A bedroom may be required to have a window (and a closet), but an office, dining room, or "bonus" room doesn't. Thus you have apartments or houses, where people sleep in offices, dining rooms, etc. Legislating this just causes people to work around it.
NYC has a law that for a room to be legally called a bedroom, it must have a window that's not on a lot line. I can't believe California doesn't have a law like that.
You definitely need a window to qualify as a bedroom. It has to meet certain requirements that basically boil down to "could a 10-year-old escape a fire through this window?" Although "not falling to death after climbing out" isn't a requirement.
I believe technically a bedroom in the US is also supposed to have a built-in closet of some sort and a door that closes the space off. Lack of either of these often means a room is marketed as an office.
I'm a recent NYC transplant. In past places I've lived (VA, DC, MN) it's definitely the law that a bedroom must have an egress window — not just a window, but one that opens and is large enough you could exit through it in case of a fire.
In New York, either that isn't the law, or it just gets violated a lot more often. Since moving here I've seen a surprising number of places where the bedroom has no windows.
However, there is definitely no requirement (in any state I've lived in) for a bedroom to have a closet. Some do, many don't.
> In the United States, a room must have a closet to be considered a bedroom.
Source? I can't find any that confirm that using actual codes (at least on a national scale), and many (from sellers and lenders, no less) that rebut it [0][1], nor do I see it in the FHA housing policy handbook [2, PDF]. It's possible that real estate businesses customarily don't let you market bedrooms without closets, but that's not regulation.
I'm be curious if you could have pushed back on the bedrooms one. The term "bedroom" has a legal definition in many places (ex, must have door and closed).
I think this line of reasoning is completely unsubstantiated. I sleep in a room with a window covered up, which I never open, and it’s just fine. Because I don’t spend my whole day in that room. Asserting that it’s some kind of a giant problem for undergrads to sleep in a windowless room, when that building has plenty of well lit common space with windows, is just absurd.
All of those things I listed are things I've either done, or that someone I know has done. Arguing that you need windows or a private room is ridiculous. You do not need them, though they're a reasonable want that nearly everyone has. Not having a private room to sleep in didn't kill me, it doesn't kill the billions of people who do it, and it wouldn't kill you.
The broader point here is that whittling away everything nice about your life to be "economically efficient" (as per the original comment I replied to) is a terrible idea unless you've got no alternative. People should have nice things, like windows and kitchens, and they should have better reasons than economic efficiency for giving them up. I don't think you or I disagree on this.
It should be noted that this act doesn't define what a bedroom is, it only says that a room is available as sleeping accommodation if it's a type of room that's normally used as a bedroom or a living room. This would likely rule out larger kitchens with a bed in them but I'd be surprised if a living room/kitchen combo are ruled out given that studio flats with a combined bedroom/living room/kitchen are fine.
i don't like to sleep in a room without windows. i like to see the night sky or signs of life outside my room, and most importantly i hate waking up in the dark. i would switch universities or sue if forced to accept a windowless room.
According to bobvila.com, it's a difference between safety codes and assessing the property.
> Fittingly, property assessors will follow the same bedroom definition when determining the number of bedrooms in a given home—that is, it must have a door, a closet, and an egress window. It is in the interest of homeowners, sellers, and buyers to know the subtle bedroom definition differences between the safety/builder perspective and the real estate/home value perspective, and to know one’s state and local guidelines for determining what can and cannot be considered a bedroom.
I don't blame the mayor too much, if someone high-profile is breaking a law, it makes sense to investigate, as otherwise it might inspire people to imitate. That said, I think it's ridiculous that a company office can't have beds. Lord knows silicon valley was founded on engineers sleeping under their desks (Amazon and Microsoft as well). THAT said, there is probably some reason that there are laws against in-office beds, and those reasons should be seriously taken into consideration.
Fire code. in the US all bedrooms must have a window large enough that a human can use to get out in case of fire. You don't need to be able to get to the ground - it is enough that you can wave to the firemen who then bring a ladder to get you out. Firemen are also trained to check rooms with a window first for someone who might still be alive but too far gone to get to the window. Any room without a window is not a safe place to sleep.
Sometimes when you are buying real estate you will see "non-conforming bedroom) which means a room that looks like a bedroom and you might use as one at your own risk as you can't get out. (This might also mean it would be a bedroom if there was a closet as well - you have to figure out what it means)
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