So I have an unfinished basement I spend a large amount of time in. I’d like to improve it and improve it legally. I don’t want it to actually count as a “room” or “finished space” due to all the code requirements for finished space or even worse, it increasing my homes value and thus it’s taxes.
So what can I do legally to improve it that will fall short off finished space? I assume framing and insulating the outside walls are out, but what about paneling or sheetrocking the inside wall? Putting down tile on the concrete? Tying it into the HVAC system? Finishing the ceiling? Adding some more lights and outlets?
Is there some specific threshold for it to be considered finished space or is it a “I know a room when I see one” according to the tax assessor?
In my jurisdiction, basement rooms must have access to the outside to be considered habitable. In practice that means a) a downstairs door that opens directly out, or b) a fire escape-type exit; but never, ever having to exit by using a staircase to get to a main floor exit.
It doesn’t matter how “finished” the basement is. If you can’t get out of there without going upstairs, it doesn’t count. Of course, the downside is, if the building inspector were to find a bed (or some indication that humans sleep) down there, you could theoretically be cited for a code violation.
That’s my jurisdiction. You’ll need to check your local codes. Some jurisdiction just assess the entire square footage of the house.
Any electrical work or load bearing structural or plumbing or concrete must be permitted and inspected, regardless of whether or not the space is going to be called a “room”. Things like sheetrock, tile, cabinets, paint, etc. do not. Now, you can do all of that work without getting permits or inspections, but if you ever sell the house you could run into some problems.
As for assessors, you are under zero obligation to allow them past the front door.
If you are going to make improvements legally, that generally means a permit. Part of the permit is an estimate of the cost of the improvements. At a minimum, those costs can be added by the assessor to the value of your home, with resulting higher property taxes. The difference may not be much however.
One thing you can do is call it storage. There are reasons why you would want storage space to be clean and dry and temperature controlled, so improvements in electricity and HVAC would make sense. Plumbing might be tricky, the authorities might not buy having a bathroom in a storage area for example.
If you are going to use a general contractor, they should have a good idea of what works in your jurisdiction to get you where you want to go without too much impact on your tax assessment.
In my jurisdiction a basement bedroom would just be called a “nonconforming bedroom.” No code violation, but you can’t count it as a bedroom. But you can use it as one, no problem. Put in an egress, as a lot of people have done in my current neighborhood, now it’s a conforming bedroom.
Oddly enough the same is true of a bedroom without a closet (or was at one time). “Nonconforming.” We had an old house (1880s) that had one closet, under the stairs, off the kitchen. A no-bedroom house. But not really.
I hope this isn’t too much of a hijack, and if it is, I’ll withdraw the question, but I’ve never understood why property assessors and home appraisers have these little rules that make something not “count” as a bedroom or a room. I mean, it’s there. It adds value for any current homeowner or prospective homebuyers.
It seems that homes are undervalued and undertaxed because I can build 99.99% of something and make it for all intents and purposes a room or bedroom, but if I leave off that last little piece to make it NOT a room or bedroom, then I get a windfall on my property tax and can use the space just as intended. When I go to sell it, I can do the last .01% of work and viola, there’s a room/bedroom.
But to answer the OP, that will differ depending on your locality and/or whatever appraiser looks at your home when you sell it.
It’s because of people like the OP who want a usable room but don’t want to pay extra tax. This means that someone has to decide what is or isn’t a bedroom and that will come down to things like access and windows. In the UK, for example, a bedroom must be over 4.64 square metres and the ceiling height must be at least 1.5 metres.
There are probably all different reasons why there are rules that make something count as bedroom or a room or habitable space - but I bet lots of them aren’t something you can do the .01% of work to finish right before selling. For example, I could finish my basement into an studio apartment. It would be no problem to let one of my kids live down there, or to use it for holiday dinners. But there isn’t any .01% I can do before selling to make it legally a room or rooms - more than 50% of it is below grade. It will never be counted as habitable space, I can’t legally rent it and there’s really no practical way I can 1) make it 50% above ground while 2) still keeping the minimum 7 foot ceiling. Sure, I’ll get a higher price when selling than I would if the basement was completely unfinished - but nowhere near as much as I would get if that apartment was legal. Same thing with minimum sizes for bedrooms - if a bedroom must be a minimum of 80 sq feet with no dimension less than 8 feet and a window opening to the outside, then the 7x7 alcove off my living room that barely fits a twin bed is not going to count. Can’t finish that off right before selling either.
Well, .01% was hyperbole, but you see my point. For that last part, I could use the room without a window and then right before I sell it, get out the reciprocating saw, buy a window at Home Depot and, boom, extra bedroom which jacks up the value.
Likewise with your 7X7 alcove. If you sold your house, you could get several buyers with very young children who might think that to be a perfect bedroom for a child. The buyer sees it as a bedroom and it has real, tangible value. Yet the home appraiser values it as simple square footage and the bank won’t loan on it as a bedroom, even though many people view it as a bedroom.
Maybe- depends on the house. I’ve seen houses where some rooms don’t have windows that open to the outside ( my living room doesn’t) , and you can’t just cut a hole in the wall if you live in an attached house,
Absolutely they could use it as a bedroom - but I couldn’t advertise it as a bedroom , so no windfall when I sell.
It’s also those laws that create that value for your home. If you have a extra bedroom your home should be worth more, if your 99% there then your home is worth what it is lacking a bedroom.
Laws are hard cruel lines in a fuzzy world, but it’s how we decided to do things here.
Wait - is that right, a bedroom only needs a 1.5 meter ceiling? I get grandfathering old construction, but surely if one were finishing a space today, one would have to have a height greater than that?
(That said, I used to frequent a hotel north of London which had the most bizarre rooms. Including one with a hallway in it that I could not stand upright in. To add to that, the door to said room was in the midst of a stair case- no landing, one would stand with feet at differing heights while balancing one’s luggage and fiddle with a key that looked to be older than dirt)
Look, this isn’t legal advice, but around here almost nobody ever pulls a permit to finish a basement, and nobody seems to care. And I’m in a nanny state. I finished my basement in the old house, did all the work without a permit. When we sold it the inspector asked if I had pulled permits. I said no, and he looked at my wiring, said it had been 5 years without an issue, and told the prospective buyers not to worry about it.
A friend of mine in a smaller town actually went to the town hall to see about a permit for finishing his basement, and the people at the town hall actually talked him out of pulling a permit.
I know, I know- there’s lots of stuff that could happen, but in my experience it doesn’t. I believe that the only thing you’d need a permit for in a typical basement finishing would be electrical. Certainly one can install strapping/studs, sheetrock, and a floor. Other than lighting and electrical, what is there?
In reality, it comes down to what work you pull a permit for, and what gets taxed. We recently considered contesting our taxes. When we pulled a number of comparables, we found all manner of inaccuracies - such as finished basements recorded as unfinished.
And you know they put that in there because someone already went there.
Prospective buyer: Wait, the ceiling is only 3 feet high. My five year old can’t even stand up in there.
In my 26 years in New Jersey real estate, one thing I learned is that no matter how finished the basement is, renting out a basement in NJ is totally illegal, and the fines are horrible.
That 1.5 meters could be only part of a rule - I’ve seen rules similar to “ at least 70% of the room must have a 7 feet high ceiling and at no point can the ceiling be less than 4 feet high” . It basically applies to top floor room in a building with a sloped roof.
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