Illegal Bedrooms

[Anonymous]

My house has two bedroom in basement. But I have two staircases so I don’t care about egress windows as they leak eventually. My basement is 2,000 sf. All finished. They put that in add. Yep not on county records.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new favorite in my area (Fairfax County) is realtors saying "county assessed square footage is not accurate," or something along those lines, and then adding in that the basement square footage.

Unless something has changed (in the last 6 months), below grade area of any kind has never factored into total square footage. Has something changed?

Here's a prime example of it: https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11114-Chessington-Pl_Reston_VA_20194_M55466-24156

"Stunning four sides brick Gulick Group built Vincent model boasting over 6950 finished sq ft on three levels (tax record incorrect)."

Given that it's a subdivision with some of the exact same models all built within last 20 yrs, no effin' way the tax records are incorrect. Just absurd.

Tax records are often incorrect because they're an estimate based on external dimensions.

And it's the recorded plat or deed that controls, not the tax record.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:My house has one. We asked the inspector how it has been sold listed as a bedroom multiple times given that it clearly doesn't meet the code, and he said the house is so old it's considered "grandfathered in."

Since our room in question is in a first floor, single level addition, we're planning to cut vertically into the wall to simply put in a larger window. Annoyed that this is a cost we are taking on as the buyers, but that's onr of thr compromises we had to make in this crazy market.

Nobody forced you to buy the house. You sound ridiculous.

DP

That was unnecessary.

PP explained her situation. And said she is correcting the issue to bring the home up to code.

Nothing ridiculous about being annoyed that the house was allowed to be listed and sold for more bedrooms than it legally had.

Thanks PP! It is correct that no one forced me to buy the house. Given the options on the market and that this is a low four figure fix, we decided to just deal with it, but I'm not sure that "you bought the house so you must love EVERYTHING about it" is realistic in a low inventory market like this. We take what we can get. We can still dislike aspects.

But why is OP spending the money? You don't have to bring it up to code. If OP chooses to do so, that's on her, but it's not like the seller concealed the size of the window. Personally, I don't know why OP is wasting the money on it.

Because I wanted a 3 bedroom house! I was not in the market for a 2 bedroom with a den. I would not like anyone sleeping there to be caught in a death trap in case of a fire, which is why the code requirement exists.
At the time i was buying, the others on the market that wouldn't have required the fix were either significantly more expensive (like $100k more) or required a tradeoff I deemed more important.

OP, if the house wasn't what you wanted, why the hell did you buy it? You act like this was forced upon you or somehow concealed from you. Did the seller put a fake window in that tricked you? Doubtful. You made the choice, live with it. Don't blame the seller. And just because the code has changed doesn't mean the room is a death trap.

Next we're going to find out OP is upset because she had to buy new smoke detectors.

Wow, you sound like a peach. Not the PP, but she has a point.

It’s false advertising. Even on Amazon, people get pissed of the seller advertises a version of a book but then sends a previous version.

If the seller is advertising three bedrooms, the house should actually have three bedrooms up to CURRENT code.

Sure, the buyer knew, but it’s shady for the seller to advertise, knowing the bedrooms are illegal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My house has one. We asked the inspector how it has been sold listed as a bedroom multiple times given that it clearly doesn't meet the code, and he said the house is so old it's considered "grandfathered in."

Since our room in question is in a first floor, single level addition, we're planning to cut vertically into the wall to simply put in a larger window. Annoyed that this is a cost we are taking on as the buyers, but that's onr of thr compromises we had to make in this crazy market.

Nobody forced you to buy the house. You sound ridiculous.

DP

That was unnecessary.

PP explained her situation. And said she is correcting the issue to bring the home up to code.

Nothing ridiculous about being annoyed that the house was allowed to be listed and sold for more bedrooms than it legally had.

Thanks PP! It is correct that no one forced me to buy the house. Given the options on the market and that this is a low four figure fix, we decided to just deal with it, but I'm not sure that "you bought the house so you must love EVERYTHING about it" is realistic in a low inventory market like this. We take what we can get. We can still dislike aspects.

But why is OP spending the money? You don't have to bring it up to code. If OP chooses to do so, that's on her, but it's not like the seller concealed the size of the window. Personally, I don't know why OP is wasting the money on it.

Because I wanted a 3 bedroom house! I was not in the market for a 2 bedroom with a den. I would not like anyone sleeping there to be caught in a death trap in case of a fire, which is why the code requirement exists.
At the time i was buying, the others on the market that wouldn't have required the fix were either significantly more expensive (like $100k more) or required a tradeoff I deemed more important.

OP just keeps on giving.

The house would have cost more money if it had a legal 3rd bedroom.

Right?? Did you only tour the house virtually and not understand the issue until you closed and moved in? This is called shopping for a house. We bought a "3br" with a basement bedroom, no egress, and took that into consideration immediately upon touring. We knew what we were buying and that the price was appropriate. Who cares what the seller called it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new favorite in my area (Fairfax County) is realtors saying "county assessed square footage is not accurate," or something along those lines, and then adding in that the basement square footage.

Unless something has changed (in the last 6 months), below grade area of any kind has never factored into total square footage. Has something changed?

Here's a prime example of it: https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11114-Chessington-Pl_Reston_VA_20194_M55466-24156

"Stunning four sides brick Gulick Group built Vincent model boasting over 6950 finished sq ft on three levels (tax record incorrect)."

Given that it's a subdivision with some of the exact same models all built within last 20 yrs, no effin' way the tax records are incorrect. Just absurd.

The funniest thing about that listing is that although the narrative claims 6950 sf, the floor plan included right in the photos (photo 51) says 5729 sf! The above grade square footage on the floor plan is pretty close to what the Fairfax County records say.