Finishing and legalizing a basement
Rental Property Investor · Union City NJ · Member since 2019 · 46 posts · 3 votes
Has anyone been successful at finishing a basement and turning it into a legal or illegal apartment to rent out as extra income?
As @Frank Chin pointed out having a separate basement is a common layout for many 2 family properties.
Converting the basement to a legal unit is possible, but there are many factors which will determine whether or not it is possible zoning and code wise. In NYC when you go from a 2 family to a 3 family property, you will need to comply with Multiple Dwelling Law which is an added layer of requirements for Residential buildings 3 families and above. In addition to the additional MDL building requirements, there are many existing condition factors which can make or break a conversion such as this. Just to name a few, Zoning, Basement or cellar, ceiling heights, property dimensions etc.
Your best bet would be to hire an Architect licensed in your state to prepare a feasibility report based upon your specific property. Once you have this, you will better understand what the conversion involves. Then you can reach out to contractors for ball park prices to evaluate the construction cost. Always remember to take into account the time required to design, file drawings, construct, and subsequent sign-offs for your financial calculations.
Best of Luck,
Alex Furini, RA
@Mark F. that's a huge plus, you don't even need an architect, you can find a contractor now and get it started. My contractor just started last night, he's not even using the plans I had drawn up from my architect and it cut my costs by 30k. They expect to be finished within 30 days and then I can find a renter. Let me know if you have any questions.
@Elizabeth Lin Well I was wrong lol zoned 2 family not 3. So I'm looking into doing one whole unit basement and 1st floor. It has to he inspected anyway by the building and fire inspector so I'll keep you updated.
Good luck! Lmk how it goes. That's pretty good though saving 30k by not having to use the architect.
@Mark F. @Frank Chin Hi, was wondering if either of you have dealt with this, I have an issue that came up recently after my renovation was complete that I'm afraid could cause me a huge problem. My two family home is actually zoned for 2-4 units so when my contractor didn't end up using my plans from the architect to save money, I don't think the apartment was built up to code because we didn't have any inspections. So now it probably won't appraise because they will see this when they see the new unit with no permits and inspections. I will need to have my architect come back to evaluate what was done and try to draw up new plans to bring this place up to code, hopefully without tearing it down. This is a pretty sticky situation. Do either of you have any experience with this? This is my fault for not having this built correctly and I'm afraid of what this has caused.
@Mark F. @Frank Chin Hi, was wondering if either of you have dealt with this, I have an issue that came up recently after my renovation was complete that I'm afraid could cause me a huge problem. My two family home is actually zoned for 2-4 units so when my contractor didn't end up using my plans from the architect to save money, I don't think the apartment was built up to code because we didn't have any inspections. So now it probably won't appraise because they will see this when they see the new unit with no permits and inspections. I will need to have my architect come back to evaluate what was done and try to draw up new plans to bring this place up to code, hopefully without tearing it down. This is a pretty sticky situation. Do either of you have any experience with this? This is my fault for not having this built correctly and I'm afraid of what this has caused.
Sorry if this is a long post repeating things I mentioned previously, not realizing it's an old discussion, from several months ago. I had no time to revise the entire post.
I had a duplex picked up at a foreclosure auction, discovered by the city when they inspected, found an illegal unit built in the basement. I was cited and the violation was "basement not in accordance to plans".
To start with, it's 2 family zone, and I was dumb enough to have 3 mailboxes on front. Had the extra one installed when the original one was too small. The city came because the owner 2 doors down had a dispute with another neighbor, that neighbor file a complaint, he was cited for an illegal basement unit, and the inspector decided to check for others. My unit was not rented out, so I only got a summons. The city locked out the tenant of the other owner, with notices and yellow tape to stay out.
I learned from this two things. Don't use mail boxes, but mail slots in the front that many other do to avoid such problems. Second thing is don't open doors to anyone you don't know and let them in. The building next to me had a similar unit, was not cited, because he wasn't home.
I hired an expeditor, who's also an architect, and proposed filing plans to conform to code. The unit was converted to an office. This means keeping the partition walls, and removing the kitchen appliances, converting it to a private bar. The bathtub had to be removed. Originally, the city rejected the idea of even filing plans. because it was supposed to be a vacant basement, must be demolished first. It was appealed and the rejection was overruled. We had plans drawn, keeping the existing walls, and the changes.
We had to do an inspection upon completion. Now, I'm told procedures are slightly different when you file plans, and then build something. It's different when it's already there, and you file plans retroactively to conform. My expeditor tells me he had to file for permits noting this, and the permits runs more and involved fines. We had an inspection done and the addition was approved. Now when I check building department records, they have a record of the violation, record of the plans filed, and record of the inspection and record of the city removing the violation.
Now, if you feel the contractor did not build in accordance to plans, call your architect in to check it out. If it's different, and still conforms to regulation, draft new plans and refile, and have the inspection. When I did it some years back, the plans and filing ran $1,400. Expeditor fees were $1,500, but he saved me $30K, from total demolition, to rebuild from scratch.
I assume you have plans filed. If not, you'll have to file plans, have your architect or expeditor file it retroactively, make any necessary changes, have an inspection done.
My dad had commercial property and rehabbed the whole building, after filing plans. I had work done and had city inspections done. Its not new to me. The only difference was when I had the incident with the citation, the entire building inspection crew in my borough was arrested for bribe taking, and I had to hire private building inspectors to certify with the city having the right to reinspect. I passed the inspection, and currently city records showed no outstanding violations.
The one thing I learned from my dad is use contractors that had experience with building inspections. His contractor did not. Building and plumbing inspections are done by different inspectors separately. Apparently he had plumbing inspectors come after the pipes were installed and walls installed over it. He had to rip the walls out to do the inspection. So the contractor has to schedule and do the work according to the sequencing of inspections.
Now, this is for New York City. It might be different where you are.
@Frank Chin WOW I can't believe you went through all of that, what huge ordeal. I really hope I won't have to tear everything down, I feel so misled by my contractor, it's totally my fault for not having this done properly and just trusting someone I don't know. At least my place is legally zoned to have a 3rd unit and it already came with 3 mailboxes, but it's really just a finished basement now that's not built to code so this could be really expensive to fix, especially after paying for a full renovation. Thanks for the input, I'll see if this is fixable or not, and maybe not worth the added stress and money now.