MikeC
Silver Member
Quick history of the house:
The house was built 70+ years ago as a two story single family dwelling. At one point, long ago, it was converted to a two-family dwelling with common utilities except for electrical which was changed to a 60 amp service for each apartment. The previous owner decided that he wanted it back to a single family dwelling, exposing the original doorway at the bottom of the stairs to the 2nd floor apartment, and running a jumper from one fuse box to the other, eliminating one electric meter. No other changes were made. All of this was done prior to the adoption of any building codes. The house currently has 2 working kitchens. The county tax office has never had this listed as a multi-family dwelling as far back as they keep records.
Now, the current owner wants to utilize it as an upper and lower apartment again. He is arguing that the structure was never changed back to a single family dwelling, just that the previous owner utilized both apartments. Is this a change of occupancy or not?
The house was built 70+ years ago as a two story single family dwelling. At one point, long ago, it was converted to a two-family dwelling with common utilities except for electrical which was changed to a 60 amp service for each apartment. The previous owner decided that he wanted it back to a single family dwelling, exposing the original doorway at the bottom of the stairs to the 2nd floor apartment, and running a jumper from one fuse box to the other, eliminating one electric meter. No other changes were made. All of this was done prior to the adoption of any building codes. The house currently has 2 working kitchens. The county tax office has never had this listed as a multi-family dwelling as far back as they keep records.
Now, the current owner wants to utilize it as an upper and lower apartment again. He is arguing that the structure was never changed back to a single family dwelling, just that the previous owner utilized both apartments. Is this a change of occupancy or not?