sharing back yard
If we’re planning on using the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors for our family and renting out the garden apartment, what is the protocol for sharing the yard? Can we keep it for ourselves or do we have to give the garden renter access?
If we’re planning on using the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors for our family and renting out the garden apartment, what is the protocol for sharing the yard? Can we keep it for ourselves or do we have to give the garden renter access?
As someone who rents out the garden level apartment, I’m always amazed at how relatively little people end up using the garden. (Myself included.) I live on the second floor and share a great garden via an alley. I’m on my 4th group of tenants, and while the garden is a great selling point, it is usually under utilized, so I say go for the share and collect the extra rent. Plus it’s usually a nice social scene when you do “collide” with the tenants. Set up some protocol as far as using the garden on holidays, i.e. “The owner has first dibs for July 4th, Labor Day, etc.” The one caveat I would have is think twice before renting it out to someone who has a dog. The dog will poop all over the garden and the tenants will end up using the garden a lot more than non-dog owners. People get lazy really quick, and just let the dog out into the garden rather than walking it.
It’s a good conversation to have with potential tenants before you all sign the lease. A lot depends on whether either of you is a gardener. I had a tenant for years who was a passionate gardener, so I left that aspect to her entirely. After she left, I started getting interested in gardening myself, got totally hooked, and thereafter negotiated with new tenants — “You’re welcome to BBQ and sit in the garden, and put your indoor plants out in the summer, but I get to grub in the dirt.” Only shared the gardening (as opposed to the garden space) with one tenant, equally passionate, and it worked out fine.
I wonder about this too. What about means of egress. Most brownstones have bars on the garden floor windows in the from and the rear, so the only means of egress are the from and back doors. If there is no rear access, then that means the tenant only has one way to get of the home in case of a fire or something. Are there any rules about that?
You can set your own rules. The LPC and DOB have no say in this.
But a garden is an amenity and your rental worth more if they can use it. Why not assume that you’ll rent to reasonable people who will share the garden with you? And maybe a bbq and beer on summer days?
Of course it’s totally up to you. I have a parlour level deck and use that. the tenants use the concrete slab below the deck for cookouts, etc. The rest of the yard is planted and mostly just a nice thing to look at as opposed to a patio type area.