gkisystems
Member
The tax man does an internal inspection on the house next week. According to city records (Beloit, WI), my house has 3 bedrooms. I think it has 2 and therefore should have my property assessed as such.
The house was originally built has having 3 bedrooms, but the prior owners (2 owners ago) took it out in order to make the living room larger - effectively making the house a 2 bedroom house & decreasing its value. To my knowledge, this change was never reflected in the city records.
The owners after those owners (right before me) decided that they would "make" a new 3rd bedroom by changing up the "3 seasons room" (glorified porch or breezeway) a little bit. I think the changes they did were not enough to legally make the room a bedroom. They added a few feet on each side of the room and made something that might be considered a closet.
If you have the legal definition, could you please share it with me? If not, please give me your expert opinion based on the circumstances:
Factors in favor of it being a bedroom:
1. The prior owners pulled a building permit ($6k worth of renovation) and called it "master bedroom" on the permit.
2. It has windows and a sliding door the the outside (back yard).
3. It has something that could be considered a closet.
Factors in favor of it being a 3-seasons room:
1. I do not use this room as a bedroom.
2. The room is not on the same level as the other 2.
3. You cannot get to a bathroom without walking through a public area (living room).
4. This room is oddly shaped. It is not square like normal bedrooms in the house or other homes in the same neighborhood. It is only 8 feet deep and about 22 feet across.
5. It is the only room that has access to and a view of the back yard where the inground pool is kept. Therefore, to use the pool, family members need to use this "room" to get inside and outside of the house. I doubt a room that is designed to have lots of foot traffic can be a bedroom.
6. The closet is nothing more than some drywall and folding doors that stick out about 2 feet from one of the exterior walls...but the closet wall & doorway does not extend fully to the ceiling and stops about 1 foot short of it.
7. Smack dab in the middle of the room is one of two stairways to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs is a door that does not function as a door because the door frame was never completed and it does not latch.
8. There is no basement under this room unlike the remainder of the house.
9. The room has no heating, a/c, or air vents to it. The only heat it gets comes up from the basement up the stairs.
What do you think? Do I have a house that should be taxed as a 2-bedroom or 3-bedroom?
The house was originally built has having 3 bedrooms, but the prior owners (2 owners ago) took it out in order to make the living room larger - effectively making the house a 2 bedroom house & decreasing its value. To my knowledge, this change was never reflected in the city records.
The owners after those owners (right before me) decided that they would "make" a new 3rd bedroom by changing up the "3 seasons room" (glorified porch or breezeway) a little bit. I think the changes they did were not enough to legally make the room a bedroom. They added a few feet on each side of the room and made something that might be considered a closet.
If you have the legal definition, could you please share it with me? If not, please give me your expert opinion based on the circumstances:
Factors in favor of it being a bedroom:
1. The prior owners pulled a building permit ($6k worth of renovation) and called it "master bedroom" on the permit.
2. It has windows and a sliding door the the outside (back yard).
3. It has something that could be considered a closet.
Factors in favor of it being a 3-seasons room:
1. I do not use this room as a bedroom.
2. The room is not on the same level as the other 2.
3. You cannot get to a bathroom without walking through a public area (living room).
4. This room is oddly shaped. It is not square like normal bedrooms in the house or other homes in the same neighborhood. It is only 8 feet deep and about 22 feet across.
5. It is the only room that has access to and a view of the back yard where the inground pool is kept. Therefore, to use the pool, family members need to use this "room" to get inside and outside of the house. I doubt a room that is designed to have lots of foot traffic can be a bedroom.
6. The closet is nothing more than some drywall and folding doors that stick out about 2 feet from one of the exterior walls...but the closet wall & doorway does not extend fully to the ceiling and stops about 1 foot short of it.
7. Smack dab in the middle of the room is one of two stairways to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs is a door that does not function as a door because the door frame was never completed and it does not latch.
8. There is no basement under this room unlike the remainder of the house.
9. The room has no heating, a/c, or air vents to it. The only heat it gets comes up from the basement up the stairs.
What do you think? Do I have a house that should be taxed as a 2-bedroom or 3-bedroom?
