Basement apartments and secondary suites: the buzzer question
A basement apartment or secondary suite in a Toronto house usually has no lobby panel, because a two-unit house has no shared lobby, and the City’s entrance intercom rule covers buildings with three or more units. Visitors knock at a side door or press a doorbell, so there is usually no stored number to change. A labelled entrance and clear delivery instructions are what help.
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The City of Toronto describes a secondary suite as a second, smaller dwelling unit in a detached house, semi or townhouse, and gives a basement apartment as the common example. Buzzer advice written for towers does not apply to most of them, so working out which situation you are in is the whole exercise.
Which of the three you have
| What you have | Is there a number to change | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| A separate side or rear entrance with your own bell | No | Clear signage and delivery instructions |
| One front doorbell shared with upstairs | No | An agreement with the upstairs unit, and labelling |
| A converted house with a real entry panel | Only if the panel dials a phone | Everything written for apartment buildings applies |
Only the third row is a buzzer question in the usual sense. What a real entry panel is.
What the City rule covers, and what it does not
Toronto’s property standards bylaw, Chapter 629, says that in a multiple-dwelling with a shared entrance, each unit is to be connected to the principal entrance by a two-way voice communication system and a door release. It defines a multiple-dwelling as three or more units.
A house with one basement suite has two units, so that section does not reach it. A house split into three or more units with a shared front door is covered. This is general information, not legal advice. Read Chapter 629.
If there is no panel
Then nothing dials a phone number, and no service that provides a number can change that. Be sceptical of anyone who says otherwise.
What improves things is unglamorous: a clearly labelled entrance, a bell that can be heard from inside, and delivery instructions that name the door rather than only the unit. Uber’s driver app shows couriers the details you enter, such as intercom and floor numbers, so the same field can say which door is yours.
The shared doorbell case
One bell, two households. Every delivery and every visitor becomes the other household’s interruption, and yours get answered by whoever is nearest the door.
Agree it rather than tolerate it. Label the bell, agree who answers what, and ask the owner about a second bell for the separate entrance if there is one. What a driver does when nobody answers.
If your house does have a panel
A converted house with several units may have a small telephone entry panel, and then everything else on this site applies directly. Each directory entry dials one stored number.
If more than one person lives in your unit, that one number is worth pointing at something that rings more than one of you. BuzzMeBro rings up to 4 phones for $9.99 a month for the unit. How to check what your panel stores.
From our own door
- BuzzMeBro has run on our founder’s own Toronto apartment door since August 2026.
- Where there is a panel, a buzz rings the phones on the apartment that are set to ring, up to 4 at the same time, and whoever answers first handles it.
Questions people ask
Can I get a buzzer installed in a basement apartment?
That is a decision for the owner of the house, and it is a real installation rather than a subscription. The practical answers for most suites are signage, a working bell and clear instructions.
Deliveries keep going to the upstairs unit.
Label your entrance with the unit name on your lease and put the same wording in your delivery instructions, so what the courier reads matches what they see at the door.
Would BuzzMeBro work for my basement apartment?
Only if your house has an entry panel that dials a phone number. If visitors knock or press a doorbell, there is no call for a number to receive and it would not help.
How do I know if my building counts as a house or an apartment?
Look for a panel with a directory at the main entrance. If there is one and pressing your unit rings a phone, you have an apartment entry system whatever the building looks like from the street.
Two of us live in the basement unit and there is a panel.
Then it is the same question as any apartment: one number is stored and one of you answers everything. A BuzzMeBro number rings both phones, and the owner only has to make one change.
Sources
- City of Toronto, Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 629, Property Standards
- City of Toronto, Secondary Suites
- City of Toronto, Two-Dwelling Unit Houses (Basement Apartments)
- Uber, Delivering With Uber Eats