Basement Apartment in Single Family

Hi all –

Thanks in advance for any thoughts here.

My husband and I have an offer in on a wood frame single family home and would eventually like to rent out the garden level, which the DOB classifies as a basement (or BASE to be specific) on the Certificate of Occupancy. The unit currently has a kitchen and a bathroom as well as its own entrance under the stoop and out to the backyard.

Based on what I have been reading on nyc.gov, it is legal for owners of Single Family classified homes to rent out their basements. It is not, interestingly, legal for two family and above to do the same. So, contrary to what I had anticipated, we actually should NOT amend our CO if we want to go for a basement rental.

I need to get back in the apartment, but feel fairly confident that the ceilings meet the 7′ minimum as specified by the DOB and I am optimistic about the 50% above curb level specification, but less sure. I know I’m not the person who should be determining this anyway, but I’m just giving some detail on what I am seeing. More importantly (and really at the heart of m y question here), the DOB has called this unit a basement and not a cellar.

Can I simply take their language at face value and rent out the unit without further complication? Or do we need to get a HMC surveyor in there to be absolutely sure and possibly deal with any issues like firewalls, etc.?

It is probably notable that someone filed two complaints about an illegal basement conversion in the early 1990s and they were both dismissed.

There are a lot of answers all over the place on the internet, most of them with terribly bad advice when weighed against what the DOB actually says about basement rentals being legal in Single Families versus Two Families. My hope is to lean on the resident experts here on Brownstoner in terms of what you have seen or done and general approach with the DOB in this kind of situation.

Thank you again!

JK

PS: This is nyc.gov’s handy pamphlet on this issue: http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdf/PreservationSvcsBrochure_BasementCellar-new.pdf

brooklyninsulation

in General Discussion 9 years and 2 months ago

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resident2 | 9 years and 1 month ago

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If you have a one family house; you cannot rent out your garden (basement) floor as a separate apartment. That said in order to make it a legal 2nd apartment in a frame house you would now need to install a sprinkler system and a whole lot of other fire and building code upgrades to the whole house, it may well be one of those situations that would be best rented out as an Air BnB (roommate) if you need the income. Because the cost of creating a legal two family will not be compensated by the rent and the additional Real Estate tax reassessment….. architects may tell you it can be done, contractors may tell it can be done… no matter the ceiling height and other issues… but look at the time & money investment and as I said the RE Tax kicker!

brooklyninsulation | 9 years and 2 months ago

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I’m heading to Homeowner’s Night tomorrow and will report back! Thanks all for the many suggestions.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 2 months ago

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What slopefarm said. Yes, a basement can be added if it meets the legal issues about light and egress.

slopefarm | 9 years and 2 months ago

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I don’t think the absence of a C/O makes a house legally whatever the owner wants it to be. But in any case there is a c/o here and it is for a 1 fam. IMHO, the debate in this thread centers on the distinction between the question of whether the basement is “habitable” — i.e. can be used as living space, and whether it can be rented as a separate unit. The pamphlet seems to answer the first question, not the second. A basement that is habitable can be added to the living space of an existing lawful unit. But just because it is habitable, it doesn’t mean you can add it as a separate living unit and rent it out if you are not otherwise permitted to have that number of units.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 2 months ago

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with respect Lurker, if the C of O states One Family that’s what it means and you can encounter all sorts of trouble if you rent out a floor as a separate unit. If there is no C of O, not so much.

Lurker | 9 years and 2 months ago

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with respect, MDR and daveinbedstuy are I believe incorrect. You can easily go to homeowners night with the city to verify, but that same pamphlet specifically lists conditions for renting the basement, and it doesn’t mean to the party already renting the rest of the house. MDR’s interpretation is just that.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 2 months ago

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And you may be required to install sprinklers if you convert it.

brooklyninsulation | 9 years and 2 months ago

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Thanks, MDR. Very, very helpful.

MDR | 9 years and 2 months ago

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It sounds like the C of O is from the 50’s or earlier. 1 family and 4 boarders is still one family- the boarders would have used the owner’s kitchen and bathroom.

If you have a C of O and it shows one family then the house is only legal for one family, and the second kitchen in the house was installed without permits. It sounds like the basement may meet the physical requirements for a separate unit, but you need to change the C of O to make it legal. You would also file drawings to legalize any work done without a permit and pay a civil penalty. OR you would have to act as if the second unit was not already built and file drawings showing the second kitchen as new work and get permits for that, then change the C of O. It would probably be at least a one year process. OR you could just rent it out and take your chances but an unhappy neighbor could complain and you would end up with DOB violations and paying fines.

The HPD pamphlet is easy to misinterpret but when they say “Can the basement of a one-family dwelling be lawfully rented?”, it means can the owner of the dwelling (landlord) rent that floor along with the other floors of the house? If the basement meets the habitability requirements the answer is yes, but only to the same family, not to a separate family.

brooklyninsulation | 9 years and 2 months ago

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It states ‘1 Family & 4 Boarders’ – it’s a weird one.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 2 months ago

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You have not stated what your C of O states. If it states One Family, you cannot. If there is NO C of O, it’s a different story.

eileengray | 9 years and 2 months ago

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The existing certificate of occupancy will reference a DOB application that will have plans showing the legal layout of the building. You should try to get a copy of the file from DOB. That said, the fact that the C of O states only Basement and does not indicate “One Family Dwelling” separate from the upper floors seems to be proof that the entire house is one family and there is not a second dwelling unit. In the past (in difficult economic times) many people added an extra dwelling unit and the city was not agressive in pursuing these violations. Today it’s different.

brooklyninsulation | 9 years and 2 months ago

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Thanks for the article, chemosphere. And for your thoughts, bobjbkln.

Chemosphere, your point is well taken.

I’m going to continue diving into this and will update here if I find out anything definitive.

chemosphere | 9 years and 2 months ago

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from the nytimes: “You might think of your home as a two-family residence, but according to the city, it is not. This creates an immediate problem with your downstairs tenant. “You do not, as you say, own a two-unit house,” said Ron Kaplan, a Manhattan real estate lawyer. “Your rental of the second unit is not legal.”

The arrangement could cause problems with your homeowner’s insurance if the intended use was not properly stated when the house was underwritten and the insurance coverage secured. You might want to consult a lawyer about the risks of an illegal rental, even if the tenant is a friend.”

chemosphere | 9 years and 2 months ago

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This agrees with me. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/realestate/masquerading-as-a-two-family-home.html

chemosphere | 9 years and 2 months ago

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Forget the pamphlet. Find me a listing of a house that is legally one-family that has a legal, second apartment in the basement.

shahnandersen

in General Discussion 9 years and 2 months ago

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Not all DOB interpretations make linguistic sense, but the pamphlet is definitive.

chemosphere | 9 years and 2 months ago

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That makes no sense. It wouldn’t be a one-family! One family means one unit.

shahnandersen

in General Discussion 9 years and 2 months ago

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@chemosphere rereading the pamphlet, I agree that it is confusingCan the basement of a two-family dwelling be lawfully rented?

“No. The rental of a basement in a two-family dwelling would result in changing the status of the building to a multiple dwelling (three-family or more) and would require a new certificate of occupancy. ”

Thus the renting out separately of the basement of a two-family is impermissible (although it can be occupied by one of those families) but it it permissible to rent it out as a separate unit in a house with a one-family CO.