Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
uhhh.... someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't rent the basement out BY ITSELF as an APARTMENT, no? But you can most certainly rent it out as part of an apartment with the upstairs, just as long as you don't count the basement as a bedroom in your ads/claims, usually they just call it a storage area. If it's big enough to fit a bed in, people aren't stupid, they know they could have someone live in there and take the risk. Of course, should a fire occur, and that person gets injured, you'd be in trouble. But that's a big if. Plus you could also make the tenants sign something saying they can't use that room as a residence, but of course they could still do it anyway. Such a clause in a contract MAY lower your liability to SOME EXTENT should something happen.
the idea is that there needs to be an egress in case of fire, and basements usually don't have that. What I wonder, maybe someone can tell me, can they cut out a window at the top of the basement after digging out a window well, usuing a concrete chainsaw? Would this be hard to do? Would you need to submit a bunch of engineering to the town to demonstrate that that little gap won't mess with the sill plate's load-bearing abilities?
I currently rent a single family home in Elmwood Park, IL. the owner is renting the basement and charges $700 a month, to enter the basement (apartment) you have to walk through the furnace room and the laundry room, there"s only one entrance and the windows are so small if there was a fire you cannot crawl through them, the tennant is always complaining of our footsteps since it shouldn't be a rentable unit the walls are hollow? The owner has a good relationship with the inspector and therefore gets away with illegally renting the basement, I am very frustrated at this point of all the complaints from the tennant what do you advice on what I can do? or who can I address this issue with. I constantly get phone calls from the owner telling me the tennant is complaining and he even placed area rugs which do not rectify the problem. Please advice
Why are you letting this stress you. You just keep walking as normal what are you worrying about. Its an illegal apartment. The landlord can not evict you for noise, they would have to prove you are making nosie and disturbing the tenant in the illegal basement apartment.
I bought a house in 2000 which was build in 1950. This house was sold to me as a two family with a legal basement registered thru the State of New Jersey Housing Department. Every five years I get an inspector from the State of New Jersey stop by and after the inspection process, I receive by mail a certificate called a green card. According to what I was informed I had everything legal and in order. Well, to my surprise, as I'm trying to sell my house, I'm informed that the house needs to be brought up to code and that it is not legal in the City of Union City. Not to mention there were three opened permits which were not opened by me but by the prior landlord whom sold me the house. That work was never done but, I had to pay a private contractor to close these permits. I try to use the same attorney for the closing and I questioned him about this situation and his answer to me was to call the State of New Jersey and cancel the Stated Green Card which according to the State makes the basement legal. He wants me to have the tenants from the basement move out and he said I must sell the house as a two family without mentioning the basement. I'm confused. I thought I hired an attorney to make sure the paperwork was all in order and he is the same attorney that know gives me the advise to empty the basement and pretend it never existed. PLEASE HELP..I'M A DISABLED PERSON WHOM TRYS TO DO THE RIGHT THING. BUT I'M NOT A LAWYER.
I currently rent a single family home in Elmwood Park, IL. the owner is renting the basement and charges $700 a month, to enter the basement (apartment) you have to walk through the furnace room and the laundry room, there"s only one entrance and the windows are so small if there was a fire you cannot crawl through them, the tennant is always complaining of our footsteps since it shouldn't be a rentable unit the walls are hollow? The owner has a good relationship with the inspector and therefore gets away with illegally renting the basement, I am very frustrated at this point of all the complaints from the tennant what do you advice on what I can do? or who can I address this issue with. I constantly get phone calls from the owner telling me the tennant is complaining and he even placed area rugs which do not rectify the problem. Please advice
I am very sorry to hear that you have to face this annoying situation. I rented a basement apt in Fort Lee, NJ without knowing it is illegal since I am new here. I paid 1600 dollars per month for a small but well decorated basement. The rent is high because it is right next to George Washington Bridge, a good location for people who work in NYC. Because of some conflicts with my landlord, I called the building department in Fort Lee. Luckily the basement is illegal and the officer was very helpful. I could ask for up to 6 months' rent for relocation from the landlord (but I did not ask for that much, only enough for me to relocate). In addition, I need to move out within 90 days. And, these 90 days are free (no need to pay for rent). I moved out but another problem occurred. The landlord was not willing to return my security deposits (1.5 months rent = more than 2300 dollars).
I totally understand your and your downstair neighbor's complains. The basement is not designed for living people at all. I could even heard a normal conversation from my upstair neighbors, not mentioning that they had two boys between 5-10 years old. They are very nice neighbors though and they try to ask their kids to be quiet. The problem is that basement is NOT designed to live people. My neighbor's always took showers at midnight and the water tube is running through the wall in my "bedroom". I could not sleep well at all which made me even more frustrated. I could even not use microwave and my coffee machine at the same time. Otherwise, the electricity will trip out... and the control to restart electricity is in the garage, which I do not have access...
I guess in your situation, you'd better move out. It is neither your nor your basement neighbor's fault. It is the landlord's fault to rent out an inappropriate basement to tenants. Good luck. I still need to fight for getting back my security deposits...
I am very sorry to hear that you have to face this annoying situation. I rented a basement apt in Fort Lee, NJ without knowing it is illegal since I am new here. I paid 1600 dollars per month for a small but well decorated basement. The rent is high because it is right next to George Washington Bridge, a good location for people who work in NYC. Because of some conflicts with my landlord, I called the building department in Fort Lee. Luckily the basement is illegal and the officer was very helpful. I could ask for up to 6 months' rent for relocation from the landlord (but I did not ask for that much, only enough for me to relocate). In addition, I need to move out within 90 days. And, these 90 days are free (no need to pay for rent). I moved out but another problem occurred. The landlord was not willing to return my security deposits (1.5 months rent = more than 2300 dollars).
I totally understand your and your downstair neighbor's complains. The basement is not designed for living people at all. I could even heard a normal conversation from my upstair neighbors, not mentioning that they had two boys between 5-10 years old. They are very nice neighbors though and they try to ask their kids to be quiet. The problem is that basement is NOT designed to live people. My neighbor's always took showers at midnight and the water tube is running through the wall in my "bedroom". I could not sleep well at all which made me even more frustrated. I could even not use microwave and my coffee machine at the same time. Otherwise, the electricity will trip out... and the control to restart electricity is in the garage, which I do not have access...
I guess in your situation, you'd better move out. It is neither your nor your basement neighbor's fault. It is the landlord's fault to rent out an inappropriate basement to tenants. Good luck. I still need to fight for getting back my security deposits...
Did you bother to take a look at the date of the OP's question?
Did you notice the date when Lorenzo1999 decided to revive this extremely old thread?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have a very similar experience with you.
