I’ve long wondered the opposite of this question (can I use or rent my condo as an office?). Rather than hijack that thread:
Rent on houses and apartments around here is ridiculous. However there’s plenty of office space to be had for well less than half the price of any decent residential place. Could I lease some of this cheap office space and just live there? Because really, if I leased a whole floor of a building, how would anyone ever know?
I would imagine of course the legality of this is going to vary by the local zoning laws, if legal at all. Is it legal anywhere? Even if it isn’t legal, what’s the worst that could happen to me if I got caught?
The landlord, who would stop by once in a while to check on his property, would know. And using the property as a residence would likely violate the terms of the lease.
I know a person doing that with his office. It’s a huge loft style floor on the edge of St Paul near Minneapolis. He’s also a contractor and so he set up the office as a showroom and installed a shower and kitchen and has lived there for two years.
I spent a week in my office while my house was getting the hardwood floors redone. Used the break room to keep food in the fridge and reheat. I had a cot in my office, folded up during the day. Sponge off in the restroom.
No one cared. Security is used to me working late anyway. I did enjoy getting home. Camping in the office gets old.
When DC’s girlfriend kicks him out of the apartment, he’s gotta find somewhere to stay - fast. Using his office as an apartment seemed like a great idea at first, but can he keep it a secret from his boss until the big promotion is decided?!
I got 10 years of working in different high and low rise office buildings. !0 buildings total. In excess of 4 million sq feet. Never seen a shower in any office. One set of buildings did have a health club with a shower. And at each of the other properties there was a Gym and showers.
I doubt that you could get “renters insurance”. You would need a workmans comp policy, and a liabilaty insurance. You would have no problem setting up internet. Cable TV would probably be out. Depending on the building but most would have house cleaning comming in in the middle of the night to clean. Most tenant spaces so have kitchen lunch rooms with a micro wave oven. No cooking that could cause smoke, smoke detectorss and fire alarms.
Most buildings will not have heating or cooling from approx 7:00 PM to 6:00 AM. Nor on Saturday or Sunday and holidays. Also some buildings the lights will be on the Building Management system and all but the emergency lights will go off at night. And you will either have to us a dial up system or go to the light switches every hour or two and turn the lights back on.
Depending on the lease it could be classified as miss use of space.
In twenty years of working for 4 different companies in about 15 different buildings I have never been in an office building that did not have showers in at least one men’s room.
The building I work in has about a dozen showers. But it’s not lease spaced - our company built the building and we’re the only ones in it. I jokingly considered living in my office, it probably wouldn’t have been very hard (altough not fun either). As to doing it in a rented office - that sounds trickier.
From the renter’s perspective, the only insurance you need is premises liability and contents insurance (unless your lease requires you to get insurance for the structure, as well, which would be odd unless you were renting the entire building).
To that end, if you are not actually using the office as an office, and don’t invite anyone onto your premises, all you really stand to lose by not having insurance is the loss of the stuff in your office/home. Which may not be a big deal. So, insurance doesn’t seem to be an issue. However, keep in mind that while your insurance policies may be irrelevant, the landlord’s insurance policies may run the risk of rescission if something were to happen to the structure and the landlord was found to be in violation of his insurance contract (say, for example, by allowing people to live there). There’s probably a very minuscule probability that that will come back to bite the renter in terms of a lawsuit for the landlord’s losses if the insurance company didn’t pay out because the renter was causing the landlord to not be in compliance with his insurance contract, but it is another consideration.
It probably violates the lease - or it violates it in a roundabout way such as a clause in the lease in which you agree not to do anything with your space that is against local laws or ordinances. Zoning restrictions would be one such ordinance. So, if you got found out, you should be prepared to get kicked out.
As has been mentioned, there aren’t really nice bathing and cooking facilities in most offices. If you’re a member of a gym, part one is taken care of, and depending on your financial resources or your willingness to go to a soup kitchen, part two can be too.
In all, it’s probably feasible, but probably not enjoyable, and you should be prepared to be homeless at any time.
I had a friend who used to run a hobby shop for radio controlled toys. Above the office was a very large loft area that could be used as storage and the bathroom included a shower. It also had a breakroom/kitchen where he kept a hotplate and microwave. Since he had everything he needed at the shop, he just decided to live there at one point in the loft area to drastically cut his expenses. It wasn’t insulated, but we live in San Diego so it didn’t need to be. He lived there about a year until the hobby business went bust, but he really enjoyed not having to keep an apartment and he liked the idea that he was effectively his own security for the store. Indeed, one night someone did try to break in and he heard it and scared them off when he turned the lights on.
I’ve seen them in Chicago but only in the central city and older suburbs. I think it may have something to do with the “old days” when the bosses actually had an executive washroom that was only used by them. I worked in two hotels and the GM’s office actually had a restroom (incl shower) off the main office.
Of course in the old days, hotels had resident managers. I have also seen it in non hotel space. But like I said, it’s always been in conjucntion with the boss’s office.
Many years ago, I did some work for a company that was located in what, from the outside, looked like standard condo units. It’s my firm belief that they were originally built from residential condo plans, or were plan was to be standard residential condos, that somehow converted to an office park. They had full kitchens (with appliances), and a full bathroom (shower only, but room for tubs).
As I was just starting my career, and was still young and dumb, I thought it would have been a great place to live. No neighbor to bother when I had friends over late into the night/weekends, and it was in a great location. Lots of parking available at night as well. Rent was in line with what they were charging for similar residential units elsewhere.
I didn’t follow up on it, but I still think about it once in a while.
How’s that a problem? The tenant would still have access to it, presumably. Almost all the buildings I’ve worked in has had a shower, some with a workout room, some without. Whether the building was single-tenant or multiple-tenant, all tenants had access to the shower.
I had to reply…I had a hellish landlord experience and was able to get out of the house lease, with 1 week to find a place and move me and my business. I found a little office space for 1/5 the rent I had been paying. Got a gym membership to a 24 hours chain (private showers). Bought a big mini fridge. Moved in me and my business. Got a futon, etc on Craigslist. It has been a renaissance for me. My finances are stronger, I’m building my business. I’m going after deep life / career goals that might have been dropped. I’m being intentionally vague - Ill be world famous in the arts one day, not just making my living at it, as I am now, which ain’t bad either. This has given me the breathing room to develop my art. Theres been a lot of luck…a next door neighbor that’s never here, a building thats kept up enough to be reasonable but no security cameras, etc. A property manager that doesn’t care, for a company that’s going broke…I recently was offered a tiny rental house that I could easily afford and It blows my mind but I don’t want to move. Chicks come over and say they could never live like this but they still come over! It sucks to have to lie to my clients that I have a home, and to sneak around here but it’s worth it. I’m saving a grand a month on rent. The worst is first thing when I wake up, getting to the shared bathroom and trying to avoid people…still it’s fine…raw vegan foods in the blender are great in this environment…still I can cook (hot plate, toaster oven)…it’s a great neighborhood…f@ck landlords and pricey rentals. I hope to be here 2 more years till I can buy a place for cash. I have to get better at conquering my fears…relaxing…I can be a little neurotic here sometimes, lol…it goes in phases…sometimes I’m totally chill…there is always some uncertainty…I can do my art here which is just freakin awesome (wouldn’t work in an apartment). I have a few windows and a air purifier (old building). The place is climate controlled. I have a vehicle I can sleep in if it gets weird. I hope / plan to be traveling a lot more as time goes on, so I’m not here much anyways and it becomes an inexpensive place to store my stuff and come back and regroup…Life is a daring adventure…