What is an in-law apartment?

A description for in-law apartments is a small apartment accessory to a larger house. It may or may not have a communicating door to the main house. Many are located above the garage of the main house or as a separate building in the rear yard. Those apartments are usually used to accommodate an elderly relative who is not capable of living on his own, but is not ready for a nursing home environment.

In-law apartments are built inside other homes. Some in-law apartments may have separate entrances.  For some insurance companies, the separate entrance is key. In-law apartment is considered to be a separate unit if it has its own utilities and a separate entrance and considers already being a two-family dwelling. The structure is covered under the homeowners policy except contents. In this case the occupant of the in-law apartment must have renters insurance to cover the contents and his/her liability.

In-law apartment is a part of the main dwelling and even a separate entrance and separate utilities alone do not a break up dwelling make. Since in-law apartments are parts of one’s dwellings, it is covered under the homeowners coverage. If the occupant is a family member, any of the furnishings and contents would also be under the main homeowners policy and so would be the liability.

If the apartment is deemed separate, the structure will usually be covered under the homeowners policy, but the contents may not. In this case, the in-law apartment is considered a separate dwelling and anyone living there needs renters insurance. If an in-law apartment is seen as a separate dwelling, but the contents belong to the owner of the main home, then these amenities are covered only up to $2,500, the sum that includes things such as carpeting and appliances.

If it is decided that the area will be covered under an existing homeowners policy, be sure you have enough coverage for the additional space and its contents. Accessory apartments cause little concern when they are in commercial zones and only modest concern when they are a long-established presence in a neighborhood.

Many town residents are hoping that most in-law apartments will be banned because they’ve had bad experiences with them in their neighborhood and they want it to stop. Many other town residents hope that their apartments will be made legal, if in fact they are not legal now. The state government opposes more housing units being built on overcrowded barrier islands. The federal government becomes increasingly vigilant about illegal space being enclosed bellow the “flood elevation.” This means that they are not properly elevated.

During the initial discussions last fall, a broad outline of regulatory techniques were considered, ranging from very lenient to very strict rezoning of neighborhoods to legalize extra units, amnesty for everything that exists today and for all units that are registered with the town within a fixed period, inspections of extra units to determine whether they comply with existing codes, and removal of all units that were built without all proper permits.