picture a double story house. underneith is completely enclosed with its own entry, rooms, kitchenette, shower, toilet etc … but its not of legal height. upstairs is a normal complete house.
is it legal to rent out underneith the house seperately to the top? or because its not the correct height it cant be rented out?
thanks
Which part of non-habitable don't people understand? It is just like buying 2 identical written-off cars from the auctions, cutting the chassis and welding them together, driveable but totally illegal.
Building standards have been made for a particular reason, to say that the ceiling is only 2200mm instead of the required 2400mm doesn't mean the house is unsafe but it does not meet the required standard for a room to be inhabited (except for kitchens, laundries, utilities etc). Often these ground floor areas are not habitable as they are floodprone.
k ta – cos someone i know is selling their house and they were telling me how they rented out underneith cos they put in a kitchenette etc. i was sceptical about the legals of it all. dodgey! musta been a cash in the hand rental.
Karen,people do rent these types of places out all over aus.I rented one in newcastle 22yrs ago.Floor to joists war 2250mm,but it didnot worry me, i was single,studying,part time working,it was cheap rent.Scott is correct,it would have been illegal,i donot know why people spend $$$ turning downstairs into living areas and not spending xtra $to go the correct height,it seems shortsighted to me.Also because it is not legal insurance would be aproblem and there could be a myriad of legal problems if things went wrong.But people still do it,my brother in law was sub letting out downstairs,which was arental,floor to ceiling only 1990mm[short people in nth qld] it covered over half his rent and told PM it was his brother in law staying.PS Scott my neighbour and i buy repairable write-offs from the auctions,repair them professionally and safely and legally drive them and sell them,but i like your analagy.Al
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