Number of tenants vs. Square footage

[Julie Clark]

Hello,

I am looking to determine thoughts, knowledge, etc. on how much space is reasonable to the number of tenants occupying a rental property. Firstly if someone is aware of a law specific to Georgia about this topic please let me know and also please provide any links to government sites that you know of I am happy to read up on the matter. 
The background is this. I have a guest house that my sister is currently occupying but will be moving out in the next few months. I would like to rent this out and have someone who may be interested. The issue I face is the guest house is fairly small but fine for a single individual. This interested party is a single mom with a toddler. I want to address space/safety concerns before beginning any kind of screening process. 
The guest house is set up as a studio apartment. The square footage is about 250sq/ft. There is also an attached storage closet that is about 140sq/ft. The guest house is set up with a kitchen, bathroom, and then a large living room area that would double as a bedroom. There is a large closet off the living room that I would imagine some would look at to be a very small bedroom however, this room does not have any windows so I do not believe it can be used as a bedroom. 

The main question here is this. Would renting this space to a single mother and her toddler pose any safety / space issues legally? If there is no legal problem and she tours the space and finds it adequate then I would be happy to rent but I want to do my due diligence in determining if this space is acceptable to rent to more than just a single individual. If everything is fine on the legal / rental side of things I would stipulate in the lease that the large living room closet would not be allowed to be used as a bedroom and would need to be utilized in some other capacity i.e walk in closet.

I understand no one can give legal advice on this site but guidance or websites to look over would be a huge help! Thank you in advance.

[Greg Scott]

Generally, two persons per bedroom is the norm across the country.  We have had people try to move into a one bedroom with two adults and a baby.  However, "person" is a human of any age, so we had to deny them the unit.

A true bedroom must have the ability to egress aside from the door, so the closet would not qualify.  You would add value to the unit if you could somehow install a window.

[Julie Clark]

Thank you I appreciate that info on number of people. At this time remodels are not in the cards but i have looked at possibilities for the future.

[Greg M.]

This is going to be state and/or city specific. I'd contact the code enforcement department for your city as they would be able to give you the current correct answer.

Typically it is around 150sf for first person and 70sf-100sf for each additional person. This is habitable space, not a closet. 

HUD used to give a guideline of 2 per bedroom +1, but that was a guideline and not the law. Many places followed this with some excluding babies from the calculation. Other places use sf per person.

Be extremely careful about denying due to the baby. That's asking to be sued.