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What exactly makes an addition to a house an accessory apartment? If you were to add a bedroom and a bathroom would that be instantly considered an accessory apartment? Is anyone familiar with fines for accessory apartments without proper permits? Do they accumulate annually? If someone had a notice from 2009 and never corrected the accessory apartment violation, what's the max fine that could be in question?
Adding an additional bedroom to a home requires Board of Health permits and building permits. YOur cesspool/septic system needs to be rated for the number of bedrooms you will end up. (i.e. if you have a 3 br house and add a 4th bedroom, your septic has to be rated for 4 bedrooms.) It would be considered an addition and you would be taxed accordingly.
If you decided that you were going to partition off the addition, creating a different entrance for a rental space, then it would be an accessory apartment. Brookhaven has begun going after illegal apartments with more zeal than in years past. They're also reporting illegal landlords to NYS for unreported income. There's no clear cut answer as to what the fines would be unless you were to contact Brookhaven.
Are you looking at a home with a potential accessory apartment?
Yeah. I'm trying to buy a house and ended up finding out that the house I was working on purchasing has violations and an expired CO for an accessory apartment. The town is extremely unhelpful and refuse to share any information about what it would take to resolve the violations. Their response is that the owner has to fix them and since I don't own it yet, they won't tell me anything. It's owned by a bank, so at this point it looks like my only option is to kill the deal. I'm afraid the town will tell me to tear everything down in order to clear up the violation.
The presence of a stove. You can have a bathroom, a refrigerator and a microwave. And you can rent it out as a "room" with light cooking" Very appealing to college students. It also had a gas fireplace, skylights, loft bed, and a private entrance.
Just make sure that to have permits on all work.
We did it in a studio (maid's quarters) on the border of Setauket and Stony Brook. We let them have a dog. We let them use the pool. It was legal. They had one car and sometimes walked or biked to campus.
These were our best tenants. They watched our pets when we went away. We were in good company. Pretty much everyone in our cul-de-sac did the same thing.
Yeah. I'm trying to buy a house and ended up finding out that the house I was working on purchasing has violations and an expired CO for an accessory apartment. The town is extremely unhelpful and refuse to share any information about what it would take to resolve the violations. Their response is that the owner has to fix them and since I don't own it yet, they won't tell me anything. It's owned by a bank, so at this point it looks like my only option is to kill the deal. I'm afraid the town will tell me to tear everything down in order to clear up the violation.
I doubt the town would go after the new owner for penalties assessed upon the prior owner. They might, however, give you a very difficult time legalizing what currently exists -- which you've recognized in your last sentence.
If you have free time, you could try heading to the Town Hall and speak with someone in the building department directly. No guarantees of anything, but I've found the women in the building department to be helpful in person. You're looking to take what is probably a zombie home and make it into a family home with an accessory apartment AND you're looking to do it legitimately. That might work in your favor.
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