Government restrictions for basement renovation into living quart

[Brandon James]

Hey I'm Brandon. Living in the Washington DC area. Just recently bought a 2 family flat (with a potential unit in the basement) where I will live in the other one with my wife. I called DC business office for "Certification of Occupancy" since I need this in order to receive payments from housing help for my tenant and to become a business. The person in the DC office said that in the area, the government states that the property can not have basement living quarters. Is this true? If so, I'm highly pissed....I didn't know the government can restrict you from doing anything with the basement...this is one of the reasons why we bought it for potentially more money...please help! 

[Russell Brazil]

In DC the ceiling height in a basement needs to be 7 feet tall and you need 2 locations of egress out of the basement in order to have a legal basement unit apartment. However if it is already a 2 unit property, there may be zoning restrictions preventing it from going to a 3 unit property.