Out of the Closet
You’ve seen the ads in the real estate journals: “Basement ready for your development ideas…” wink, wink.
Illegal suites have been around since just after the earth cooled. They exist by the thousands as people have to live somewhere — and, by choice or necessity, a great many of them live in other people’s basements.
They’re known by a variety of euphemisms : mortgage helper, nanny suite, ‘additional accommodation’ in Realtorspeak. And after years of turning a more or less blind eye, Victoria has made them legal with the stroke of a City Hall pen. Both tenant and landlord may sleep more soundly now.
Let’s hope that other adjacent municipalities soon follow suite…er, suit.
Add comment July 27th, 2007
