Does A Minneapolis Duplex Bedroom Need A Door?
One of the most important features of any Minneapolis house, duplex, triplex or fourplex is the number of bedrooms in each unit.
This is important not only for the number of residents a building can accommodate, but when it comes to multifamily properties, the amount of rent a unit can generate.
That means for duplex owners, the definition of a bedroom is important. It not only determines revenue, but when it comes time to sell, it also plays a role in value.
The city of Minneapolis requires a bedroom be at least 70 square feet, have an egress window, a minimum ceiling height of 7 feet, does not require a closet but cannot be accessed by going through another bedroom.
It turns out, there are exceptions that can be important to housing providers. Late last year I met an owner who had a early 20th-century built up/down side by side duplex. The long-term owners always successfully rented the property as having three bedrooms on each side, even though the occupant of the third floor bedroom had to walk through one of those on the second floor to get access to it.
It was my understanding this was not a legal bedroom. The property owner insisted it was and set out to prove it.
Turns out we were both right.
Per Minneapolis maintenance code 244.830:
“Arrangement of rooms. No dwelling or dwelling unit containing two or more sleeping rooms shall have such room arrangements that access to a bathroom or toilet room intended for use by occupants of more than one sleeping rom can be had only by going through another sleeping room: nor shall room arrangements be such that access to a sleeping room can be had only by going through another sleeping room or a bathroom or toilet room. Such arrangement which existed prior to November 2, 1920 are excepted from this section.”
It turns out this particular property was built in 1911. So it is, in fact, exempt.
While the preferred way most of us would have a bedroom is to have a door, this property owner hasn’t had one objection to the lack of one in many decades of tenants.
Turns out, we really can learn something new every day.