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District prepares to tackle issue of illegal secondary suites

The District of 100 Mile House discussed a new policy relating to illegal suites
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District of 100 Mile House Coun. Dave Mingo chairs the Jan. 28, 2025, Committee of the Whole meeting in the absence of Mayor Maureen Pinkney. (Patrick Davies photo - 100 Mile Free Press)

The District of 100 Mile House's new Illegal Secondary Suites Policy was discussed during the committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28. 

The new policy, which still needs to be formally adopted at a regular council meeting, is designed to assist staff when dealing with issues or complaints related to illegal suites and illegal secondary suites. Recognizing the need for housing in 100 Mile House, council's direction is to 'harmonize and legalize' some of these suites and to provide staff enforcement tools to compel homeowners. 

"Once we enter a suite we can't un-see what we've seen," Todd Conway, the director of community services, said. 

An illegal suite is a dwelling unit set up in a non-primary dwelling unit that includes cooking, sleeping and bathroom facilities located on an industrial or commercial property. Illegal secondary suites, meanwhile, are secondary suites created in a primary dwelling unit that were not disclosed to the building inspector, were constructed without a building permit, have not been inspected by a building inspector or are located in a zone or building that does not allow the construction of secondary suites. 

In their presentation to council, staff stressed this policy will apply to existing illegal secondary suites, not secondary suites currently being built in compliance with local bylaws. Under this policy council will not actively seek out illegal secondary suites but work to legalize those they are already aware of or are made aware of thanks to complaints, routine building inspections, property owner or tenant disclosure and other public sources. 

The policy will also create an internal registry of illegal suites and direct staff to work with property owners to legalize it. If a property owner chooses not to legalize it or the suites are unable to be legalized, in cases where there are no windows that could be used to escape a fire or no independent kitchen or bathroom facilities, staff will be empowered to use Section 57 of the District of 100 Mile House's Community Charter to pressure homeowners to decommission these suites. 

Conway explained some form of enforcement is needed because if staff become aware of an unsafe illegal suite, they need to take action right away. 

"In my experience with Section 57, once you put a notice on title, it means not very much to the land owners. It's a longer process to get compliant because you put Section 57 on and then it doesn't come back our way all the time until they refinance or want to sell," Conway remarked. "It's more of a long game. Some of them get addressed right away but probably about 75 per cent are left until they have to do something."

100 Mile Fire Rescue Chief Dave Bissat weighed in on the safety issues illegal suites can cause his department. Because of their often secret nature, he said these suites do not have formal addresses which makes finding people when responding to medical calls challenging. 

"We have apartments right now with basements with no windows with six bedrooms in them. I have seen this. It comes down to safety on the residential side," Bissat explained. "Locating 911 calls because there is no address (is another issue). We're waking up the entire neighbourhood to find out 'oh, there's a suite here'. That has happened multiple times." 

Bissat said illegal suites on industrial or commercial properties, meanwhile, are a huge safety risk if a fire starts. If 100 Mile Fire Rescue doesn't know there are people within the building they can't conduct rescues which could lead to a loss of life. Zoning currently permits only one caretaker suite on such properties. 

Coun. Dave Mingo asked staff for a rough estimate of how many illegal secondary suites are currently used in 100 Mile House. Joanne Doddridge, the district's director of economic development, told him they are aware of between 30 to 40 but believe there are more they don't know about. She did add staff believe there are many waiting to legalize their secondary suites, should council provide a path to do so. 

"Our policy is outlining we would send a letter to the property owner saying we are aware there is a secondary suite and immediately start the process of billing for utilities. Then we offer them an opportunity, in that letter, to legalize their suite if they choose," Doddridge said. "Once the suite is legalized or not we're offering them garbage totes and other things we don't assign to them currently."  

Doddridge also noted legalization would allow tenants of these suites to secure access to postal services. Canada Post requires proof of address to issue community members PO boxes and legalization of these suites would provide that. 

Following the staff's presentation, Coun. Donna Barnett said she feels council needs to implement the policy on illegal suites. She said they could be liable if something tragic were to happen. Staff confirmed that council needs to decide on how they want to approach the issue. 

"I'm of the feeling we need to have that hammer for these extreme situations like six bedrooms in a basement with no proper egress," Mingo said. "Whether or not we choose to enforce it, that becomes a decision on a case-by-case basis." 

Barnett recommended council adopt the policy and enforce it when they have the resources or if there is an urgent situation. Coun. Marty Norgren questioned whether or not having a registry would make the district more or less liable. Doddridge responded it would not and the registry would be for council's own internal use. 

"Is there any merit to us giving directions around high-risk safety issues? So a basement with more windows is high risk versus they don't have a smoke detector in the basement or no double drywall?" Norgren asked. 

Conway noted again that if district staff notice issues such as those, they are required to take steps to address it. He did add, however, that the building codes have exemptions for existing suites compared to homes being built today with such suites in mind. That being said, the building code only allows for one secondary suite per primary dwelling unit.

"If your basics are done, like bedroom windows are big enough for egress sort of things, it's not super cumbersome to get the suite legalized," Conway said. "On the other hand, it is really not that cumbersome to decommission a suite. The building code dictates you need a sleeping area, cooking facilities and a bathroom to be a dwelling. As long as one of those things is not active, most likely a kitchen... then that's a decommissioned suite."

Following the discussion Mingo moved the policy be presented to the next District of 100 Mile House council meeting for endorsement, which passed unanimously. 



Patrick Davies

About the Author: Patrick Davies

An avid lover of theatre, media, and the arts in all its forms, I've enjoyed building my professional reputation in 100 Mile House.
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