All Forum Posts by: Phil Janasac

My fiancee and I are in the process of purchasing a 2-flat with a coach house in the back of the lot on the north side of Chicago. Our lender requested a zoning certificate for the appraisal and discovered there are only 2 dwelling units (from one building) noted on the certificate; which technically makes the coach house illegal even though I was always under the impression that coach houses (outside of zoning law) were considered “legal non-conforming” structures. 

We were planning on renting this coach house out, or possibly living in it ourselves, but now I’m worried about the liability that comes with doing that; our realtor and real estate attorney don’t seem to be concerned at all since they’re pushing us to buy this as a 2-unit property, which would make the legality of the coachhouse irrelevant in a sense. There was a note on the zoning cert that said “DOW 12-3-54 - DEPT RECORDS REFLECT ONE BLDG WITH TWO UNITS” - which I think is from Department of Water. This doesn't give me confidence that we can get the city to recognize a second building, even though a basic inspection would determine so. 

This has been a lot to process. We have been waiting months to get this short sale approved and now we are being hit with the fact that the coach house isn’t legal. Personally, I feel like the sellers, and the listing agent, grossly mis-represented this property by not disclosing this, and justified it because they were selling it as a 2-unit, even though they had rented out this coach house to a family for the last 13 years. 

What can be done to get the city to recognize it as a legal dwelling, or that it even exists? Would we have to get it re-zoned? Is it still worth proceeding with this purchase? The coach house is in decent shape and ready to rent, but we would want to upgrade it in a few years. 

As always, appreciate the thoughts and feedback.

@Matthew Olszak - there is a stairway from the back deck of the first floor apt, down to the basement stairs, so there would be some protection from the elements. After re-reading your first post, there definitely are drop ceiling tiles in most of the basement which I didn't measure past. So the ceiling height may be a few extra inches higher, we'll have to check on our next visit. Not sure if the floor is raised though. Affordability aside, I hate the idea of ripping everything out and digging down. 

@Joe H. - thanks for clarifying. Clearly it's not worth the legal or financial risk. 

Taking everything into consideration it seems like the best choice is to keep things as they are until we can afford to do everything right. I have a good friend who is interested in renting it for cheap anyway so at least we'll get some income from it. 

@Matthew Olszak

You've made some really great points overall, Matthew. Thank you. We haven't made any final decisions as of yet, but that's definitely a risk worth worrying about. Spending 25-50k to outfit the basement legally just isn't in the cards for a few years. I'd say the priority is that we figure out the smartest way we could access the basement without going outside, and in a way so that we wouldn't have to redo the stairs if we decide to "legalize" the basement a few years down the road. 

Greatly appreciate all the responses here! Seeing as how I probably wouldn't be able to sell the property with the added 2beds + 1 bath without digging down -- a cost we're not willing to sink into this property yet -- it seems like just adding the stairs without permits (but up to code) is the way to go in the short term, just so we can at least get to the basement without having to go outside. We don't plan on selling this property for a long time, if ever. 

If we duplex down and wanted to move out of the property in a few years, could we technically rent the first floor property as a 4 bed / 2 bath or would we still have to be careful about renting it because we combined the top floor into an illegal unit without permits? I have definitely seen duplex down condos that have basement ceilings shorter than 7.5ft but still count the bedrooms in their MLS listing. My sister & brother-in-law live in one where 2 out of 3 bedrooms in their place is in the basement with lower than 7.5ft ceilings.

Either way I definitely don't want to dig down, that's not a cost we could absorb now as plenty of other things need to be improved first. 

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a multifamily (2-flat) property on the north side of Chicago (with intent to owner occupied/house-hack) . During our second viewing of the property the realtor "gained access" (don't ask!) to a part of the basement that was locked, and lo and behold, we found an extra 2 bedrooms and a full bath, and a kitchen; presumably an illegal apartment. It was quite unexpected, but from what I've read, not unheard of in Chicago. The basement only has 7ft high ceilings (Chicago code says they need to be 7.5ft high), and the property is only zoned RS-3 (SFR or two-flat only), among other things, so we're not going to rent it out separately and risk city violations.

The only entrance to this basement is from the outside, not from inside the first-floor apartment. However, if we duplex down from the first floor unit (which is 2bed 1bath apartment), can we then combine the beds/baths and call it a 4bed 2bath? This is providing we obtain permits to add stairs that conform to code, among other things.

What would be the best way to approach doing this? We would be living in this first floor duplexed-down unit for a few years and then rent it out when we move out. Adding stairs is something we’d like to do regardless because the laundry hook up is in the basement and we don’t want to have to run outside during winter with clothes to do our laundry!

TL;DR – Can I legally duplex down into an illegal basement unit to capture the extra 2 rooms and bathroom in that unit? What sort of headaches should we expect in this process?

Responses and feedback are incredibly appreciated!