Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Limits on rentals with or without absentee landlords

[Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Sort of depends on local (municipal) zoning and health codes.  Most places, 
there are no restrictions on (and no enforcement options preventing) renting 
out a room or two to relatives or friends.  Not even if such rooms include a 
“private” bathroom (since there are usually no limits on how many bathrooms you 
can have in your house).  However …

There are a lot of zoning, public health, and building code definitions and 
rules about "accessory apartments” serving as “separate dwelling units".  How 
such apartments get defined and identified can be fuzzy, but it usually has 
something to do with a combo of legal means of egress, sanitation amenity 
(“bathroom"), cooking facility (“kitchen”), and presence of recognizable 
"bedrooms".  Some or many zoning districts prohibit accessory apartments.  
Others do not care about the distinction between owned and rented dwelling 
units, but count all identifiable units as falling within an upper limit of 
dwelling units per acre or lot size (a “density" measure).

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Thanks, RPD
617.460.4549

On July 7, 2023 at 9:14:28 AM, Sharon Miller (slmiller.325 [at] gmail.com) 
wrote:

I think “mother-in-law” basement apartments, or apartments added on to an 
existing home, do not count towards the 25%. These are more like renting out a 
room. And you are right - they can make a mortgage more affordable to the 
homeowner while also providing homes to people who can’t afford to buy. It’s a 
win-win I think. Sharon Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 7, 2023, at 4:25 AM, Ross 
Andrew Simons wrote: > > Very interesting. > > Do you think walk-out basement 
/ in-law style apartments would be a way of > getting around that?