Rental Property Egress and Overcrowding Issues

For residential landlords, improper egress and overcrowding can present serious safety threats to the occupants of their rental properties. To address these issues, minimum housing codes have requirements that establish proper egress (or exits) and safe occupancy limits for residential dwelling units.

And because landlords are responsible to ensure that their rental units are not overcrowded and have proper egress, compliance with these minimum code issues is absolutely necessary.

The following provides a "general overview" of egress and overcrowding issues as they pertain to residential rental property in minimum housing codes. It is considered general because exact housing code requirements are different depending on locality. In this regard, you will have to obtain the exact code requirements for your particular area.

Occupancy and Overcrowding

For residential rental properties, each dwelling unit shall have at least "x" square feet of floor space for the first occupant; "y" square feet for each of the next two occupants; "z" square feet for each of the next three occupants; and "w" square feet of additional floor space for each occupant thereafter.

In addition, every room occupied for sleeping purposes shall have at least "v" square feet of floor area for one occupant or "u" square feet of floor area for each occupant if more than one.

Example: The minimum housing code in Landlord City, USA specifies the following floor area square footage guidelines for determining occupancy limits:

"x" = 150 square feet
"y" = 100 square feet
"z" = 75 square feet
"w" = 50 square feet
"v" = 70 square feet
"u" = 50 square feet

Based on these code requirements, what will be the occupancy limit for a 625 square foot apartment located in Landlord City, USA? This apartment includes two bedrooms, each totaling 150 sf of floor area.

Occupancy limit (based on overall apartment size of 625sf)
= (1 x 150sf) + (2 x 100sf) + (3 x 75sf) + (1 x 50sf) = 625sf
= 1 + 2 + 3 + 1
= 7 occupants

Occupancy limit (based on the two 150sf bedrooms)
= (150sf/50sf) + (150sf/50sf)
= 3 + 3
= 6 occupants

Therefore, the occupancy limit is the lesser of the two, or 6 occupants.

Dwelling Egress Requirements

Proper egress is necessary to allow occupants to quickly and safely exit the dwelling, especially in case of a life-threatening emergency such as a fire. Most minimum housing codes require at least two safe, unobstructed means of egress from each dwelling unit.

For this reason, many (if not all) minimum housing codes prohibit cellars and basements from being used as dwelling units due to their lack of adequate egress.

And that covers the main aspects of rental property egress and overcrowding / occupancy issues. For landlords, these are serious issues that require housing code compliance because of their impact on occupant safety.

For more information on egress and overcrowding issues, please visit The Landlord's Library book collection. It's your one-stop source for practical, comprehensive information on the entire subject of residential landlording - the only source you'll ever need.