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The City of Calgary’s proposed Building Maintenance Bylaw aims to better protect the public by requiring the exterior of Calgary’s buildings to be professionally assessed for necessary repairs. This bylaw will fill the gap left after the final inspection when a building is first constructed or renovated, and address safety issues before they happen.

Stakeholder working group May meeting

The stakeholder working group includes building sciences and industry representatives, commercial and residential building owners and managers, rental associations and affordable housing providers. 

The stakeholder working group met on May 12, 2016 to evaluate and discuss additional changes to the bylaw.

Stakeholder update

In order to address an issue raised by an external stakeholder, City Administration requested and received a deferral to present to the Standing Policy Committee on Planning and Urban Development no later than the third quarter of 2016.

The stakeholder expressed some concern that the work to complete an assessment could fall within the definition of "engineering practice" under the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act.

Proposed solution

It was proposed that the bylaw could be clarified to confirm that the building assessment required is not a technical inspection, but a visual assessment only. The onus rests entirely on the building owner to have the assessment done, to satisfy themselves that the qualifications of the person doing the assessment are sufficient, and to determine the course of follow-up action coming out of the assessment.

Summary of proposed clarifications in the bylaw

  • Clarify that the required building exterior assessment is a visual assessment only
  • Refer to "visual assessment" throughout the bylaw
  • Name of the form changed to "Building Exterior Visual Assessment"
  • Remove definition of "qualified professional"

What we heard


Stakeholder update:

Some stakeholders wondered why the issue of the definition of "engineering practice" wasn't raised before. Others said that this issue hasn't arisen from the definition of qualified person in the Condominium Property Act. It was explained that while we heard from some stakeholders that parts of an assessment should be done by an engineer or architect, the issue of an "exclusive right to practice" is new.

Proposed bylaw clarifications:

Many stakeholders expressed that they were happy with the clarifications. This carries forward the spirit of previous stakeholder working group sessions and doesn't present any significant changes to the bylaw.

Stakeholders agreed that a visual assessment does not infringe on areas that are the exclusive right to practice of architects or engineers. However, further information may need to be provided to clarify for those completing a visual assessment as to whether an item should be noted in the "yellow" or "red" categories.

A concern was noted around the focus on driving the scope and cost of the assessments down. The question was posed as to whether the bylaw is strong enough to identify problems or demonstrate that it is proactive.

It was explained that the bylaw aims to establish a minimum standard for visual building assessments every five years, and does not intend to set a best practice. Ultimately, the onus and liability is still on building owners to maintain the safety of their buildings.

Several stakeholders noted that this is a huge step forward and provides something that we didn't have before, and may establish a template for other major cities. If the bylaw is approved by City Council, we will analyze how it is working over the next number of years and make adjustments as needed.
Proposed bylaw changes

Draft changes to Section 3, duty to visually assess building envelope:

3(1) The owner of a building must ensure that the condition of the building envelope is visually assessed in accordance with this Bylaw.  

(2) The visual assessment of the roof of a building must be performed by a person with sufficient education, training, skill and experience relating to roofs such that the person’s visual assessment may reasonably be relied upon; and  
(3) The visual assessment of the walls of a building must be performed by a person with sufficient education, training, skill and experience relating to walls such that the person’s visual assessment may reasonably be relied upon.  

(4) The results of the visual assessment of the building envelope must be recorded on a form prescribed by the Chief Building Official, to be known as a Building Exterior Visual Assessment.  

(5) The qualifications of the person or persons who performed the visual assessment must be recorded on the Building Exterior Visual Assessment.
 
Proposed changes for assessment tool and guideline

A streamlined version of the Building Exterior Visual Assessment will be presented to City Council.

Ranking system:

Category 1: acceptable (green) – no concerns observed

Category 2: attention required (yellow) – building owner should consider getting further testing or inspection (may involve professional consultation)

Category 3: Not acceptable (red) -
  • City may request further information
  • Building owner must advise City of hazards observed
  • Building owner must remedy hazards
  • Work to remediate will probably require permit and inspection
  • City will follow up to ensure action has been taken
The bylaw will be presented to the Standing Policy Committee on Planning and Urban Development no later than Q3 2016.

We'll continue to keep you up to date on our progress.

For more information, visit calgary.ca/buildingmaintenancebylaw.
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