Can the landlord sleep in an illegal basement? (Livingston: apartment, foreclose)
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Can a landlord live in the basement of a single family home that is being rented out. The basement is not legal to rent (it is not even a legal apartment as it has no kitchen, bathroom, etc...), but there is plenty of space and good ventilation, so can the landlord sleep there. Obviously, this would come with tenants approval.
Seems sort of odd that one could put a home office there legally, spending 12+ hours of the day working in said basement, but just not be allowed to sleep there.
It is not legal to rent out basement for tenant to sleep, but I used to own a 1br condo with basement, and my guest families often sleep downstairs at the basement. It was a nice furnished basement with same height and windows.
When I lost job and no money to pay mortgage in 90's when economy was worse than now, I rented out my 1br to student couple for $350, and me and my wife stayed at the basement. We are very responsible people and not want to walk away and let banks foreclose our condo.
Later, the student couple found a furnished basement nearby and cheaper, only $300, they just moved over. So, we moved up to the bedroom, and rented out the basement for $400 to two waitors from Malaysia working in Chinese restaurant, each $200. They slept at restaurant's dorm bed, 4 people in a room with 2 bunk bed in a house, only came back to my basement on their day off each Monday. Later on, I learned they had girl friends nearby, and as you can see, they could not take their girl friends to their restaurant dorm and sleep.
Never had any problem at the time, and neither us nor tenants knew it was illegal to rent basement. I guess when you do not have money, you can be very flexible. We often left home on Mondays for them to enjoy more privacy, they also entitled to use living room, kitchen and bath. They liked us a lot because we did not seem see each other much.
My father bought a house in San Francisco, and he struggled to pay the mortgage, so he rented out each and every rooms to singles or families. He even finished the basement and rent them out. He himself slept in the couch in the living room, but he left early each morning to his acupuncture office and came back late to just take shower and sleep.
Then, he had a bad luck to rent the basement to a tenant who eventually lost job and drag the rent for months. When my father asked him to move out, he threat to take my father to court since it was illegal to rent out basement.
I also had a friend who told me that she rented a house in Livingston, but the garage, because the land lady kept the garages to store all her stuff and would come back at night to sleep in the car parked on the driveway.
What amazed me was during last winters, the land lady would park the car in the garage and slept in the car, with small electric heater connect into the car to stay warm.
Later I learned that the land lady had 3 kids all going to college, so her husband went with the daughter to out of state and work in restaurant there, and she taking care of two sons in NJ. I guess the house is the last resource of the family, and the rental income is important to the land lady, so she rent out all but garage.
This is illegal, it doesn't mean you cannot do it. You just may not do it legally.
Well I think you guys have these things different. IF you rent out a "room" in your house it is a house share....
That is what I figured.
For those who have done it, what happened when the inspectors came. I mean, even if no one complains to the town, every town performs inspections once every couple years or so, right? How did you avoid inspectors finding out?
For those who have done it, what happened when the inspectors came. I mean, even if no one complains to the town, every town performs inspections once every couple years or so, right? How did you avoid inspectors finding out?
NJ State has state inspection every 5 years.
All you need to do is tell your tenant to remove any "bed" in the basement, and, as you may not know, poor people would prefer to remove their bunk bed and put them back after inspection, than being evicted.
I personally believe the law was made by "wealthy Americans", but now we are all "poor Americans" in huge debt!!!
NJ State may not even have budget to send inspectors now ...
I even heard that NJ State may cancel the every 2 year auto inspection; they have no money to do this any more, cut, cut, cut ... On the other hand, why did this auto inspection? CA has NO such stupid auto inspection every two years.
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