Four things you can check about a Calgary address before you buy

Dog-ears

Four of the questions that arrive before an offer have public answers, and none of them requires talking to anybody. Alberta licenses home inspectors and publishes the search. The province runs a new home warranty registry keyed to an address. The City of Calgary registers legal secondary suites on a map. Radon is the one with no registry, because the only source is a test inside the house.

Does Alberta license home inspectors?

Yes, both the business and the individual. The Home Inspection Business Regulation under Alberta's Consumer Protection Act requires home inspection businesses and individual home inspectors to hold a provincial licence, and the requirement dates to 2011. Service Alberta runs a public search of licensed businesses, and Home Inspection Business and Home Inspector appear in it as two separate categories. We check both categories in that search before we hand a name over, since a licensed business is not the same thing as a licensed inspector.

The regulation carries more than the licence. It requires errors and omissions insurance. It requires a posted security to cover consumer losses where the regulation is not followed. It sets out which parts of a home and property an inspection has to include, and it prohibits contract clauses that limit the liability of the business or the inspector.

The purchase contract treats the inspection as the buyer's own work. Clause 3.1 makes each party responsible for their own due diligence and says they assume all risks if they do not complete it. The same clause names independent inspections and advice on land title, registrations on title, the RPR, current and future use, buildings and mechanical systems, property insurance, title insurance, and the size and measurements of the land and buildings. The sequence around it is on our page about making an offer.

An inspection is optional in Alberta, and the licence requirement attaches to whoever is paid to do one.

Should I test for radon in a Calgary house?

Radon is a radioactive gas produced by the breakdown of uranium in soil and rock, and the City of Calgary says it can accumulate to a health risk in enclosed spaces such as homes. in Health Canada's 2012 Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes, 5.7% of Alberta homes measured above that guideline

Testing takes a season. The City recommends a long-term test running a minimum of three months, either through a do-it-yourself kit from an accredited lab or a certified professional. A reading taken during a home inspection will not settle it, which is why the test rarely fits inside a condition period.

New construction carries a code requirement. The City says the National Building Code, Alberta Edition requires a radon consideration for all new construction projects. That is a construction requirement, and it reports nothing about the level inside any finished house.

The number comes from the test.

How do I check whether a home has new home warranty coverage?

Alberta requires warranty coverage on new homes, and the coverage runs in four tiers. One year on labour and materials. Two years on the delivery and distribution systems, meaning electrical, plumbing and heating. Five years on the building envelope. Ten years on major structural components.

The trigger is the building permit. A home with a permit issued on or after February 1 2014 sits inside the requirement, and the coverage attaches to the home rather than to the owner, so a resale buyer inherits whatever remains of it.

The Government of Alberta runs a public property registry that returns the warranty status for an address, the name of the provider, and the date coverage started. It searches by civic address, rural address, ATS number, lot block plan, LINC, application ID, unit ID, or builder. A builder registry sits beside it carrying licence status, warranty provider, and homes built since 2014.

A five-year-old house can still have envelope coverage running, and the listing will not say so.

How do I find out whether a Calgary basement suite is legal?

The City of Calgary runs a secondary suite registry with a map, and it takes an address, a registry sticker number, or a community name. A registered suite has its permits and has been inspected against Alberta's safety codes. The registry lives on the City of Calgary's own site, and the secondary suites pages carry the map.

The sticker is the other half of the system. A registered suite carries an individually numbered sticker corresponding to its address, meant to be visible inside the unit, and the number checks back against the registry. Registration does not expire, and it travels with the address.

The City's definition is narrower than the word suggests. A secondary suite is a self-contained residence of two or more rooms with kitchen, living, sleeping and sanitary facilities. The City's list of requirements runs to bedrooms with proper egress windows, a separate bathroom, separate cooking facilities, and an entrance reachable from outside without passing through the main dwelling unit.

An address returning nothing on the registry has no registered suite, and the City's development pages carry what legalising one involves.

Answers

The compliance stamp and the Real Property Report are two documents.

An Alberta Land Surveyor draws the report. The City of Calgary issues the stamp against it, and the City's own page describes the stamp as a service it provides. The same page says the stamp is not a legislative requirement.

Calgary property tax runs on an annual cycle.

Assessment notices go to owners in January. Tax bills are mailed in May and cover January 1 to December 31, with the due date on the last business day in June. TIPP spreads the same total across monthly withdrawals.

Property taxes are adjusted on possession day.

Clause 10.5 of the residential purchase contract adjusts real estate property taxes, local improvement fees, utilities, rents and security deposits as of Completion Day. The buyer carries them from that point.

Possession happens at noon.

Clause 2.3 sets completion, full payment of the purchase price, and vacant possession at 12 noon on the Completion Day written into the contract.