Zoning discrepancy RSA-5

[Robert Carroll]

My father has owned a property in Juniata for many years. I'll be 50 years old in December and ever since I was a young boy I remember it being a two family duplex. I'm currently in the process of purchasing the property and the realtor indicated it was zoned as RSA-5-Single family use. I looked in the city Atlas system and it is indeed showing as such. I did a little research and I found a zoning permit from 1962 seeking a two family variance. The variance was approved in 1964. Would this be documented anywhere or would it still show up in the Atlas as an RSA-5 zoning? 

[Yuriy Skripnichenko]

@Robert Carroll

The seller's should provide you with city certification that will state most recent use of the property and list all violations if any. Additional to the cert you need to have a copy of most recent rental license.

If you have a rental license for 2-unit for this property that was active within 3 years and city cert stating that the use is a 2 family dwelling you are good. However, if there is no rental license you will most likely have to go through the variance process which is very long and no guarantee that it would be granted. 

You car read about it here (note it is a 2 years old post and some rules have changed): https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/742/topics/511026-how-i-got-variance-for-duplex-in-philadelphia-aka-re-zoning 

Cheers, 

Yuriy