Legal Basements in Hamilton

A building permit for the unit, applied for with drawings. Hamilton is a single-tier municipality, so there is no regional office in the process. The stairwell for a new entrance changes the grade beside the house. Hamilton’s site alteration by-law covers house lots but exempts work under an issued building permit, so the stairwell is dug under the building permit itself. We prepare and file the set and deal with the examiner’s comments.

Only where the lot is inside Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) regulation, near a watercourse, a valley or a floodplain. Digging a stairwell down to the basement changes the grade there, and the HCA permit may be needed before Hamilton issues the building permit. East Stoney Creek and Glanbrook are under the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and parts of Flamborough under the Grand River Conservation Authority. For a lot there, we read the mapping of whichever authority covers it instead, before the entrance is drawn.

Since May 2021, Hamilton’s zoning by-laws have permitted Additional Dwelling Units. An additional unit can be created inside the main house, added onto it, or built as a detached unit, either newly constructed or converted from an existing accessory building such as a rear yard garage. In some zones a property can hold up to four dwelling units. Not every lot can fit a detached unit because of Ontario Building Code and zoning requirements. That can leave room for more than one extra unit, so we plan the basement layout with any later unit in mind before anything is filed.

Yes. We take on legal basements across Hamilton, including Ancaster and Dundas, within an hour of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: property address; basement ceiling height, measured floor to joist; and photos of the basement, the mechanical room and the outside wall where an entrance could go. Send those and we tell you what the City of Hamilton Building Division will ask for before we quote.

For most addresses it is Zoning By-law No. 05-200. A property that has not been brought into it is still read against its former community’s by-law, 87-57 in Ancaster or 3692-92 in Stoney Creek for example, so we look the address up before measuring anything. The City of Hamilton Building Division checks the unit against that same by-law when it reviews the drawings.

It can move it. Digging the stairwell cuts roots, and the by-law protecting a private tree in Hamilton depends on the former municipality the lot is in, such as the Urban Woodland By-law 14-212 or Stoney Creek By-law No. 4401-96, so we read the right one and plot the trees from your survey. The entrance goes on the side that clears them, and if none does, the tree approval is sought while the City of Hamilton Building Division reviews the unit.

Possibly. A new stairwell changes the outside of the building, so if your house is in one of the eight Part V districts, Durand-Markland or St. Clair Boulevard for example, we start with a rear or side location and ask the City what the district requires before it is drawn. Once the City has answered, the unit’s drawings go to the City of Hamilton Building Division for the permit.

In the City’s Customer Portal, which you reach by signing in at my.hamilton.ca. We file the unit there, answer the examiner’s comments on fire separation, exits or headroom in the same place and book each inspection through its Permitting and Inspections section, so you can follow the same status we do. The City of Hamilton Building Division issues the permit and closes it after the final inspection.

It can. Under O. Reg. 299/19 each additional unit needs one space, which may be tandem, except where the zoning by-law asks no parking of the main house or rules out a space for the unit. We read the parking rules in Zoning By-law No. 05-200, or in the former community by-law if your lot still falls under one, and show the space on the site plan for the City of Hamilton Building Division.

Yes, ideally while the offer is still conditional. We look up the zoning by-law for the address and whether any of the three conservation authorities that cover parts of Hamilton regulates the lot, then measure the floor-to-joist height and find a wall where an entrance could go. Our director, Robert Grin, is broker of record at Fine Homes Real Estate, so he can also tell you how a permitted unit would bear on the price.