All Forum Posts by: Jacob Fraczek

I'm on rural Route 16 in central Carroll County, NH. We have no zoning.

I have a tenant-at-will renting on a very comprehensive lease from me, for a very reasonable small amount, for a kind of work-in-progress fixer-upper studio apartment that meets tenant rights.  He had nowhere to go so I guess we kind of mutually helped each other out.

I also have an adjacent ~0.92 acre vacant lot with a defined property line, the part sitting on the highway that's mostly cleared is ~0.39 acres. I pay about $1k a year in taxes on it.  It has relatively high traffic, especially in the summer, bike week and weekends. It has no utilities, but direct pole access and a pre-planned well location. My tenant wants to open a food truck selling family caught lobster-based items and some other specialty items to be determined.  I read normally they need to get some $45+/month liability insurance because customers could potentially sue the landowner.

He came to me with this, I don't really want to deal with it, but if I could make money to cover taxes and more, that's nice.  He'd also have a higher income to pay me more rent as I fix up the place.  On one hand he could bring his truck anywhere, on the other it has to be worth it for me to do it and I guess he'll also be living here, so it's more worth it to him, but I'm not sure.

I've done rental leases and hunting leases, but not anything like this.  I have so many questions...

I also read that, at least in the city, they do $450/month or a percentage? My brother says even $450/month is CHEAP even for out here.  What's the proper rent amount for this?  Should I have a lease that doesn't lease the land, but just gives him a spot and other stipulations? I want to maintain most trees and such.  If he wants utility hookup, I think I'd have him do it at cost, but then should he pay his own electric, or should I charge more for that case?  I could actually wire up the outdoor electric and then charge him more, I have those skills and it's legal in NH for owner to do electrical.

Any advice is appreciated, thinking of reaching out to a lawyer if he's serious on this.

Not sure if I should bring back old threads, but I just wanted to share my solution on this... So almost 3 years ago, I ended up having a family "contractor" put in 2 egresses for me, basically worked with him to do it, get an excavator, cut holes, put windows in.  The existing owner allowed it, they "signed off" on it, but I paid the $4-6k for it. I guess my only option if they didn't go through with it might have been a mechanic's lean. The bank came back and gave me a maximum they'd allow me to purchase it for and thankfully the sellers agreed, despite several curve-balls, probably because I didn't ask for several inspections and I used "their" realtor.  So it was worth it to them for the full %.  Thankfully the sellers were very nice.  I also inherited some "issues" so it was kind of a this for that kinda thing.

That bank's saying they won't do it. I looked into FHA Escrow for repairs, and it says you pretty much can't do it for anything important, including the foundation, roof, structure or utilities. I don't even know why they have that stupid thing there if it's pretty much worthless. Is it normal escrow you're talking about? Also I found out, if I can even do escrow, I need 2 contractor quotes. Grrr.

Unfortunately seller financing is off the table as of this morning, but my banker suggested that we have the seller hire my contractor. Then my contractor puts a Mechanic's lien on the house that is due at closing. He would only expect payment at closing and then that money would go to him out of the money I pay the seller. But I'm wondering if there's a better alternative then actually filing a Lien. Like... just a contract? Would a P&S agreement that the seller pays the contractor out of my money at closing be enough? The seller seems like they are "for" this method, but the "Lien" part is scary though. It just ensures that the contractor gets paid either way. And, if I for example gave him upfront fees, he would reimburse the difference based on that money.

Ohhh sorry you meant... the owner temporarily finances the house to me, I then add the egress. Then take out a loan to pay them the rest?

Good idea. Do you mean short-term buyer financing? Yeah the seller really wants to work with me, but I guess the realtor posed to the owner that "she is unable to finance", but I'm not familiar with short-term financing. I guess I need to start reading.

Yeah I don't want to pay $5k-$10k and then have the deal fall through. Ugh.

Thanks

Thanks for the input.

The insurance company is satisfied and has no issue with it, I contacted them twice. They told me if the house burns down, the house is covered. But if someone is hurt in that room because of a fire, I am liable outside my insurance. This is my main issue.

I contacted the state fire marshal and they said the local file department should be able to provide me something in writing that says it's illegal no matter who they sell the building to. So I'm working on that.

I've basically confirmed with my banker/legal that this is a clear violation of FHA. For ANYTHING to be considered a bedroom at all, in 100% of the cases it needs an egress/INGRESS. And the banker said no underwriter would finance any house that way. So the only way would maybe be if the buyer pays cash.

However, there is no zoning in the town. So, I'm concerned the seller may violate our agreement just to avoid putting egress/ingress windows in as they think they can declare it as a single family home, even though it's 3 units with 3 bathrooms and 3 kitchens. I'm into this property for a few thousand in renovation costs that I took on to pass FHA, so it would suck.

Apologies in advance, but I searched on this topic and can't find my exact case. I'm buying a multi-family home in a town in NH with no zoning. It was built in 1981. NH goes by national fire code I believe. It's an odd setup with 3 points of entry into the basement, but no windows, and I'm looking to find alternatives to an egress fire escape in the bedrooms.

There are 2 already finished units in the basement. Each with 1 bedroom, 1 on each side. I'm not seeking to do any permitted renovations there.

• 1st unit has a walk out door below grade w/2 windows + a door that leads to a shared bulkhead space.
• 2nd unit has a traditional basement stairwell + a door that leads to a shared bulkhead space.

I think the rooms still have to meet the R310.1 fire code in order to be properly rented. Right now they seem illegal, but the town has no zoning, nor does it seem to care, but the town taxes based off a multi-family and seems to know about these apartments. My homeowner's insurance said they'd cover the property in any event (but not my liability). The bank might allow the financing...

But what I want to know is... since each apartment already has 2 entrances and exits, if I could put a second door on each bedroom, and create an emergency escape route that goes towards 1 of the 2 outside exits? It wouldn't be directly to the outside, but it would be an alternative exit. I'm trying to figure out if this would be enough to provide legal liability coverage?

Thanks