Brampton Looking to Crack Down on Illegal Basement Apartments Again

Brampton is looking to rein in the city’s evergrowing illegal basements once again.

A motion was pased at a city council meeting on Wednesday to re-examine the city’s current bylaws surrounding illegal basement apartments and rooming houses.

Council wants to petition the provincial government for “greater access to reported illegal basements.”

This is all in a bid to improve fire compliance and legal registration of second units.

Brampton has 3,000 legal basement apartments and an estimated 30,000 illegal ones.

Currently the city is looking at ways to help boost the number of registered units by making changes to parking requirements, unit sizes, and some fees.

A public meeting will be scheduled in the coming months to receive community feedback.

It isn’t clear exactly what powers council hopes to get from the province in order to better police second units. But as a problem that continues to rear its ugly head, it may mean stronger enforcement and crackdown on those illegal units.