Legal Basements in Oakville

A building permit for the unit, applied for with drawings at Oakville’s own building department rather than Halton Region. Oakville also has a site alteration by-law, and we check it whenever the stairwell for a new entrance changes the grade beside the house. We prepare and file the set and deal with the examiner’s comments.

Only where the lot is inside Conservation Halton regulation, near a watercourse, a valley or a floodplain. Digging a stairwell down to the basement changes the grade there, and the Conservation Halton permit may be needed before Oakville issues the building permit. On a lakefront lot the shoreline is regulated too where it is at risk of flooding or erosion, so we check the mapping there even with no creek nearby.

Under Oakville’s Zoning By-law 2014-014, attached additional residential units are permitted in detached, semi-detached, linked and townhouse dwellings, and detached additional residential units are permitted in an accessory building associated with those dwellings. A property may have a maximum of two attached additional residential units, or one attached unit and one detached unit. A basement apartment counts as one of those units, and it still needs a building permit of its own.

Yes. We take on legal basements across Oakville, including Old Oakville and Bronte, 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 Town of Oakville Building Department will ask for before we quote.

That depends on where the lot sits against Dundas Street. South of Dundas, and north of Highway 407, it is Zoning By-law 2014-014, whose section 4.1.2 holds the additional unit rules we draw to; between Dundas and the highway, including most of the 2000s neighbourhoods north of Dundas, it is Zoning By-law 2009-189, and we read that by-law’s own provisions for your address. The Town of Oakville Building Department then checks the unit against the same by-law.

It may. Under O. Reg. 299/19 an additional unit needs one parking space, and a tandem space counts, unless the zoning by-law requires none for the main house or says none is to be provided for the unit. We read the parking rules in Zoning By-law 2014-014 or 2009-189, whichever covers your lot, and show the space on the site plan the Town of Oakville Building Department reviews.

It can. Digging a stairwell cuts roots, and Oakville’s Private Tree Protection By-law 2017-038 needs a permit before a private tree 15 cm or more across at breast height is injured, and the same goes for any tree an approved site plan requires. We plot those trees from the survey and put the entrance where it misses them; if no side does, we apply for the tree permit while the Town of Oakville Building Department reviews the unit.

Possibly, and where it goes is the first question. Old Oakville is one of the Town’s four heritage conservation districts, with First and Second Street, Trafalgar Road and Downtown Oakville, and a stairwell changes the outside of the house, so we look at a side or rear entrance before the front and confirm with the Town what the district asks. With the entrance settled, the rest of the unit goes to the Town of Oakville Building Department.

Through the Town’s Online Services, with the drawings reviewed in ePlan, which runs on ProjectDox. Whoever applies can sign in with a Town of Oakville account and follow the file’s tasks and status, and we answer each round of comments on the fire separation, exits or headroom in the same place until the Town of Oakville Building Department issues the permit.

Yes, and before the offer is firm is the time to do it. We check whether the lot falls under Zoning By-law 2014-014 or 2009-189 and whether Conservation Halton’s regulated area reaches it, then measure the basement’s floor-to-joist height and look for a side of the house where a stairwell could go. Our director is a real estate broker, so the findings come with a view on what a permitted unit would mean for the price.