Renting out a basement unit in SFH

[Dmitry Shatalov]

We are in the process of closing on the SFH. The house has 2 bedrooms/ 1 bathroom on the main floor, and 1 bedroom/1 bathroom in the basement. Each floor has its own kitchen. The basement has a separate entrance and electric meter (it seems like someone already rented out the basement before). Ideally we would like to rent it as 2 separate units. However, we found out in the city hall that in order for this house to be registered as a duplex, there is a list of requirements which includes having seperate sewage for each floor. We expect that it will take time to build it and will be very expensive, which we are not ready to invest in right now. We are planning to do the rehab of everything else up to the code.

Do you think we can legally rent out the basement as a separate unit without this house being registering with the city as a duplex?