Zoning question regarding acquiring a converted Duplex property

[David He]

Hi All,

My wife and I have read the Multi-family Millionaire book from Brandon and we became enamored with the idea of house-hacking. After several weeks of searching, we are in the process of purchasing our first multi-family unit. We are less a month away from closing and the inspection is  done but bur biggest concern is that the house had originally been a single property home and at some point, one of the owners had converted it to a duplex. 

We are not sure if the conversion had been legally carried out, as there have been no building permits pulled on the property since 2000.  And according to the state, the property is still listed as a single family home. We are worried that once we acquire the property, and rent it out, a disgruntled tenant could retaliate by reporting us to zoning, claiming that the conversion was illegal and we'd need to restore the unit to single family home or pay a fine and agree and cease renting it in the future.

I realize that this is an extreme case and is unlikely to happen but I just want to make sure that we fully cover our bases before make this purchase. If you have ever had a similar situation, or if you could shed some insight from a legal perspective, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

David

Thank you in advance

[John Underwood]

Greenville county is pretty easy going for the most part.

I would call the zoning department and ask them some generic questions without revealing the address for now and see what they say.

I also doubt a neighbor would know to even report this.

Find out the current zoning. Many properties downtown have a classification that can be a SFR or a duplex I believe.

If you are going to keep it and rent it then I doubt this will be an issue for you especially if you don't have to pull permits to do any major remodeling or repairs.