Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2017 · 140 posts · 37 votes
Question to Philadelphia investors. How hard is it to obtain a permit to use a house as two family building. My husband and I are new to investing and when we bought a duplex in 19152 area, never bothered to check the zoning on it.
Turned out city doesn’t have any record of the use of that property. It is build as multyfalimy and zoned as RSA-3. So city refused to give us two rental licenses on it. Is it possible to fix it without a zoning atterney? All suggestions are welcome.
Hi everyone! I'm gonna piggyback on this topic real quick.
@Account Closed I'm not sure if you have checked there before, but I was told that if you check on http://www.phila.gov/zoningarchive/ and the documents are not there, it's best to assume they don't have it. I have seen use registration and variance applications on there before if the property has them. I think instead of structuring the offer to have the contingency for zoning, I would actually check the zoning as a part of your initial screen before making an offer. Once you see something that spark your interest, checking the documents on the zoning archive should take less than 5 mins. An investor I know had the same problem with zoning, hired a lawyer and was unsuccessful. However, she then just flipped it as a SFH and sold it as that. I don't know much about Airbnb rental requirement in Philadelphia but I wonder if that's an option to get around the duplex problem? Either rent both units on Airbnb, or I have read about people partnering up with their tenants to rent out the other unit.
A question I have on this topic is that a multi-unit I'm looking at in Philadelphia has RSA5. There's a document in the zoning archive back in 1947 for the property regarding use registration and permit as a duplex. The stamp said no registration was required for use as a 2 family housing and nothing has changed since then. I'm assuming that means the property is grandfathered in? Can someone confirm this please?
My husband and I just went trough the entire zoning process with a triplex in South Philly. Besides using a zoning attorney we were also very considered with the community needs. Even though the final decision is made by the zoning board, the community voting in favor of your project helps a lot.
Each zoning case is different, so if you need any help I can refer the attorney we used.
@Giang Nguyen Hi there. Newbie on this site. Did you ever find out the answer to your question above? I'm in the same situation. I'm thinking it would be grandfathered in....
"A question I have on this topic is that a multi-unit I'm looking at in Philadelphia has RSA5. There's a document in the zoning archive back in 1947 for the property regarding use registration and permit as a duplex. The stamp said no registration was required for use as a 2 family housing and nothing has changed since then. I'm assuming that means the property is grandfathered in? Can someone confirm this please?"
To be 100% sure you can get city certification at https://secure.phila.gov/PSC-Onlinev2/ and see the current use of the property. You should not assume anything in regards to the use, because it can change with the time. If you do not maintain your rental license city can easily change the use from a duplex to a single.
Also you can look up different city sources for additional information as:
I just purchased a property that is clearly a 3 family home. It is registered as RM-1, has 3 different apartments, with 3 different mailboxes, separate electrical etc. Apparently, I am still required to fill out an APPLICATION FOR ZONING / USE REGISTRATION PERMIT