New Member and ADU permit question?

[Meron Kidane]

Hello BiggerPockets community! My name is Meron and I’m a new member to the community. I’m based out of Seattle, WA and I’m really excited to begin my journey as a real estate investor. I don’t have much experience with real estate investing, but after reading “The Book on Rental Property Investing” I have been more motivated to learn as much as possible and begin on this investing adventure! After attending a webinar with Brandon, I kept hearing and reading the chat talk about how great a resource the BiggerPockets forums can be in helping you throughout the whole process. So I’m going to start interacting as much as I can for any information or resources!

That being said, one of the first things I want to accomplish is turning my finished basement into an ADU for additional rental income (still trying to determine whether for a long term renter or short term renters, ie AirBnB). I already have a full bathroom down there and a "bonus" room, and I'm looking to add a small kitchenette. Would any of you happen to know how, or if, I need to get that permitted? If so, can a contractor get that permit if they are hired to install the kitchenette? I've gone to the city of Seattle's website to see what kind of permit (if any) I would need but was so confused on where to go to actually find something that told me simply "YES or NO".

So if there are any folks here that are familiar with Seattle, any help would be greatly appreciated! Like I said at the beginning, I really look forward to interacting with the community and learn from you all! Thank you in advance!

P.s. If there are any good recommendations on contractors or person that can put in a small kitchenette, that would be nice as well. :)

[Michael Haas]

@Meron Kidane welcome to BP, and way to go taking the first step towards turning your basement into a rental unit. We've lived in 4 homes in Seattle, and always built out and rented out the basement as an ADU if that was an option.

Basement ADU's are legal in Seattle, however the city estimates that as many as 85% or more of the basement units currently rented out are not legal, aka were built without permits. Moving walls, plumbing, or electrical will always require a permit, so this project 100% requires one. Whether you get one or not is up to you, although of course there are fines and repercussions should you chose to do the work without permits. One thing worth noting - the main method in Seattle for code compliance is neighbor complaints, so its typically a neighbor, not the city itself, that flags unpermitted units.

If you're just doing a wet bar (aka no stove, just a sink, microwave, fridge and hot plate) you can get an over the counter, or STFI (subject to field inspection) permit in under a week. 

If you want a full, legal ADU, this will require a full permit review. That means architectural and structural "as-built" drawings, a 8-12 week wait for permits before starting work (and that's a minimum, longer if you have plan revisions), separate heat source for the basement unit, separate electrical panel for the basement unit, and a handful of other odds and ends.

Happy to share more if you have other questions - feel free to message me. Cheers!