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April 19, 2009

4 Family to 2 Family Hallway

Hello All- I want to convert my 4 family building to a 2 family building. 3 units on the 2nd and 3rd floors will be combined to form one apartment, and the parlor and garden floors will constitute another unit. Is it legal to use the shared stairway to access the different rooms of the upper level apartment? The parlor/garden apartment has access via the garden level exterior entrance and on the parlor floor via the shared stairway/hallway foyer.

Posted in Forum by Fjukio at 5:34 PM | Comments (6)
Categories: Configuration

Author's Comments

thanks for your comments. jcarch got it on the head i.e. you would have to use the egress hall to go room to room within what is considered one apartment

however, as the parlor/garden apartment has egress from the street would fire-rocking over their hallway doors provide the solution? i'm trying to avoid putting a wall and door at the second floor landing as christopher suggested. unless i'm missing some other solution do i have no choice to keep internal stairs and hall in the apartment?

thanks again

Posted by: Fjukio at April 20, 2009 8:52 PM in response to 4 Family to 2 Family Hallway

Responses to Author's Forum Comments

Why wouldn't you put a wall and door at the 2nd floor landing? That's the solution I have always seen. It really shouldn't be all that expensive. I have no idea whether it's "legal", but I definitely wouldn't want to rent an apartment with an open hallway like that. You'd have to price it way below market because given a choice, who wouldn't want an apartment that's private?

I've also lived in a building where there was no access to the common stairway from parlor floor. The parlor floor doors had long been painted over and nailed shut. But in that case, the hallway was still common space. Again, it's just not that desirable of a set-up for a tenant, in my opinion.

Posted by: CGfan at April 21, 2009 9:32 AM in response to 4 Family to 2 Family Hallway