The City of Saskatoon inspects a secondary suite for egress windows, ceiling height, a separate entrance in most cases, and proper fire separation from the main unit. A finished basement with no permit on file can look identical to a legal suite in listing photos and still fail every one of those tests.
This matters most for financing. A lender will generally only count secondary-suite rental income toward your mortgage qualifying when the permit is on file, so an unpermitted basement apartment can quietly shrink how much house you actually qualify to buy, even though the listing describes it as income-generating.
A home inspection, typically $400 to $600, will usually flag a missing egress window or heat source, but the permit search is what confirms legality on paper. Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.