An investor asks different questions than a homeowner. Not "is this nice" but "what does this building cost me over five years, what will a fire inspector say about it, and is the second unit actually legal". We inspect income property against those questions, unit by unit, with the mechanical and life-safety review that a rental carries and an owner-occupied house does not.
Legality comes first
Ottawa has a great many secondary and basement units created over the decades, and a meaningful share of them do not meet the requirements for a legal dwelling unit — ceiling height, egress windows, fire separation between units, interconnected smoke alarms, and separate means of escape. A unit that cannot be legalised is not producing the income the pro forma assumes. We flag exactly what does not comply and what the remedy would involve.
Life safety is where the liability sits
Fire separations between units and to common areas. Self-closing devices on separating doors. Interconnected smoke and CO alarms. Emergency lighting and exit signage where required. Egress from every sleeping room. These are the items that produce orders, insurance problems and, in the worst case, deaths. We check every one, in every unit.
Built for the pro forma
The report includes a component-by-component remaining life table and rough replacement costs, separated into immediate, one-to-three year, and four-to-ten year buckets. That table drops directly into your model, and it is the difference between a cap rate and a guess.
What is included
- Every unit inspected individually, not a sample
- Legal dwelling unit assessment: ceiling height, egress, separation, alarms
- Fire and life-safety review across units and common areas
- Full mechanical, electrical and plumbing review including separate services and metering
- Structure, envelope, roofing and site works
- Component remaining-life table with immediate, 1–3 year and 4–10 year cost buckets
- Infrared survey across all units and the electrical distribution
Why this matters in Ottawa
Sandy Hill, Vanier, Centretown, Hintonburg, Mechanicsville and the streets around Carleton and uOttawa carry most of Ottawa's small multi-unit stock, much of it converted from single-family houses over many decades and under many different codes. Those conversions are where the findings are.