Converting 3 family to 4 family home Philadelphia

[Alyse Oz]

I have a 3 family home in West Philadelphia (it is current vacant and needs to be rehabbed).  While trying to get estimates from contractors, I had one contractor tell me that I should split the first floor apartment into 2 separate apartments and have 4 units in the building instead of 3.  It does have 2 separate entrances from the outside.

It is currently like this:

1st floor - 3 bedroom apt (but very strange layout)

2nd floor - 2 bedroom apt

3rd floor - 1 bedroom apt.

He says I should change the 1st floor so that it has two 1 bedroom apartments.  It would mean adding an additional bathroom and kitchen, but getting a lot more rent.

I'm worried about the additional city requirements though. It is zoned RM1, the contractor says i can easily change from 3 unit to 4 unit multifamily without a lot of headaches (sprinkler etc).  Is this true?  The property currently has fire-escapes, does anyone know if i have to pay an outside company to certify it, etc. for 3 unit properties vs 4.

[Ryan D.]

This is hard to say without the address but if its zoned RM-1, for the first 1440sqft of your lot size you're required to have a minimum of 360sqft lot per unit. So 1440/360 = 4 units permitted. So if your lot size is equal to greater than 1440sqft, you're able to do 4 units by right. If your lot is bigger than 1440sqft, it can support 4+ units. For the 5th unit and beyond the minimum lot size increases to 480sqft per unit. I believe once you hit 4 units you are considered commercial so you'll need to have a separate electric meter for the building.