Size the group to the house, not the house to the group. In Fairfield, the number of people who can live in a rental is set by the town, it is on our listings before you tour, and it does not move. Here is how to use that number instead of fighting it.
What sets the number of people in a house?
The Town of Fairfield requires a Certificate of Rental Occupancy for any rented dwelling unit, including a house, a condominium, an apartment, or a single room. The town's Health Department inspects the unit, and the certificate is tied to the tenancy, so the landlord applies again for each new group. The approved number of occupants comes out of that process, and it reflects life-safety factors like egress and the systems in the house.
So the number is not a landlord's opinion and not a negotiation. It is the town's number, which is exactly why we list every house at its legal occupancy and hold to it even when it costs us a group.
Is it one person per bedroom?
No, and this is the most common wrong assumption in a group chat. Bedroom count and approved occupancy are two different figures, and the second one is the one that governs.
For our houses it comes out like this. Houses on the beach are approved for four people. Houses off the beach are approved for five. A house with more bedrooms than that is still approved for the same number of people, so the extra room is a place to put a desk, not another housemate.
Which means you should not shop by bedroom count. Shop by the occupancy on the listing, then look at how the bedrooms are actually laid out when you tour.
So how big should our group be?
Work in this order.
- Agree on who is in. Get to a real list of names everyone has said yes to out loud, not a group chat full of maybes.
- Count the list. That is your number.
- Filter houses by approved occupancy first, then by street, layout, and everything else.
Groups that do it in the other order fall for a house, then try to make the number work, and that is the conversation where somebody gets left out.
What if we are one person over?
Tell us. If you are five people looking at a house on the beach approved for four, do not quietly plan on the fifth sleeping in the living room. That puts your housemates at risk and it puts the house's rental certificate at risk.
The good news is that this is usually a solvable problem in October. A group of five generally fits a house off the beach, and those blocks are a few minutes' walk from the same sand. We would rather find you that house now than say no in June.
What if our group is two or three?
Smaller groups have more options here than people expect. Nine of our houses are two-family buildings, and each unit is leased separately to its own group under its own lease. On our apply page those buildings are listed unit by unit, so a group of two or three can take one side of a house rather than trying to fill a whole building. We wrote about how renting by the unit works if that is your situation.
What should we do before we tour?
- Bring your final head count, not a range.
- Ask for the current Certificate of Rental Occupancy and the approved occupancy on it. Ask every landlord, not just us.
- Ask who applies for the new certificate when your group moves in, and when.
- Walk the bedrooms with your actual list in mind. Who is sharing, and is everyone fine with it in October, while it is still easy to say so.
Ready when you are
One person applies for the whole group at apply.lanternpointmanagement.com, picks the school year, and selects the houses that fit. Someone from our team calls back within two to three business days. Not sure what you need yet? Call or text (203) 418-7800 and we will talk it through, and the leasing process post covers what happens after that.
Source: Town of Fairfield Health Department, Certificate of Rental Occupancy. Lantern Point Management is an independent local landlord and is not affiliated with Fairfield University.