Joining Basement To Create A Duplex - NJ

[Paul Jurczyk]

Hey everyone!

Was hoping to get some advice on this house I just purchased. I'm considering joining the 1st floor of the house with the basement and calling it a duplex. I know that in NJ you can't technically have a bedroom in the basement, but this would basically be an extra room that they cld use as whatever (but probably wld end up using as a bedroom). So that's legal right?

From my understanding, there is no legal issue here so far. Correct me if I'm wrong please, but I believe in NJ you can rent out the basement along with the 1st floor apartment without any issues. The issue comes when you try to make the basement a separate apartment. However, I'm also considering redoing the bathroom down there.

Currently, there is a sink and toilet in the basement, but I also want to add a shower. This I hear may be an issue... From my understanding, you can't have a shower in the basement when you sell the house. So does that mean that I also shouldn't have one in there when I'm renting it out? Can I rent it out with the shower and then maybe seal up the bathroom altogether before selling it (and then have the new owner open it back up again)? If I did that, would it be considered illegal and potentially give me issues if I ever had to evict the tenant living there?

Any info/advice/past experiences on this would be very helpful and much appreciated!

[Andrew B.]

Then it sounds like you want to make the basement apart of the first floor apartment, thus adding to the existing "living space" or "square footage." In that caser, you wouldn't worry about zoning, but my statement on codes still stands. Give your municipality a call and explain what you are trying to do. They should point you to a written copy of your codes or someone you can talk to. Your local codes determine what needs to be done to make that living space.