I have a rental that has a very large non-conforming bedroom in the basement. The window in the room is too high off the ground for the room to be considered a bedroom. How do I respond when I have potential tenants looking at the property that comment they will be using it as a bedroom? The general rule is 2 people per bedroom plus 1, so they won't be over the maximum number of people, but can they use a nonconforming room as a bedroom? --173.17.xxx.xxx

--50.129.xxx.xxx

Best to check your local ordances and your insurance company. Doubt they will be ok with it being used as a bedroom. I have very explicit language in my rental agreement that the tenants are not to use the basement as a bedroom. When I was putting my agreement together, my attorney thought it was definitely a good idea to exclude the basement as a bedroom. There was an incident in our area where the house caught on fire and the worst did happen. --174.24.xxx.xxx

You rent space,let them use it as they see fit.I had a building inspector who said my buyer couldn't use a room as a bedroom because there was another bedroom off of it.I had to get the buyer to move a bed out of the room in order to get a permit finalized.The code officer told my buyer he would be back to check in the future,I told him to bring a warrant to get in,never heard another thing about it. --67.252.xx.xx

There are many ways to install a larger window well and make it appear as if the window are is larger. However, as per code, does the window openning have enough area to accomdate the room? If not, think of doing something about the window. Just because it's too high, doesn't make it non-confomring -- it's the open area. --173.55.xxx.xxx

If there was a fire no matter how caused then the insurance company may not provide coverage as the insurance company was not informed about a non-conforming issue. In the province of Ontario there has already been 10 deaths in the illegal basement apartments in houses. There needs to be a fire wall between the heating area and where people live. Also required is a large enough window to escape in case of a fire. There should be two entrances to the basement. Unless one wants to gamble with life and with ones economic future then one should not go there. Also there may a large fine or jail time should there be a loss of life. Last year there was a fire in one of clothes dryers in the apartment building as one of tenants put something combustable in the clothes dryer. The fire alarm went off. There are sprinklers above the dryers which did not go off as the fire was only confined to inside the clothes dryer. There is 90 minute fire door in the laundry room and block walls between the apartments and hallways. The outcome was the commercial stacked clothes dryer was a write off as the fire department came over right away but thats it. In Ontario the authorities are reluctant to close down the illegal basement apartments and the illegal ramshackle apartments in houses which have fire wall between the rental suites or any type of fire protection at all. The fire person expects the legal owners of apartment buildings to maintain fire alarms, stand pipe hoses and have operating fire extinguishers where down the road it is a different matter. No one can predict what a irate tenant can do. --74.220.xxx.xxx

Don't call it a bedroom, call it a "bonus room" and recommend it for an office, sewing room, family room, etc. I'd put in the lease that it is not to be used as a bedroom since it does not have the proper egress in case of emergency. Then, how the tenant uses it is up to them. Back years ago, people used those as bedrooms all the time. --67.43.xxx.xxx

PS - For Brad, have you thought about building some custom built cabinets/closets/ armoire? Then people maybe instead of being aghast at a bedroom with no closet, would say, "what a beautiful cabinet." --76.170.xxx.xxx

If you don't want to do that, can you block off access to the basement? --213.220.xxx.xxx

But I am still appalled that previous owners were told it was a 4- BR when two of the BRs were nonconforming. But they did h,ave nice closets! --76.17.xx.xx

Other solutions sometimes are to move walls around so that the exit door is also within the bedroom. Sometimes you are extending the bedroom, and no so much moving walls but adding what amounts to a hallway to the bedroom. It can be done tastefully but I can move walls with ease and hardly any cost. That makes a big difference in planning. --173.79.xx.xxx

I did the build a closet thing in an old house. it was a rectangular room, used the short wall to make it a little more square. used hard wood ( no mdf ) bought on sale at at Ikea, the as is section.it was much cheaper than HD , and polyurethaned like crazy. It turned into a feature. do not have a problem renting that apartment aNYMORE --99.20.xx.xxx

Oh and my kids used to sleep in the basement as teens. The windows were considered too high and too small for egress but they sure managed to get out of them whenever they wanted to sneak out!!! And get back in too...they wondered how I knew...SNEAKER PRINTS SLIDING DOWN THE WALL was a big clue!!! --173.16.xx.xxx

HUD standards along with NFPA code, a sleeping room must have 24X24 window for fireman and tanks, a closet, light switch and 2 electrical outlets or 3 outlets, no gas burning appliance next to the sleeping room - see closet, basements often illegal for the windows and gas burning water heater or furnace - below grade is mechanical equipment room and office space. --76.241.xxx.xxx

What Barb said. Don't call it a bedroom. It is simply a recreational room in the basement. Make it clear that your state codes do not permit usage as a bedroom in the Lease. --65.55.xx.xxx

i would try to get them a regular window.i lived in a basement with normal windows.worked fine.u can get a closet built for the bedroom if u need one.i got a couple of built in closets 2 ft wide with 6 ft of hang up space and wheels on the bottom.work fine indeed. --173.162.xxx.xxx