rental unit on ground floor of two family row house--how to share backyard?

You are sharing your house with them. It’s best to let them use the yard too. It would be a rare tenant that would not be respectful. With the deck off the parlor you will find that you use that as your private space. Tenants will likely use a table and chairs under your deck. I have had this set up for a long time and it works well for everyone. The only thing I would ask of them is to bbq away from the house so you don’t have to deal with smoke on your deck or blowing inside a window. All common sense stuff but best to talk about it. Having a good open relationship with your tenants makes everyone happy and builds trust .

Rick

in General Discussion 6 years and 1 month ago

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Guest User | 6 years and 1 month ago

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We’re planning to live in the top two floors of our three-story row house and rent out the first floor. We will have a back deck with stairs down to the yard. We are planning to share the yard with tenants, but I’m curious what experiences other have had with this arrangement. Do you give your tenants access to the whole yard? Set aside the part under the deck for them? What kind of rules do you have?

slopefarm | 6 years and 1 month ago

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We do not have an under-the -deck space, which is a natural fit for allowing the tenants access. We have generally not made backyard access part of the lease, but informally allowed it once the tenants are in and we are comfortable with them. You might allow them the under deck space from the get go, but I would do it informally, not as part of the lease. that way, you retain more rights if they abuse the space.

Guest User | 6 years and 1 month ago

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We have done it very successfully but when we designed the backyard we created a divided space that came out from under the deck by maybe 6′ or 7′ and then had a plant bed with a fence that created a division between the two spaces. There is a passageway through it so you can access either space if needed. The other thing that we did was put limits in a rider to how many people they were allowed, limits on noise, hours etc…

I think it adds a tremendous amount of value for tenants and makes the space easier to rent out as everyone in NYC is craving outdoor space and if you trust them enough to rent your apartment and live above them then I would think you would trust them with using the outdoor space.