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!