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March 25, 2008
Buying an illegal 2 family to be used as a 1 family
We are considering purchasing a one family home that has been illegally converted to a 2 family. The current owners had an architect draw up plans for the work however they were never filed. The house, however, is on 3 different meters and has 2 separate kitchens.
We want to use the house as a one family. Will we be required by the city to reconfigure it after we close on the house? Or do we have some time? We had hoped to be able to buy it as is, use the whole house but not do the work until we were ready to fully renovate the entire building.
Obviously, we will talk to our lawyer about this, however any input would be helpful.
Comments
If you are getting a mortgage, your problem will be with the bank, not just the city.
Posted by: guest at March 25, 2008 6:25 PM
Not sure what the problem is. It's legally a one family and you want to use it as a one family, right? The meters are between you and ConEd. I bought a legal three family that had two meters, three kitchens and use it as a one family. After we bought it, we moved everything to one meter, combined two apartments and kept the new "second apartment" as is. We had the DOB come in to see it and they changed it to two. It's up to us if we rent out or use it. (We use it.)
Posted by: guest at March 25, 2008 7:47 PM
The problem is that the building was illegally subdivided into two. It is not zoned for a 2 family.
6:25, do you mean that we would have trouble getting a mortgage until at least the kitchen was removed?
Posted by: 11231 at March 26, 2008 6:32 AM
We are in a legal two-family that was used as a three family for many years, with three elec meters and three kitchens at move-in.
We had trouble getting a good appraisal. There was talk of removing the upstairs kitchen at the seller's expense. Instead, we found a less-than-honest appraiser who said he saw two real kitchens and a small "mother-daughter" kitchenette.
It's legally a two-family and so we are using it as a two-family and don't expect any trouble about it. We removed the upstairs kitchen and are within our CofO.
That's what people are saying to you, 11231. If you're going to use it as a one-family and it's legally a one-family, then there is no problem. Who cares what other people did to it illegally? You didn't subdivide it, your'e aware of your legal standing with the house, and as long as you don't use it illegally, you're not doing anything illegal.
As a practical matter, I think it's important to mention that this kind of discrepancy is pretty common, and that lots of people live in and rent out illegal apartments. We seriously considered keeping our place an illegal 3-fam for a few years so that we could have more income, but decided that it's not worth the risk. The practical risk is not that the city will come and bust you, because they mostly don't care/have bigger fish to fry. The practical risk (as explained by my lawyer) is that your CofO is public record. So you could get a tenant that knows your legal status and decides to stop paying you rent. And because your apartment is illegal, there is very little you can do, legally, to get that person to either leave or start paying.
It doesn't sound like you want to do that. So I think you're going to be OK.
Posted by: guest at March 26, 2008 8:32 AM
heres my question:
Even if its a 1 family, cant you have "roommates" who use one part of the house?
Don't give a term lease. Roommates cant overstay in that situation and wouldn't have anything to do w/ the c of o.
Posted by: slick at March 26, 2008 7:59 PM
Yeah, slick you can do this, but it turns into a verbal agreement without any of the great legal protections or distances that landlords and tenants get.
If your "roommate" decides to punk out on you and just stay without paying, your options are very limited. The "roommate" can claim that they are actually renting your apartment on a month-to-month basis and start legal trouble, and you have no legal protection yourself.
Again, in all this you're not protecting yourself from The Man--mostly they don't care. You're protecting yourself from your tenant. Or roommate. Or whatever.
As someone who's had real estate with a friend go bad, and who has been impressed by how nasty someone you really loved can become, I think it's important to keep everything in your primary residence above board.
But that's my own risk level. YMMV.
Posted by: guest at March 27, 2008 7:21 AM
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