Illegal apartment?

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Nordar

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Would renting an illegal apartment in your home be a mortal sin?
 
Defiant willful sin that is unrepentant is …

Dont do it. You know its Illegal so you cant do it., so yes it would be mortal sin in this case since you know darn well what you are doing. Please dont.
 
Nordar said:
Would renting an illegal apartment in your home be a mortal sin?
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Is there a way for you to have another person in your home to help with expenses without formally renting space to him/her?
 
Thanks Della, No see this is the situation, I just truthfully never thought of it before I am in the middle of a divorce. I live in the house My soon to be ex lives in an apartment elsewhere. The apartment that is in the front of my house has been rented out for 10 years. He gets the rent for the apartment and pays the mortgage on the house with it.

The Apartment is illegal, believe it it or not I have just started to realize that there may be major sin involved here. I have just started to get really involved in my Faith over the past few years and really gotten into learning about it. Now if I report the apartment as illegal it means the people renting will move out and he may well stop paying the mortgage and I will be in trouble. As it is he gives me no money to live on ( I am disabled) that is one of the things I am fighting for right now untill the divorce goes through.

Truthfully though I really do not care, if it is a moral sin to be renting it out then I would much rather take my chances with God then with sin. So I will report it, so I just wanted to know for sure so thank you again.🙂
 
You can retroactively get a variance from the deed restrictions… if that’s the case… maybe look into that!

God bless…
 
But it does not sound like you are the one holding the bag here. You are not accepting the money directly so its a grey area. Are you both agreeing to selling the house anyway? If so these renters need some notice to find another place to live!

I think you need your divorce attorney to advise you on this right away.
 
Damascus said:
But it does not sound like you are the one holding the bag here. You are not accepting the money directly so its a grey area. Are you both agreeing to selling the house anyway? If so these renters need some notice to find another place to live!

I think you need your divorce attorney to advise you on this right away.
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No there is no agreement to sell the house, there has been no agreement for anything yet. I understand what you are saying about a grey area, that is why my initial post question about it being a mortal sin. If I know about it and I am benefitting from it then aren’t I just as guilty?
 
Water I can only tell you the requirements for where I live, you need special permits. For one thing, It has to be owner occupied, Meaning that whatever home the apartment is in the owner of that home has to also live in some part of it. It has to have special Building Code viariances, Fire exits, Drainage, Storm windows and screens. ETC.
 
Nordar said:
Water I can only tell you the requirements for where I live, you need special permits. For one thing, It has to be owner occupied, Meaning that whatever home the apartment is in the owner of that home has to also live in some part of it. It has to have special Building Code viariances, Fire exits, Drainage, Storm windows and screens. ETC.
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Thank you, Nordar!
 
I am confused. It sounds like you are describing a rental house, not an apartment. Do you live in the USA? I am still unclear why this is “illegal”? Wouldn’t this be a rental house? Can you not rent out a house where you live? That seems strange.

As for the sin, yes, I think there may be sin attached. We are required to abide by reasonable civil laws of where we live. I suspect occupancy laws, while they seem to be different than any part of the USA I am familiar with, are probably reasonable, if annoying.
 
I don’t understand why you are confused, I said apartment, it is an apartment in the front of the house.
 
Nordar said:
I don’t understand why you are confused, I said apartment, it is an apartment in the front of the house.
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Then you live in the house, the same building as the apartment, right? In an earlier post, you mentioned that the owner had to live in the same building. It sounds like you meet that.

I am going to speculate that this is not an illegal apartment. Most places permit owners of houses to let out rooms, even if they have separate entrances, without the rigors an aprtment complex has to meet. You may be okay.

I would encourage you to make an anonymous call to your local government office and ask about the rules of people letting out rooms in their home.

Another way of looking at this is that they are roomates. Of course, there is a strict separation between your belongings and theirs, but legally, and morally, I think you may be fine.
 
I’m sorry I do not mean to be argumentative with you but I am not asking whether or not this is or is not an illegal apartment. I know it is an illegal one. I know all about the town codes and Variances which this does not meet. Plus he applied for no permits when he put the apartment in, and The Owner being my ex who recieves the rent does not live in the house he lives someplace else. These are not roommates I do not know how to say this to you this is a seperate apartment.
 
Nordar said:
I’m sorry I do not mean to be argumentative with you but I am not asking whether or not this is or is not an illegal apartment. I know it is an illegal one. I know all about the town codes and Variances which this does not meet. Plus he applied for no permits when he put the apartment in, and The Owner being my ex who recieves the rent does not live in the house he lives someplace else. These are not roommates I do not know how to say this to you this is a seperate apartment.
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Okay, I think I understand a little better now.

And, no, I did not think you were being argumentative. 🙂

Hmm. Balancing sin, safety and justice. That is a difficult thing. Ask the people to move out because it is not legal to rent it to them may well result in both you and them having no place to live.

On the other hand, if you wait until the divorce goes through, your ex, by court decree, may be required to pay you maintenance (alimony) and/or cover the cost of the house.

Your desire to obey the laws of the land is correct. That must also be balanced against the authorities evicting the tenets of the apartment. They need time to find a new place.

Better yet, get a private building inspector to tell you what really needs to be done as well as a very approximate cost. This would be best for everyone, you, your soon-to-be ex and the people who are living there.

If you have a divorce lawyer, I would talk this over with him/her. If you do not, get one. You may be able to get a preliminary judgment requireing your soon-to-be ex to pay the require improvements. He may have to take out an equity loan to pay for it. Of course, with renters gone, he may not able to afford it, judge or no judge.

As for your initial question about sin. I do not believe you are completely culpable here. It seems, to a great extent that it is your soon-to-be ex-husband that is most culpable. However, you can do something to stop it so you have some responsibility as well, I think.

I am sorry your marriage has failed. I am glad you are turning to God and seek to be closer to Him and seek to identify any sinful attachments. You will be in my prayers.
 
I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand why renting out an illegal apartment would be a sin, let alone a mortal sin. After all, the government is not the Church. As a cradle Catholic, I was always taught that breaking a civil law is not a sin unless there is a moral law that you would be breaking at the same time. If you do break a law, however, with your eyes open, don’t be surprised if you have to pay a penalty.

For example, if you deliberately went the wrong way on a one-way street, you would be doing something against the 5th commandment - you would be endangering the bodily well-being of the people going down the street the right way.

If there is an apartment in your house that you are renting out, I just can’t see where you are hurting someone. It would be like you crossed the street against a red light at 2:00 a.m. when no cars were coming. It is pretty hard to imagine that being a sin. If people are living there, wouldn’t it be a greater sin to kick them out of their home for no good reason?

If a divorce is in the works, the rental of this illegal apartment would be something to run by your lawyer. Remember what Jesus said when an ox fell in a hole on the Sabbath. The Pharisees thought it was wrong to pull an ox out of a hole on the Sabbath. Jesus said that it was perfectly okay.
 
rpp said:
Okay, I think I understand a little better now.

And, no, I did not think you were being argumentative. 🙂

Hmm. Balancing sin, safety and justice. That is a difficult thing. Ask the people to move out because it is not legal to rent it to them may well result in both you and them having no place to live.

On the other hand, if you wait until the divorce goes through, your ex, by court decree, may be required to pay you maintenance (alimony) and/or cover the cost of the house.

Your desire to obey the laws of the land is correct. That must also be balanced against the authorities evicting the tenets of the apartment. They need time to find a new place.

Better yet, get a private building inspector to tell you what really needs to be done as well as a very approximate cost. This would be best for everyone, you, your soon-to-be ex and the people who are living there.

If you have a divorce lawyer, I would talk this over with him/her. If you do not, get one. You may be able to get a preliminary judgment requireing your soon-to-be ex to pay the require improvements. He may have to take out an equity loan to pay for it. Of course, with renters gone, he may not able to afford it, judge or no judge.

As for your initial question about sin. I do not believe you are completely culpable here. It seems, to a great extent that it is your soon-to-be ex-husband that is most culpable. However, you can do something to stop it so you have some responsibility as well, I think.

I am sorry your marriage has failed. I am glad you are turning to God and seek to be closer to Him and seek to identify any sinful attachments. You will be in my prayers.
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Thank you I can use the prayers, asking them to move would definately be out of the question my soon to be ex is not the nicest person. Asking him to put up the money to make the apartment legal that is most definately out of the question.

I know the tenants would need time to find a place to live, I just started to think that I was committing a mortal sin by knowing that the apartment was illegal. I didn’t want to ask my attorney I figured because he is Jewish he would think I was nuts if I gave him the reason for wanting to know.🙂 I am going to pray and I am just going to have to do what my conscience tells me to do.
 
Nordar said:
Thank you I can use the prayers, asking them to move would definately be out of the question my soon to be ex is not the nicest person. Asking him to put up the money to make the apartment legal that is most definately out of the question.

I know the tenants would need time to find a place to live, I just started to think that I was committing a mortal sin by knowing that the apartment was illegal. I didn’t want to ask my attorney I figured because he is Jewish he would think I was nuts if I gave him the reason for wanting to know.🙂 I am going to pray and I am just going to have to do what my conscience tells me to do.
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I have heard it said there are three people we should never withold anything from, your prierst, your doctor and your lawyer. It doesn’t matter your lawyer thinks, in order to properly represent you and your needs your lawyer should know about this. He may be able to offer you some innovative solutions!

As for your ex not being open to the idea of improvements, the court may not give him much of a choice. That is why your lawyer needs to know. For example, part of the divorce settlement may be to make these improvements so that you can continue living there. You mentioned you were disabled so I assume your income is low or non-existent but you have some high expenses. The renters basically make it possible for you live there rent free. Spending a few thousand dollars, which can be recovered by a small increase in rent, to make improvements may, in the long run, be cheaper for your ex than many of the alternative. For example, in return for making the improvements, you could ask for lower alimony since you will not have to pay rent.

In fact, if presented to him properly, he can be shown to be a triple win.
He pays less alimony to you and he is not fined or penalized for the illegal apartment, you get a rent-freee home, and your tenents get the enjoy the improvements with only a modest increae in rent rather than begin forced to move.

Good luck. I will continue to pray for you.
 
Unless you are the owner, I would see no need to “drop the dime” on your about to be ex-husband. If he owns it and he gets caught, its his problem. If you own it and do not want to risk being caught, then you have a problem that requires some action. I hardly think any mortal sin is involved unless the place is a fire trap or something.
 
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