Why 7ft ceiling minimum to be considered "livable space?"

[Anonymous]

I am renting a house and the rental inspection was recently conducted and deemed the attic unlivable space because less than half the room has a ceiling height of a min. of 7ft. The inspectors said it could only be used as storage space. The biggest issue is that it's our baby's nursury. We'd be willing to comply if we knew the rationale behind this particular code. Is it just about bumping heads? As someone who is 5 ft' tall, this will obviously not be a problem for me or my son in the near future. Are there bigger safety concerns I should be aware of?

[Anonymous]

This is based on a standard called the International Residential Code. Any habitable residential space must have at least 50% of the space be 7'0" or higher. Although you and your family are short, it is designed to be safe for anyone, including emergency personnel to navigate the room. If your dwelling had a fire and the place was smoke filled, it should be safe for a tall fireman to come in and rescue your child. If your child required emergency support, a tall paramedic should be able to get in carrying equipment and not be in danger from a low ceiling.

The IRC is maintained by the International Code Council and while the name includes "International" it really is a US organization. The ICC standards have been accepted in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several other US territories. More info at http://www.iccsafe.org/AboutICC/Pages/default.aspx

[Anonymous]

It just can't be called a bedroom. If you aren't selling, then it really doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

the way that many people get around this is they frame out the eaves as closets or built-ins. By doing this, they take some of the low ceiling height square footage out of the equation - and what is left is enough legal space.

[Anonymous]

I guess check with an attorney that if your tenant put someone in there to sleep no laws would be breached.

Some of those ceiling clearance requirements are for fire hazard, exit rules. Same for how legal or rentable bedrooms always need to have a safe way out besides the hallway door.

[Anonymous]

Same reason why a legal egress window has to be so large (typically 5.7 SF) - imagine a firefighter fully loaded entering a space. They need room to enter, exit, and rescue.

You're not breaching any law by using the space or even living in it (although if it's truly bad, you could be charged with negligent manslaughter or equivalent if someone dies). You just can't consider it liveable for marketing purposes.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I am actually the renter. I won't go into all the issues of not having the rental inspection completed before we moved in. What would you do? Would you consider it unsafe to have the space as your nursury? Would you negotiate a lower rent? It was marketed as a 3 br, but 1 br has no closets and had no door, 2nd br is the attic and the top of the stairs is less than 5ft tall (even I have to duck!)

[Anonymous]

So you had to rent the place sight unseen? I don't see how you can really negotiate a lower rent now that you've already moved in.