Safety of Steep Basement Stairs

[Joseph Luma]

I purchased a property that has an awkward basement entrance from the side due to a small addition at one point.  Unfortunately I overlooked this as an out of state purchase.  My contractor built these Jefferson stairs to provide more of a landing up top, it was just a single step before, but I have concerns regarding the safety for a tenant.  The laundry hookups are in the basement so they’d have to use them somewhat frequently. Would you find a way to bring the hookups out of the basement and just padlock the basement to prevent tenant access or just leave as is?

[James Mc Ree]

Those appear more to be a pair of ladders side-by-side than stairs. I suspect they do not meet building code which will make you liable for an accident. I also don't see how anyone could carry a laundry basket up/down them.

I would try to replace them with normal stairs, but am guessing that is not possible or your contractor would have done that. Can you install exterior access with a separate entrance? It won't be ideal, but may give effective access to the space. You might be able to combine a new exterior entrance with a VersaLift in that space, or something similar, so a tenant won't have to carry laundry around the house (in the mud/snow, blowing blizzard, uphill both ways, etc).

Otherwise, I'd block access, but then you have a risk something is going wrong in the basement and no one can see it.