. There are lots of illegal basement rentals in Toronto, but just what makes them legal or illegal, I don't know. This link may be of some help: http://www.expertinspector.com/BasementApartment.html


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

+1 to posts #2 and #4 .... particularly this part:


> If you are renting bedrooms in the upper floors of the house, this is very important. While you may have taken measures to ensure your rental house meets the present fire code,* it needs to be inspected and registered with the city for your protection *(against any lawsuits from injury to one or more of your tenants) and to ensure your fire insurance underwriter is satisfied with your situation as well.


 ... then you have nothing to worry about when the building inspector and/or fire inspector visits.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Beaver101 said:


> +1 to posts #2 and #4 .... particularly this part: ... then you have nothing to worry about when the building inspector and/or fire inspector visits.


 .. ie. making the rental legit.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> .. ie. making the rental legit.


Well that is an important part of it, and claiming rental income/losses against your income taxes.

I missed the part originally from the OP that he set up his office in the basement of the rental income property to (presumably) claim some of the expenses of this rental property against income.

Normally you can claim some business expenses using one room in your house and that would satisfy CRA, but I'm not sure how it works for rental income property. Can the LL use part of the rental as his office? Maybe others here have a better idea?

Whether it's all hunky dory as far as the bylaw/buiding inspectors inspection will soon be determined when the inspection takes place.

I would think that any natural gas operated heating device would need to be inspected annually for CO emissions to be on the safe side for liability protection. 

If there is a second floor and each of the four individuals renting and sharing expenses under the same lease,the lease would have to specifiy who these individuals are in case of fire, and the city needs to know that.

As I mentioned in one of my other replies, requirements and rules on renting have changed dramatically in the last few years. better to be safe than sorry.


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## twa2w (Mar 5, 2016)

The way I see this is as follows;
The OP is renting out a single family house, excluding the basement. He has 1 lease and the tenants can decide how they want to use the space, ie they could all sleep in one bedroom if they wanted. The OP does not specify what bedroom each tenant is in, or how the tenants split the rent as in he doesn't specify that the tenant in the mbrm pays more. Therefore not a rooming house.
Of course inspector may see it differently.
As far as write offs. The OP can wite off the expenses pro rata against the rent and the use of his office(assuming he is self employed or employer requires him to use home office). IOW if basement office is 20% of total floor space, he can write off 80% of expenses against his rental income. The other 20% he may or may not be able to write off depending on employment status.
But iam not a lawyer or expert on Toronto bylaws.
The other way he could have done this is to have only one person on the lease and have the lease allow room mates. The tenant is then responsible for arranging roommates and collecting rents from the room mates.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

twa2w said:


> The way I see this is as follows;
> The OP is renting out a single family house, excluding the basement. He has 1 lease and the tenants can decide how they want to use the space, ie they could all sleep in one bedroom if they wanted. The OP does not specify what bedroom each tenant is in, or how the tenants split the rent as in he doesn't specify that the tenant in the mbrm pays more. Therefore not a rooming house.
> Of course inspector may see it differently.
> As far as write offs. The OP can wite off the expenses pro rata against the rent and the use of his office(assuming he is self employed or employer requires him to use home office). IOW if basement office is 20% of total floor space, he can write off 80% of expenses against his rental income. The other 20% he may or may not be able to write off depending on employment status.
> ...


 ... this does not absolve the LL from any fire liablity caused by the 1 person leasee, only worst allowing subletting to the other 3 tenants.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^Here is a real life example that a previously $14K fine was not enough of a deterrent to not comply with the fire code and how sweet it is to be a landlord of a rooming house -and now somebody really got hurt. Maybe a jail term would be better.

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/12/16/little-portugal-landlord-charged-after-fire-injures-3.html


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## twa2w (Mar 5, 2016)

Beaver101 said:


> ... this does not absolve the LL from any fire liablity caused by the 1 person leasee, only worst allowing subletting to the other 3 tenants.


The OP was not asking about fire codes but whether his home would be considered a rooming house vs a regular SFH rental. 
Fire codes are actually pretty basic for a SFH rental if you read the regulations vs rules for rooming houses. I don't believe the OP is rentingnout the basement and has no bedrooms down there. This is where rules are serious with egress requirements ie window size etc.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^ Like I said (in post #7), the OP has nothing to worry about when the cityhome inspector visits if he has complied with the fire code requirements for his rental. And renting the upper floor, even to 1 tenant is still a rental, not a SFH. And him/herself using the basement does not re-define his/her rental to a SFH either. Plus your earlier response to him about "subletting" to 3 other tenants and claiming it's a SFH does not help him/her either to meeting compliance that will protect not only others, but him/her from potential mulitple liabilities.


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