Could I have a legal income unit in my house?

Living room and kitchen of basement apartment in Georgetown

Brand new legislation from Montgomery County, MD now allows the construction of a legal rentable apartment in your basement, garage, or attached to your house.  On May 20th, Montgomery County eased and streamlined their process for doing this.  The projects have strict requirements, including provisions that limit applications to one house per block and a cap of 2,000 in the county. The new process for obtaining licenses is designed to address the need for more affordable housing in Montgomery County and the DC metro area and to simplify the process for owners.  As a by-product, it also presents home owners with the possibility of receiving supplementary income by renting part of their home, or creating an in-law or nanny suite.  Units like this can produce incomes of up to $2,500/month or more.

In addition to the requirement of only one rental unit per block, provisions for cooking, eating, sanitation, and sleeping are also addressed.  If you want to learn more or engage us to bring your space in line with the requirements, please contact us at Landis.  We are well-versed in the requirements and are very experienced doing almost anything you will need to do—whether adding a separate entrance to the outside, adding parking, building out a kitchen or bathroom, adding windows, or whatever else is needed.

Full kitchen in legal basement apartment