Renting a garden apt
I am considering renting a garden apt from friends who recently purchased a townhouse. They will occupy the parlor floor and renting out the top floor. My friends the landlords will have no access to the garden except through the common downstairs hallway through the basement. This seems like pretty close quarters for everyday but…
I am considering renting a garden apt from friends who recently purchased a townhouse. They will occupy the parlor floor and renting out the top floor. My friends the landlords will have no access to the garden except through the common downstairs hallway through the basement. This seems like pretty close quarters for everyday but short of building a deck, there doesn’t seem to be many options here…Any suggestions for more privacy? Thanks.
Yes…very useful information indeed
thank you all
Yeah but 4:54, when people give their personal opinions about what the situation may end up being like once the OP is actually living with it, it could present scenarios the OP never thought about. I don’t think this feedback is useless at all.
1.29 Luckily you are living in America and people can agree what they want. Sounds like the owners want the situation they are offering. Sounds like WCS may or may or may not want it … nobody can tell anybody to pony up and the landlords may not have cash anyway (hard times you know).
I agree with the person who pointed out a common hallway being shared means you exit your bedroom to go to the bathroom and your friend/landlord could be standing there. Or their kid, or their guests if they have people over for a cookout in the backyard.
It’s such an unappealing situation. Why do it? Tell these people to pony up and build a darn stairs from their apartment to the garden because that’s what they are living in, an apartment, even if they’re the owners. If they want use of the whole house then they need to make it a one-family house.
Do. Not. Rent. To/From. Friends.
DON’T!!!!!!
I don’t really see why using a common hallway is invasive of privacy. If you’re talking about sharing the garden, that’s a different story. I live on the parlor floor of the house I own, and you end up using the garden a lot less, because it’s a pain to drag dishes, bbq stuff, food etc. through the halls to the garden, and then back to your apt. Also every time you have to use the bathroom, having to go through this rigamarole. The good news is that they probably won’t use the garden that often. The bad news is that since they’re your friends, when you are BOTH using it and they need to go to the bathroom there might be pressure to let them use yours!
Just keep your apartment door closed. Your landlord friends can then go downstairs from their parlor level to your garden level, and through the common hallway, they can further go down to the basement, and then up the basement steps directly outside to their garden. We have this exact same setup (we own and live on the parlor floor) and my garden-level tenants don’t mind it a bit. They keep their apartment door closed. It’s very nice that your landlords let you share their garden, just be happy for that.
Dude, your description is awful. Include a diagram.
4:27 are you saying that in your house, you can go through the basement apartment hallway, and there are bedrooms (with locks) off that hallway? Is there a bathroom down there?
From what you describe, it sounds like your tenants can’t walk out of their bedroom to the bathroom without knowing whether their landlord is there doing laundry to going into the garden. Also, that means you could just walk right up the stairs into the kitchen and living space, too, right?
I guess it works because it sounds like the communal house I lived in in college and the kids renting it are young. When I was an older renter, however, I definitely would not have liked to live that way.
WCS, I can’t tell if you are describing a similar set-up and mean the bedroom doors lock, or you don’t like the thought of someone using the public hallway outside your apt but the inside of your apartment is still completely private. It sounds like the former, however, since generally in houses the access to the garden is inside the garden apartment and not through a public hallway. But if it is through a public hallway, you should certainly not be put off by your landlord’s having use of it.