Would you call this an accessory unit or not?

[bsharf24]

Subject property is a ranch with an attached garage. Above the garage is an area that is cooled with a window unit and heated with portable space heaters (so, partially finished). The area is finished otherwise. I have attached photos to illustrate.

It is accessed from a set of stairs on the interior that go down to the garage area and up to the area in question. It's essentially a bonus room setup if a realtor were to describe it, but it has a living area, bathroom and a kitchenette (sink, countertops, and cabinets are built in, could be called a wet bar I guess). There is also a mini fridge and microwave that are plugged in (personal property), no range/oven.

Everything is on the same meter.

They actually rent the area out to a tenant.

How would you guys handle this? Are they just renting out their partially finished bonus room area (separate from GLA), or is it an accessory unit?

Any insight is appreciated. I attached some photos. In regard to the stairs, that door you see slightly on the left goes to the kitchen. Behind the person taking that photo is access to the garage.

 

[Deleted member 128537]

It would need an operable kitchen for me to call it an accessory unit. It's possible to rent just a room without it being an accessory unit. We call these bunkhouses in my area. We have lots of them in my area which is heavily recreational. A kitchen requires stove and typical refrigerator for most underwriters. So call it a bunkhouse with a bath. IMHO.

But either way you will have to bracket the thing. Could actually bracket it with an accessory unit.

Also as long as you declare what it is you should be OK. The underwriter however might view it differently. Just disclose it.

 

[CANative]

Room over the garage or accessory dwelling. What's the difference?

Seems to me that it meets HUD's definition of an ADU:

Accessory Unit / Accessory Dwelling Unit
The accessory unit is defined as a habitable living unit added to, created within, or detached from a single-family dwelling that provides the basic requirements for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are commonly understood to be a separate additional living unit, including separate kitchen, sleeping, and bathroom facilities, attached or detached from the primary residential unit, on a single-family lot. ADUs are usually subordinate in size, location, and appearance to the primary unit and may or may not have separate means of ingress or egress.

Attached units, contained within a single-family home, known variously as "mother-in-law apartments," are the most common type of accessory dwelling unit. Accessory units usually involve the renovation of a garage, basement, or small addition to a single-family home.

FHA Criteria
“Accessory dwelling unit" means a subordinate dwelling unit may or may not be incorporated within, or detached from a single-family structure. Accessory units may not be subdivided or otherwise segregated in ownership from the primary residence structure.

Some accessory units may predate the adoption of local zoning ordinance and may therefore be classified as legal nonconforming units.

A kitchen requires stove and refrigerator

I disagree. Appliances are personal property.

 

[Deleted member 128537]

IMHO a wet bar is not a kitchen.

 

[bsharf24]

Room over the garage or accessory dwelling. What's the difference?

Seems to me that it meets HUD's definition of an ADU:





I disagree. Appliances are personal property.

I just attached some photos to better illustrate it.

 

[CANative]

I wouldn't hesitate to characterize this as an ADU. In fact it looks a lot like the place my wife and I lived for about 6 months when we were first married (1974.) Virginia late spring to early fall. Hot as hell but we were happy in those days.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Check with the controlling zoning and building authority for their definition of a separate dwelling unit as oppose to accessory dwelling unit.

The county of San Diego, for example, defines ADU to have no kitchen while the separate dwelling unit is a fully functional dwelling supporting separate and independent living from the main dwelling unit.

Zoning may restrict the use of ADU from being rented where as separate dwelling unit being rented is a permitted use.

 

[Peter LeQuire]

I don't see a kitchen. This set up looks like a typical basement rec room or bonus room that has a microwave for popcorn and a reefer for soft drinks and not so soft drinks. It's a useful set up to keep teenagers safely confined away from the humans in the family. It isn't an ADU, as it doesn't satisfy the requirement of having provision of having a kitchen: while you can do a lot of wonderful food prep with a microwave, I would have a hard time calling something a kitchen that didn't have provision for at least an apartment-sized stove (with surface elements and an oven). (The microwave is the current equivalent of the plug-in heating coil that could heat a cup of water for coffee, tea, soup, etc.) You can cook over a fireplace, over cans of Sterno, over a alcohol stove, on an electric hot plate - that doesn't make that area a kitchen. (" (ADUs) are commonly understood to be a separate additional living unit, including separate kitchen...")

(Appliances aren't necessarily personal property. Most stoves require 240 v electric service with a dedicated breaker and a special outlet: many codes require an exhaust vent for the stove.)

I'll not part company with anyone wanting to call it an ADU, but I believe that it's better described as a bonus room with a wet bar.

I don't think it affects the appraisal one way or another, but if you have a client that demands that every feature of a property be "bracketed" it will probably be easier to deal with a bonus room than an ADU.

 

[Mr Rex]

Around here, it would not be an ADU, and the lack of a oven or space for an oven is the key. Properties zoned SFR can have a detached/attached garage with as many bedrooms upstairs as the septic allows, but the kitchen cannot have full cooking facilities. Full size fridge, range top, microwave etc are OK, but no baking facilities are allowed, unless its a countertop toaster oven. BTW, if the bedrooms don't have closets, then they aren't considered bedrooms, remember the septic permit? Another county allows closets, but they can't have closet doors or they are considered BRs. There are some lake properties here with 4000sf above grade and 2000 below with a 2 or 3 BR septic permit and 6-8 rooms with beds, and only 2 or 3 of them have closets. Funny labeling a room with a bed (or several) something other than a BR in a report. Ain't zoning grand? As always, it depends, on location, location, location.

 

[J Grant]

could go either way but imo lack of stove and a "real" kitchen makes it more of a bouns room with a bath...the low ceilings make it questionable as well...pitched ceilings attic style ( at least looks that way in photos)