Question for househackers!

[Jake Brockway]

My wife and I recently started our real estate investing journey, and we have decided that we are going to house hack. I talked to my father about our plans to house hack, who happens to be a property lawyer ( how convenient, right?). He emphaszied how important it is to find out if it's legal to house hack, which is considered multi-family in law,  in a typical single family area based on the local zoning codes. 

Apparently, he has been involved in a case where a guy was sued for house hacking in an area zoned for only single family, and since he was house hacking, he was technically making a single family residence a multi-family residence, which wasn't allowed. Some Karen in the neighborhood complained that they were too many cars on their property, and the house hacker had to remove all his tenants or face serious punishments. 

My question for you guys- why have I never heard of zoning being apart of the house hacking conversations on the podcasts? ( maybe it has been discussed, I just haven't listened to that episode yet).  If you have house hacked yourself, did you look to see if your home was zoned for multifamily? Are most house hackers overlooking/ignoring the zoning laws, and just hoping to not get caught? Thanks. 

[Marcus Auerbach]

I am pretty puzzeled with this concern, there must have been more to the story! If you own a house and you have someone live with you that is nobody's business. I am involved in probably 20 house hacks a year in Milwaukee and never heard about such thing. (also, never has anyone bought a single family to house hack). The zoning issue I see is that people want to add a thrid unit to a duplex by finishing the attic and the city has been very reluctant lately to issue construction permits for that - the concern is 50% more demand on street parking and on the sewer system when you go from 2 to 3 units.