Homeowners have been contacting the office looking for information on solutions to the issue of now needed an egress window in their lofts to claim it as a bedroom for short term rentals. Jack Venable, the Architecture Review Committee Chair who will process any applications for changes to your unit, spent much of his career in the Planning Department in Auburn. You can contact him at architectural-review-chair@carnelianwoods.org.
The building code has been clear since the 1960s on the egress requirement (a window or door to the outside) for bedrooms. It appears that the county is now enforcing that definition on rooms allowed as bedrooms for short term rentals. While neither Jack or the HOA can make any guarantees as to what the county will allow or not allow, any changes to you unit must go through Jack’s committee and be approved by the board, so its a good place to start.
Our website does allow comments on blog posts to allow homeowners to discuss and exchange information. If you’d like to ask or share information about loft egress windows, feel free to comment below. All comments are moderated to prevent spam, so your comment will show up after it is approved.
I removed the beds from my loft space and converted it into a den with a pullout sleeper sofa. The county reinspected for STR and it passed. In order to pass you must remove all beds from your lofts, or rent for >30 days at a time which no longer makes it a STR and not under the same guidelines.
@Jeff, but did you need to change the number of beds in your listing (i.e. still sleeps the same number of people)?
When I had my inspection the lady told me that they wouldn’t even allow a sleeper sofa in the loft either. I had a futon up there and was told it needed to be removed. I’ve now removed all beds and just made it another living area upstairs and bought a new sleeper sofa for the living room (since it has the balcony door as egress). also have a roll away bed now that could be used in the loft and is stored in the closet in the upstairs bedroom.
We were reinspected last week and passed. But we also had to remove the bunkbeds from the loft and reconfigured another bedroom with them. We would like to put a window in the loft, but heard that since access out of the window would be over our neighbors unit, that we could not put a window in that wall. Evidently because we are condominiums and we own the land as opposed to town houses where the land is common property to the HOA.
But we also heard from our property manager that one unit was approved for a window and it wasn’t an end unit where you wouldn’t have that problem. Anyone heard about that?
Hi, ask Jack Venable about any windows that have been approved (he’s the “Architectural Committee” and a homeowner).