All Forum Posts by: Jonah Geil

 ::facepalm::

Thanks @Mathew Wray, @Account Closed, and everyone! Great feedback. Yeah I had just heard about the "Map App" that lays out some of the potential upcoming changes.

In the end, we decided to pass on the property - there were a few other things that didn't work out according to our math, and we didn't want to take the risk as there seems to be plenty out there on the market that is permited better!

Last question as I read through all these awesome responses: What does RE stand for in this sentence? "if you're planning on developing RE..." From Dani's response.

Cheers,

Jonah

@Seth Borman great question. At first, I was made aware of their illegality by a city dev services person I talked to on the phone about the property. On PortlandMaps the property reads:

Description SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL Bathrooms TWO FULL BATHS

 It is zoned R5 with the (a) overlay. I'm not sure how to check if it was legal when installed, maybe someone has a quick answer for that? (Again, very new to all this). I know I can see permits on PortlandMaps, and I don't see anything that would signify a permit for restructuring a SFR into a triplex.

I've seen many other triplexes and duplexes within the R5a zone, but they are correctly named as such in the Description field on PortlandMaps, leading me to believe they were permitted correctly with the city.

Any help is appreciated! Again, the original question is how common this is in Portland and/or if there are things to be worried about. The followup question is how can I check if a duplex/triplex was permitted correctly with the city, apart from seeing the correct name in the Description field.

Thanks!

Hi - NEWBIE ALERT!

We're first-time investment property buyers. We're looking at buying a house that has been running as 3 units for many years. However, it's zoned R5 for a single dwelling. I'm aware that code violations with the city are a complaint-driven system, and the city won't necessarily just drive by and give us a code violation - it usually comes from neighbors.

First question - how common is this?? I understand there are plenty of owners who will turn a single-fam dwelling into 2 or more units without the proper permits or zoning since that is expensive and raises taxes. Should I not worry too much about it?

My worry is that I find it hard to sell the property down the road, or that I do get a code violation at some point. Also seems like because of the illegal units that it would be hard to do anything else (like add an ADU) in the future development-wise without getting a code violation for previous stuff.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance!