Renting a zoned "single family home" to multiple unrelated students

[Gary Fraser-Lee]

I am looking at purchasing a single family home (4 bedrooms) near a local university.    It is zoned specifically "Single Family Home"   According to the zoning ordinance this means :   

Family means a person living alone in a single dwelling unit or two or more persons whose domestic relationship is of a continuing, nontransient character and who reside together as a single housekeeping unit in one dwelling unit. "Family" does not include a collective number of individuals occupying a motel, fraternity, sorority, society, club, boarding or lodging house, or any other collective number of individuals whose domestic relationship is of a transient or seasonal nature.

Should I be concerned about possibly renting to 4 unrelated students...  It seems to me this is a common occurance...   but legally I could get called out on this???

[Colleen F.]

Check the local zoning , this might not be all there is, you may fall under an area where the number of unrelated individuals living together is limited.  In some areas there is a specific ordinance prohibiting greater then x number of unrelated people living together.  In such areas this is targeted to control student rentals to a certain number of students. However these ordinances often use a reasonable number that your rental can accommodate but would not allow say a fraternity.  Check with the town and also look at the university off campus housing site to see if there is anything you might want to be aware of.  We have other student targeted laws in our area that it is good to know about before you are a landlord.