adding a half bathroom

has anyone added a half bathroom or a bathroom in your house, and if so, did it cause your taxes to rise a great deal?

We have a bar area downstairs in our den that I would love to turn into a half bath but DH is against this, saying that it will make our taxes go up a lot on top of the high taxes we already pay. Just was wondering if anyone has done this and your experience.

Re: adding a half bathroom

In the Town of Islip, they don't care how many bathrooms you have (as long as it's at least one). They care about about total square footage, and number of bedrooms. Offices, libraries, playrooms, etc., all count as bedrooms.

Re: adding a half bathroom

It shouldn't really make a significant difference in taxes. Things like decks, pools, adding half baths or full baths, etc. don't really have a big impact on taxes. Something like a dormer or extension would cause more of an increase (because of increase in square footage), but even then, it's often not as much as people anticipate.

Just be aware that if you do it, and get the permit and C/O for it - the town will have to come in to do the inspections. So anything else in your house that doesn't have C/Os and isn't up to code will likely be noted and then you will have to "legalize" everything or remove it. I don't know if that's an issue for you or not, but I just know from experience that if a client has to bring the town in to legalize an extension, then all of a sudden a can of worms gets opened and they have to deal with the deck, extra bath, etc., etc. You can't selectively get C/Os if not everything in your house has them (unless you get lucky, and the town inspector doesn't notice!).

Re: adding a half bathroom

Message edited 1/27/2014 7:00:40 PM.