House occupancy laws regarding non-family members (apartments, lease, neighborhood)

[seongjason]

Are there laws prohibiting non-family members to live in one house?
Is it true you can only have one family per house?
We have 4 non-blood or marriage related people living in our house and one of our neighbor has been watching us...

We have 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

Three family members and four non-family members occupy the house which makes it total of 7 people.

We haven't been making noise or any sort of pollution in the neighborhood either don't know why my neighbor is bothering us.

[cjma79]

Originally Posted by seongjason

Are there laws prohibiting non-family members to live in one house?
Is it true you can only have one family per house?
We have 4 non-blood or marriage related people living in our house and one of our neighbor has been watching us...

We have 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

Three family members and four non-family members occupy the house which makes it total of 7 people.

We haven't been making noise or any sort of pollution in the neighborhood either don't know why my neighbor is bothering us.

Are you renting?

[seongjason]

yes, but i believe there was nothing mentioning about this on the lease agreement.

[Viralmd]

Whose names are on the lease? And who's paying the rent?

It shouldn't be an issue unless you're over a given occupancy limit.

[karm]

if there are more bathrooms than the original plans c/o or permits cite, u can get a citation for:
illegal conversion.

if anyone claims there is renting or subleting going on, u could get a summons/citation for use of a single family for more than 1 family.

thats how nyc dept buidling/finance makes more $$$$


how i know this? i live in a big 1 family house with 6 bedrooms and 3 baths -- alone for the past 5 years. neighbors got mad that i don't rent rooms out (think i'm well-off, i guess), and ironically reported that i was renting out rooms. ppl are like that nowadays. sucks.

when the inspector came, he said he could barely tell if even 1 person lives here.

[BrooklynGirl9]

Originally Posted by karm

if there are more bathrooms than the original plans c/o or permits cite, u can get a citation for:
illegal conversion.

if anyone claims there is renting or subleting going on, u could get a summons/citation for use of a single family for more than 1 family.

thats how nyc dept buidling/finance makes more $$$$


how i know this? i live in a big 1 family house with 6 bedrooms and 3 baths -- alone for the past 5 years. neighbors got mad that i don't rent rooms out (think i'm well-off, i guess), and ironically reported that i was renting out rooms. ppl are like that nowadays. sucks.

when the inspector came, he said he could barely tell if even 1 person lives here.

Good for you, I cant stand nosy neighbors like that.

[karm]

i know right? nosy and hypocritical. like 40 ppl living in 1 private house and they're reporting me to dept of buildings just to make some kind of point that i'm using all this space instead of renting it out like Mod cut: inappropriate.

[anders]

Originally Posted by karm

if there are more bathrooms than the original plans c/o or permits cite, u can get a citation for:
illegal conversion.

if anyone claims there is renting or subleting going on, u could get a summons/citation for use of a single family for more than 1 family.

I agree. Nosy Neighbor probably suspects that rooms were added w/o a permit; or that it's an illegal conversion -- i.e., a one-family house turned into separate living spaces; or that it's being rented out as a "rooming house."
These would violate the building's existing Certificate of Occupancy (which specifies approved use of the building) and-or zoning laws (which say what kind of buildings/uses are permitted in the area).

In general [and this isn't to be construed as legal advice], a problem might arise if
-- the number of people exceeds the limit in the lease ... though, objectively, it's not overcrowding to have seven people in a 5BR, four-bathroom house.
-- the landlord did illegal construction, as mentioned above; or
-- it's definitely coded as single-family-occupancy ... because according to occupancy definitions [NYC Building Code 307.2], a family includes "two or more persons related by blood, adoption, legal guardianship, marriage or domestic partnership ... with not more than two boarders, roomers, or lodgers"; and an "unrelated" family consists of "[n]ot more than three unrelated persons occupying a dwelling unit and maintaining a common household."
So with three relatives plus four nonrelatives, you (a) have two nonrelatives too many for single-family occupancy; and (b) have four people too many to qualify as a "family" of nonrelatives.

HOWEVER, barring overcrowding and-or illegal construction: It would be OK if the same seven people lived there as a "family," but the mix consisted of five relatives and two non-relatives.

Also, Mr. Nosy should buzz off.

[cjma79]

Originally Posted by seongjason

yes, but i believe there was nothing mentioning about this on the lease agreement.

Is only allowed 1 person for each person in the lease.
Meaning if your lease there is only you, then you are only allowed to have one non-family member.

Also you should know that if there is more then one person on the lease, then you don't have the that right.

1. If only one tenant has signed the lease, that tenant is entitled to one roommate who is not a member of the tenant's immediate family.
2. If two or more tenants have signed the lease and they all live there, they are not entitled to have any roommates. If one or more of the tenants named on the lease moves out, the departing tenant or tenants can be replaced by the same number of roommates.
3. The named tenants on the lease can always have their immediate family members living with them.

Source: TenantNet - Your Rights to Sublet, Share, and Assign Apartments

So it doesn't matter really matter the occupancy limit when you are talking about non-family member or non immediate family. Occupancy limits is to control the immediate family member.

[anders]

Originally Posted by cjma79

So it doesn't matter really matter the occupancy limit when you are talking about non-family member or non immediate family. Occupancy limits is to control the immediate family member.

The occupancy limit primarily controls _non-family_ members.