If we want to rent out a basement in our primary residence in Ontario Canada, what are the process or things we need to do/check? What are the pros/cons of renting out rooms from your primary residence?
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
4y
You'll need a separate entrance of course. As well as a kitchen and bathroom. Since the basement is (I assume) underground, you may need a sewage ejector pump to move the waste up to the main.
The con is having someone on your property all the time....make sure you check them out very carefully!
You’ll actually want to thoroughly consider the information provided here as you may want to retain the right to punt your renter ASAP. Stay out outside the jurisdiction of the RTA for Ontario would be the only way I would ever rent a unit there. Worst legislation in the country by a long shot.
Flipper/Rehabber · Barrie, Ontario · Member since 2015 · 5 posts · 1 vote
4y
Make sure you'll do proper screening for potential tennant even though you're not completely protected from bad tennants. Unfortunately laws in Ontario in favor of tennants & it will be really hard to evict bad ones. Don't want to scare you. Just don't cut corners or go only with guts feel.
Make sure you have a separate entrance, windows have egress in case of fire, smoke alarms connected, parking, etc. Read through the Ontario tenancy laws to make sure you have an idea of the laws.
Investor · North Bay, Ontario · Member since 2019 · 221 posts · 99 votes
4y
@Elaine Lee Make sure your property is zoned for this use, or that the bylaw reflects this being allowed. Also speak with your insurance company. Make sure you are following building code and fire code. Look into the RTA, as this is a huge learning curve.
Thank you guys so much for the replies! They are really helpful. We have made a separate entrance to the basement, with fire alarms/parking, etc in place (although first time heard about egress window), and we don't have shared space with the basement (so tenants have their own kitchens and bathrooms, except we share the laundry), so based on Roy's comment, this is still within RTA I guess, so it's more in favor to the tenants (based on Denis' and Frederick's comment).
With that being said, we are very interested to know the pro&cons between renting out a basement from our primary residence vs. just regular rental units. For regular rental units, I think many comments kindly shared above still apply, although would there be some disadvantages when it comes to primary residence (besides living with others under your own roof), e.g. higher insurance costs? or somehow negatively affect our financial statement in the eyes of the banks? We are planning to put regular rental units under corporations, would that also work with the rentals in our primary? (we are concerned if we have fewer protections when we get sued?)