Three is company, four is a crowd, and five is illegal.
Students looking for off-Grounds housing should be aware of a Charlottesville ordinance that prohibits more than four unrelated people from living in a single housing unit.
Charlottesville Planning Manager Ron Higgins said about half a dozen cases are brought up each year, but usually the landlord settles the complaint before court action is needed.
City Councilman Blake Caravati said the landlord could choose to evict tenants to bring the total of unrelated people to four or less.
Should a case go to court, fines for violating this zoning ordinance range from $100 to $1,000 and the property owner or landlord and not the tenant would be considered at fault, Higgins said.
City Councilman David Toscano said the ordinance is designed to prevent certain neighborhoods from becoming too dense.
University students violate the ordinance the most, Toscano said.
"I don't know of a case where students weren't involved," he said.
Higgins said almost every community is concerned about overcrowding, which is why Charlottesville adopted the law.
But Charlottesville officials do not enforce the ordinance very often.
Caravati said the enforcement is generally complaint-driven, but sometimes officials sweep through neighborhoods to find violators.
And there are always exceptions to the rules.
Houses or apartments built before 1984, when Charlottesville adopted the ordinance, are grandfathered and therefore not subject to the restriction, Higgins said.
Most fraternities and sororities are exempt, since their buildings predate 1984, he said.
Other such houses built after 1984 usually were granted permits at the time of construction to allow more than four unrelated people to live together.
But the grandfather clause affects more than just Greek houses.
Higgins said University expansion during the 1960s and '70s converted many houses to student rental units.
There was "a lot of pressure to accommodate students," he said.
He added that many of the houses that advertise a large number of bedrooms likely were converted before 1984 and are exempt from the four-person restriction.
Toscano said some residents have tossed around the idea of lowering the limit of the ordinance to three.
But he said the city first must enforce the law they have.
"I think [lowering the limit] would be very problematic," he added.
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