Legal Brownstone Rental?
If you rent a the 2nd and 3rd floors of a brownstone where there is no door separating the 2nd and 3rd floors from the 2nd and 3rd floor stairway hallways, and the stairwell that leads to your 2nd and 3rd floors of the building can be entered from the parlor floor apartment (although the…
If you rent a the 2nd and 3rd floors of a brownstone where there is no door separating the 2nd and 3rd floors from the 2nd and 3rd floor stairway hallways, and the stairwell that leads to your 2nd and 3rd floors of the building can be entered from the parlor floor apartment (although the person who rents on the parlor floor also has the garden floor and enters through the garden level exclusively)… is that a legal occupancy set-up?
Also, would it be against fire code to put a lock on the outside of the parlor floor apartment so that they cannot enter the parlor stairwell?
for $5k/mo I would expect the kitchen to be A LOT nicer than that.
Sheezz…you could rent a whole house for that money.
TryingBrook-
You’ve been asking questions for to days about this apartment, which I beleive is this one.
http://www.smithhanten.com/Default.aspx?tabid=54&mid=379&ctl=ViewRental&PropertyID=1022&VarName=129271428623562500&CurIndex=0
I’ve see it as well..Your only question should be, how much less can I offer on this and still get it?
If this is a two family, it is absolutely legal. They are all over east Bed Stuy and Bushwick. If it is a three family I do not know.
If the lower duplex has direct access to the upper, which it sounds like they do because there is no door which can be locked by the upper to prevent access, then yes, it is absolutely illegal. You need to have a continuous 1-hour fire rated separation between the common hall and the residences. That division can be at the base or the top of the stairs going up from the parlor. Don’t think about it in terms of security from break-in, but in terms of preventing a fire spreading from one family to the other through an open hall.
As for locking the parlor hall door to the lower duplex from the hall side, it would depend upon a few things. If the stairs interior to the lower duplex comply with egress requirements and the interior configuration of the lower duplex also complies, and the building is only two families, and I think there’s a height limitation, too, then I believe that door may not be required for egress and it can be locked.
Obviously this is something you should have someone take a serious look at and do some code research to figure out for sure.
Jim Hill, RA, LEED AP
Urban Pioneering Architecture
Do you mean that there are two apartment in the brownstone – one duplex of the garden and parlor floor and one duplex of the top two floors?
Ours is like that…there are no “doors” to the upper duplex but both apartments are secure and separate. The parlor doors are locked from both sides so the upper duplex enters exclusively from the stoop or main entrance while the lower duplex enters exclusively under the stoop into the garden level.
I just looked at another rental that was set up similarly. I can’t speak to the legality but it works fine for us.
Who would rent an “apartment” that doesnt HAVE any doors to lock
Legalities aside, who will rent an apartment where you can’t lock the doors?