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Laws Against Tiny Houses and Ways Around Them

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It’s no accident that America is the land of the McMansion. Our laws prevent us from building tiny houses. Even when laws don’t actively prevent it, it is hard to get a construction loan if your new house isn’t appraisable at much more than your old home, so you are pushed to build bigger than you need by mortgage companies.

But here’s a builder couple that got around those laws.

Their tiny house idea was new for the area, and it wasn’t easy to get permission.

So, instead of building one tiny house, they built four – on a multifamily lot. By totaling the square footage were able to get around the minimum square footage requirement. They had wanted to build a simple beach house for under $100,000.

Laurie Kazimir and her husband, Christian have been building and selling houses for the past 5 years on the Olympic Peninsula, on the coast of Washington, where,  as she puts it they “breathe the best rated air in the country”.

By designing their tiny home within a development, they were able to overcome all the red tape, and create a true small home community. This same concept could be implemented in other towns and cities that would not normally allow a small square footage home.

For a cottage at the beach, that might be used only a couple of weeks a year, this is a great idea.
Images: Belmar Cottages
Source: Tiny House Blog