Settle the legal status before anything else
A finished basement with a bedroom, bathroom and second kitchen is not automatically a legal secondary suite. Legality in Calgary turns on land use, permits, safety code compliance and registration — not on how it looks. Check the City's secondary suite registry for your address and confirm current requirements with the City directly.
Do this before you advertise. It affects whether your insurer will cover the property as suited, what your lender was told, and what happens if a complaint is made. What a legal suite requires →
The practical things people underestimate
- Utilities. Most suites are not separately metered, so decide up front how heat, water, power and internet are handled and put it in writing. This is the single most common source of friction.
- Sound. Footsteps travel down and mechanical noise travels up, and both get more noticeable with a stranger on the other side.
- Parking, laundry, storage and the yard. Each needs an answer in advance. Shared laundry in particular decides how the arrangement feels.
- Insurance. Tell your insurer you are renting. A standard homeowner policy is not written for a tenanted suite, and finding that out at claim time is the expensive way.
Every dispute I have watched between an owner upstairs and a tenant downstairs started as an assumption nobody wrote down.
You are now a landlord
A self-contained suite tenancy in Alberta is generally governed by the Residential Tenancies Act, which sets out how tenancies begin and end, how deposits and interest are handled, and what notice each side must give. Read the current rules or get advice rather than working from a template a friend used.
Screen properly, do a written inspection report at move-in and move-out, and keep it businesslike from day one. And talk to an accountant first: rental income is taxable, and claiming certain deductions against part of a home you live in can affect how that home is treated later.