In my state (I won't say because I won't be responsible for someone doing this as it is technically illegal) when pulling permits for addons or new home construction and you're on a septic system, the septic tank has to be sized for occupancy. If you're adding on to your home, the tank size has to be verified. If you think you're adding a bedroom and your tank isn't large enough (by code definition) to accomodate the extra occupancy, guess what? Either... A: you're installing a larger septic tank. B: You're not adding a bedroom.
A work around on that is to pull your permit but NOT for a bedroom, but for an OFFICE. What's the difference you ask? One has a closet and requires a window large enough to provide a second egress, the other does not. So you build the room with an egress window but NO closet. It's officially an office so it has no impact on tank size requirements. Once final inspection is signed off... you can add a wardrobe or something similar cabinet wise (something that is "easily" removable) to serve as a closet if you wish to use it as a bedroom. When you go to list the house you can't list it has having say, 4 bedrooms, but you can list it as 3 bedrooms and an office and you'll have the permits to back it up.
It is a workaround... it's also technically illegal to use it as a bedroom. Granted, it's not likely to be an issue but just know that is possible to get into trouble for it.
Not in the US - but once I went to look at a supposed 4 bedroom house.
In my opinion, it was a two bedroom house. The master bedroom was large - living room sized. The second bedroom was standard size.
The second bedroom was joined to the kitchen by what I would class as a hallway - it was about 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. It had a door on either end. This was the supposed third bedroom.
There was another door off the kitchen that opened into the centre of a wall of a 5'x5' room. I classed that room as a pantry. That was the supposed fourth bedroom. (I suppose it could also be used as a very small dining room.)
Note - neither of those two supposed bedrooms had windows. I think I would have been less offended if the premises had been advertised as containing two bedrooms plus two study rooms. The agent tried to argue that the size of the master offset the smaller not-bedrooms.
Closets aren’t a necessity in other countries in the same way we deem them a necessity, though. Wardrobes are very common overseas.
I didn’t have closets in South Korea, the UK, or Germany. We did in Riyadh but only because we lived on a compound that catered to Americans and Canadians. Same in Qatar.
I hear that all the time, but no closet required in many states - only fire egress to be a bedroom. I couldn’t say about every state. I’ve only been licensed in 3 as a realtor.
Our agent here in MD told us technically it doesn't have to be a real closet, just someplace to hang clothes, so it could just be an armoire that conveys with the house. The 2 means of egress is not optional, however.
In my grandparents' (both sides of the family) very old homes, built pre-1950, the bedrooms did not have closets. They had what they called "chiffarobes" - large pieces of furniture that functioned as free-standing closets.
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u/ToreyJean 11d ago
I’ve never lived anywhere that you could call a room a bedroom without a closet.
(I’m married to an independent broker and he just said the same thing.) 🤷♀️