The house we now own had four rooms actually in use as bedrooms when we
looked at it before buying it, but it was advertised as having only
three, the fourth being a windowless basement room.

Even the third bedroom (also in the basement) did not comply with the
current Code, because the window was too small and too high, but it was
legitimate to claim it as a bedroom because it complied with the Code
when it was constructed/converted. (We had the window enlarged to
conform to the current Code.)

In the case of the house to which the OP refers, is it possible that the
basement bathroom complied with the Code when it was constructed -- and
therefore, presumably, "grandfathered"?

Perce


On 08/03/05 02:50 pm Jonathan Kamens tossed the following ingredients
into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

Yes, a seller can include non-conforming bedrooms and
bathrooms in the count when advertising a house for sale.
He's making a statement about what the house has, not about
what it has that's up to code.

However, in Minnesota, sellers are required to disclose
information that could affect "an ordinary buyer's use and
enjoyment of the property" or "any intended use of the
property of which the seller is aware." See
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/513/55.html and
http://www.daar.com/SellerDisclosure.htm. It is easy to
argue convincingly that non-conformance about which the
seller was obviously aware falls into that category.

Note, however, that since the non-conformance was disclosed
before the closing, you're in a grey area. If you didn't
find out until after the closing, you'd have an open-and-shut
case of violation of the disclosure statute, and you could
sue the seller for damages, probably calculated based on the
cost of bringing the bathroom up to code.

At this point, you could probably demand that the seller
lower the purchase price of the house on a similar basis, and
if he refuses you can probably demand to be let out of the
deal and for the seller to pay all your costs associated with
the deal. However, if the seller refuses to lower the
purchase price and you decide to go ahead with the purchase
anyway, you probably can't collect any damages.

The inspector's off the hook because he's also required to
spot what's visible to the naked eye, and the problems with
the bathroom aren't.

If you sell the house, you are obligated to disclose even if
the seller didn't, so if you were to leave the bathroom as-is
and then sell without disclosing that it's non-conformant,
you'd be violating the disclosure statute just as your seller
did.