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Final consultation on proposed safety standards for secondary suites

Secondary suites are self-contained living units created within single-family homes. These suites include a kitchen, bathroom and a separate entrance, and provide Albertans with an affordable housing option.

An MLA review committee chaired by Moe Amery, the MLA for Calgary-East, consulted with municipalities and the public across Alberta on whether safety standards should be developed for secondary suites. The committee has presented a final report on this matter and recommended the adoption of building and fire standards.

Click here to read the MLA committee's final report (pdf)

Click here for more information about the final consultation from the Alberta Municipal Affairs website

Changes to rules for home suites could mean more Alberta housing (CBC news story)

August 2006

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Changes to Alberta's Residential Tenancies Act

Changes include:

• A definition of when a tenant may be deemed to have given up possession of residential premises.
• A requirement that rental premises comply with Public Health Act standards at all times.
• Requirements for landlords to keep records relating to inspection reports, abandoned goods and security deposits.
• Requirement for landlords to return the balance of an account of a security deposit personally or by registered or certified mail.
• A reduction from 48 to 24 hours notice for tenants who have done significant damage, physically assaulted or threatened to assault the landlord or another tenant.
• Clarification as to when a tenancy agreement becomes frustrated due to contravention of public health or health and safety laws.
• The ability to give certain notices by electronic means where a landlord has broken his or her obligations under the Act and an order has been issued under the Public Health Act in respect of that breach.
• Provision for an alternate dispute resolution mechanism to be introduced by later regulation to resolve disputes under the Act.
• The appointment of a Director of Residential Tenancies.
• Powers of the Director, or persons appointed by the Director, to enter the premises of a landlord to see if requirements regarding the keeping of records are being fulfilled, to take copies of documents, remove documents and to request a court order for entry where a landlord is not compliant.
• The ability of tenants to give notice to a landlord to end a tenancy where a landlord has broken his or her obligations under the Act or an order has been issued under the Public Health Act.

Other Resources
See Alberta Government Services - Landlord and Tenant for the Table of Concordance (pdf). A table of concordance is the information that shows where and how a law has changed or is going to change. The table will refer to a section of the existing law by number and then indicate if that section will have a new number or not. The table will then describe what the change to the section will be and sometimes will also give the reason for the change.

See the Queen's Printer for the new Residential Tenancies Act.

Voluntary Code of Practice provides information about the law for landlords and tenants.

November 2004