"Personal Use" of a property owned by your IRA or Solo-401k

[Sam Leon]

I read that with an sdira or solo-401k you cannot have any part of a property owned by the fund be for personal use, can't live in it, can't let your uncle from Hawaii crash in it for a week etc.

What about this scenerio.

A duplex property with a detached garage. Garage was converted to a studio illegally by previous owner for rental, city caught him and now has a stiff fine and lien. I am considering this property and know I must remove all the illegal crap and restore it to a garage.

Can I rent the duplex out to two tenants and keep the garage for storage purposes?

Not storing boxes, files, and personal personal stuff, but power tools, hurricane panels for the duplex, extra lumber, lawn mower, ladders etc...are those "personal" items or items that helps maintain the property and thus not personal?

What is the definition of personal use?

Or is it based on ownership of those stored items? Example if I bought a bunch of tiles using the money in the funds for a flooring repair, then its owned by the fund and non personal and I can use that space to store those tiles for later use. If I put my own lawn mower in there since I had it ten years ago, then it is personal use?

To further the lawn mower point, I understand I can't service the property myself. But if I put the lawn mower there in the garage, and tell a neighbor's kid to use it every month to mow the duplex's lawn and I pay him $30 each time out of the fund, is that okay, or is the loaning of a personal tool to a service to complete a job for the sdira or solo-401k owned property a bad idea since the job was completely with the aid of a non cash contribution?