Anyone have experience splitting an up/down duplex with the city?

[Ian Martin]

I have the opportunity to purchase a home zoned as a duplex, but currently is laid out as a single family home. There are separate entrances, and it would be incredibly easy to reformat the floor plan to make this home an up/down duplex without doing too much to alter the current lay out.

Does anyone have experience with the city with this process? I've done it on a side by side duplex before that was purchased as a single parcel of land, but it already had separate addresses. That process was fairly straight forward and easy, so I'm hoping this is similar. The idea is to buy as is, then rehab and sell each unit individually. 

Just looking for confirmation. Thank you!

[Bill S.]

@Dorothy Ma in Denver when you split an existing legal side by side duplex they don't require an upgrage in separation. The assumption being that when it was constructed it was to code so no change in use to simply split in half. If you make a SFR into a duplex, they might require that. Another issue I ran into on a property was when I wanted to change the use (industrial to residential) I had to bring the current structure up to the new energy code. Think new windows and R-19 wall insulation, R-50 ceiling insulation. It's expensive to convert block and brick walls (R-6) to R-19. It killed the deal.