If you have a single family house, can you rent units separately?

[Lance Hendrickson]

If you have a single family house zoned R1, can you rent out the units separately? This is a two-story house with 2bed 1bath and kitchen on both levels. My question would be, if I were to split units with a door would I be able to rent it out as two separate units? Not looking to sell as a duplex, this would be for a rental purpose only. Thanks!

[Julie McCoy]

I'm no expert, I'd recommend researching the local laws, but I can't imagine why you couldn't do that.  You may want to use caution in your verbiage (e.g. "private entrance" vs. referring to it as its own unit) but if you can legally rent a room in your home (to a roommate), I see no reason you couldn't rent the whole floor.  No law says you have to share space or interact.

As you noted, selling as a duplex would be a different matter entirely :)