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 rented a cellar 1 bedroom in Boro Park Brooklyn for $750. Air quality was terrible, windows didn't open or opened on untamed grass, mud, wet (from upstairs leaking airconditioner) concrete.
The landlord (or his wife) made the place look like a beautiful apartment (without good ventilation and actual window size/view of outside from inside/windows being locked) were hidden by thick blinds when I first saw the place.........but a pig dressed up is still a pig.
A basement isn't worth renting no matter how cheap the rent is and a converted cellar apartment is even worse.
I rented a cellar 1 bedroom in Boro Park Brooklyn for $750. Air quality was terrible, windows didn't open or opened on untamed grass, mud, wet (from upstairs leaking airconditioner) concrete.
The landlord (or his wife) made the place look like a beautiful apartment (without good ventilation and actual window size/view of outside from inside/windows being locked) were hidden by thick blinds when I first saw the place.........but a pig dressed up is still a pig.
A basement isn't worth renting no matter how cheap the rent is and a converted cellar apartment is even worse.
Doesn't a basement apartment have to meet certain legal/buiding code requirements to be rented out?
I lived in a basement apartment for five years while I was getting my Ph.D., prior to medical school. I loved it (aside from it being dark). I could afford it, it was cozy and comfortable, so I think your generalization is misplaced.
Doesn't a basement apartment have to meet certain legal/buiding code requirements to be rented out?
Yes but many homeowners flout that law. I found out later that the owner was fined in 1997 for illegally converting his cellar into an apartment. He paid the fine and rented out the trap for many years anyway.
This was a fairly new house (built in 78) and it would look like the "basement" apartment was a real "bargain" but if you knew anything (which I didn't) then you'd probably be able to get that place for $350 a month with gas/electric included because the apartment was/is unsafe!
I lived in a basement apartment for five years while I was getting my Ph.D., prior to medical school. I loved it (aside from it being dark). I could afford it, it was cozy and comfortable, so I think your generalization is misplaced.
Yes but a cellar apartment is different from a basement apartment.
Did you have good ventilation? Was your apartment mostly ground level or mostly below ground? Did you have a direct connection to pipes? heaters or furnaces? a lot of trapped carbon monoxide?
Location: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
8,900 posts, read 15,939,050 times
Reputation: 1819
I live in a semi-basement apartment and I love it. It stays cool in the summer, and my landlord blasts the heat so I'm warm in the winter (I get cold easily, so it works fine for me). It's in Astoria and only $750. It's a legal apartment too.
Mine wasn't legal and mine was pure 100% cellar.
Breathing was "fine" as long as I was chain smoking cigarettes as I was on the "carbon monoxide air system" at the time and I was totally ignorant of what carbon monoxide, nicotine, every other unhealthy additive in cigarettes does to you.............But the lady upstairs complained about my chain smoking, soon I had to smoke outside and as a result, I cut down on cigarettes, my body became more aware of needing oxygen............I quit smoking and learned more in six months about air quality than I had known in 57 years.
I never would have taken that CELLAR (not part basement---part street level) apartment had I been a non smoker.
LOL, I moved out of there and its probably rented already.
BTW, I see the point that some posters are making. Some basement apartments are actually ground level and are safe, decent even if air quality might not be the best.
If you can get central a/c in the summer then you're okay and if you have decent, ground level windows that open then you can get fairly good quality air as long as the windows open on concrete and the bottom of the window is a bit raised.
Cellar apartments on the other hand are completely unsafe and are illegal for very sound reason.
Last edited by Viralmd; 09-30-2008 at 02:14 PM..
Reason: copyright violations
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.
