Making a house into a duplex or triplex?

[Robert Biggerstaff]

Have you ever taken a house made it into a duplex or triplex? What about having a detached garage converted to an apartment or a small house? What about moving a large garden shed on the property finishing it out and then renting it out? In my city at 400 square-foot garden shed finished out as an efficiency apartment would get for $50-$600 a month.

[Frank Chin]

@Robert Biggerstaff

In my area, NYC and vicinity, they have zoning requirements, and they are difficult to change. Generally, if it's a single family zone, you will not get an approval for a variance for a duplex, or triplex. 

I had that problem. The house I bought was a duplex, but the builder had an extra apartment built into it, so I bought it that way. Code inspectors were alerted, and declared the added unit illegal. Was issued a citation to have it removed.

I looked into legalizing it, but the area was zoned as a 2 family zone. Checked into getting a variance, but couldn't. The first problem is the local home owners association, its president attends all zoning board meetings, and he opposes all zoning variances. The law requires variances to have public hearings and notifying all neighbors within 200 feet.

The second problem is duplexes are built to a different standard than a triplex. I had to install fire escapes, enclose furnace rooms in cement walls among other things even if a zoning variance is granted.

I had a SFR rental in another town. People have rented rooms turning SFR's into rooming houses, so forget about variances. But the problem is a parking, traffic, and crowded schools. The issue is "are we going to allow duplexes and have to built new schools for the added students". But the usual issue is parking. A duplex rental in the area requires 4 parking spaces conservatively, but people with rooming houses and tenants take up 6 to 8 parking spaces per house. I had a landlord down the street renting rooms, and my SFR tenant constantly complains about the rooming house tenants taking his parking space in front, and if they don't stop, will call the town to file a complaint.

There's four duplexes built on the block I bought mine, all with an added unit, with others including mine cited. So one of the neighbors combined a the 2BR/1ba apartment, with the 1BR/1Ba illegal apartment, converting it into a 3BR/2Ba with a large kitchen, collecting rent equal to 2 separate apartments.

In my case, I converted the illegal apartment into an office, with it's own bathroom, kept most of the kitchen calling it an entertainment bar and it was approved that way. My daughter is using it as her apartment, which has a small refrigerator. The only thing lacking is a cooking stove.