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And the town/county will fine you out of your gourd and turn you over to the IRS if you are treating a primary residence as a rental. People in my are have grown ruthless in turning in VRBO or AirBnB folks.
Doing any work without permit also opens you up to insurers denying legitimate claims because you've violated codes.
For something that small I'd almost look into buying an RV or an Airstream.
It depends on where he lives. We don't need permits where I live.
Say you have a fire in your home that is caused by a lamp in this new addition.
Say it burns your house to the ground.
Do you think for a second your homeowners insurance will cover this?
I would think if the damage was so extensive to completely burn the house to the ground that the insurer wouldn't be able to tell exactly what started the fire. I have lamps plugged into receptacles in my garage (and am not using it as a residence).
There are plenty of houses here in El Paso that have their garages converted into living areas. Nothing classier than seeing entrance doors where the garage door used to be while there are trailers, non-functional cars and functional cars parked on the front lawns.
But I guess if you're going to do it, may as well do it legally. All that needs to happen is you rent it out to someone, they find a bone to pick with you and call in to report you. Then you're going to spend thousands on lawyers and then thousands to do it the right way as opposed to doing it the right way the first time.
1/ it's a detached garage, so should it burn to the ground, no harm done to the main dwelling, depending, of course, on which way the wind is blowing, ha ha. then again, it could be blowing toward the neighbor houses. gulp.
2/ but, man, you guys are gloomy. in my 61 years, i've never lived in a house that went up in flames, much less even caught fire. (Knock on wood.). Nor do I know anyone this has happened to. the odds of any household experiencing a fire worth calling the fire department for are 1 in 300 or .3% in any given year. And the odds of the joint burning all the way down are .08%. A large number of those fires are caused by candles and kids doing what kids do. So, maybe, no kids and no candles.
3/ i believe airbnb reports earnings to feds and state so obviously i'd be paying taxes. how's anyone going to know from this where i lived while the place was rented?
4/ i'd be renting out the main house, not the garage, which is where'd i'd stay.
5/ nothing about the outside look of the garage would be changed.
6/ have ya'll read up on advances in compost toilets? my understanding is that they aren't as problematic as maybe they once were. then again, i could always put a bathroom in the basement of the main house and trudge over there to do my business..
all this said, i will investigate going about this the legal way, as much as i hate doing so, for any number of perfectly good and not-so-good reasons.
look. a couple of years ago, i sheet rocked the one room that came to me with residential type door in it and regular-looking windows. i had a propane wood stove installed and the building inspector came out for an inspection. he started to make a big deal about everything, got all red in the face, puffed out his chest and said he'd be back for a closer inspection but then he never returned and life went on. guess something like that could happen again but i doubt it.
in any event, i'm going to ask around and see what's what. despite all my big talk about the infinitesimal odds of house fires, i'd be crazy to think it couldn't happen to me.
1/ it's a detached garage, so should it burn to the ground, no harm done to the main dwelling, depending, of course, on which way the wind is blowing, ha ha. then again, it could be blowing toward the neighbor houses. gulp.
2/ but, man, you guys are gloomy. in my 61 years, i've never lived in a house that went up in flames, much less even caught fire. (Knock on wood.). Nor do I know anyone this has happened to. the odds of any household experiencing a fire worth calling the fire department for are 1 in 300 or .3% in any given year. And the odds of the joint burning all the way down are .08%. A large number of those fires are caused by candles and kids doing what kids do. So, maybe, no kids and no candles.
3/ i believe airbnb reports earnings to feds and state so obviously i'd be paying taxes. how's anyone going to know from this where i lived while the place was rented?
4/ i'd be renting out the main house, not the garage, which is where'd i'd stay.
5/ nothing about the outside look of the garage would be changed.
6/ have ya'll read up on advances in compost toilets? my understanding is that they aren't as problematic as maybe they once were. then again, i could always put a bathroom in the basement of the main house and trudge over there to do my business..
all this said, i will investigate going about this the legal way, as much as i hate doing so, for any number of perfectly good and not-so-good reasons.
look. a couple of years ago, i sheet rocked the one room that came to me with residential type door in it and regular-looking windows. i had a propane wood stove installed and the building inspector came out for an inspection. he started to make a big deal about everything, got all red in the face, puffed out his chest and said he'd be back for a closer inspection but then he never returned and life went on. guess something like that could happen again but i doubt it.
in any event, i'm going to ask around and see what's what. despite all my big talk about the infinitesimal odds of house fires, i'd be crazy to think it couldn't happen to me.
You do realize with a compost toilet the **** has to go somewhere which means you will have to find a place that will be willing to recycle your waste. Basically how it works is you go to the bathroom and the waste goes into this holding tank you will need to put woodchips to make sure it doesn't sink. Then there is the problem of where do you recycle it, if you don't have land to bury the stuff on you are out of luck
excuse me if i'm wrong, but doesn't *compost* mean compost? the woodchips -- sawdust, actually, or peat moss, i think -- aren't there to make sure the stuff doesn't sink but to aid and abet in the composting process. see this amazon listing for just such a toilet: Nature's Head Self Contained Composting Toilet with Close Quarters Spider Handle Design - Incinerating Toilet - Amazon.com . you might be thinking of a so-called portable toilet, which is an entirely different kettle of stink. as for the urine, that goes into a separate container; dilute it with water and you can pour it on flowers, no muss, no fuss. at least that's what "everyone" says. i guess you don't really know until you try it.
3/ i believe airbnb reports earnings to feds and state so obviously i'd be paying taxes. how's anyone going to know from this where i lived while the place was rented?
4/ i'd be renting out the main house, not the garage, which is where'd i'd stay.
It depends where you live and your neighbors. If you're always having temporary renters, they will know. If your town regulates VRBO's and whatnot, you could run into problems. People can be awful busybodies. Just check some of the HOA threads around here.
Do the two unused bays have value as storage for anyone? I'm thinking for boats or jet ski's or something.
That's what storm drains are for. Works great for oil changes, too.
Up, I don't think so. Oil change oil needs needs to be brought to a disposal center. You do not want oil or any other petroleum problem in your waste water treatment center.
That's what storm drains are for. Works great for oil changes, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by clikrf8
Up, I don't think so. Oil change oil needs needs to be brought to a disposal center. You do not want oil or any other petroleum problem in your waste water treatment center.
I'm pretty sure Erik was being facetious...
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