Indeed, MIL has been making do without one for years. SIL made the downstairs into an inlaw apt., but could not get a permit to put in a second kitchen. As long as they left the range out, it was OK, so they used a counter top convection oven instead.

That sounds like a pretty ridiculous code, to me, actually. My parents had 2 stoves in the house in which I grew up - 1 in the kitchen and 1 in the basement. There were no code issues, at least that I knew of. Of course it wasn't beyond D.O.D. to not bother getting a building permit to just hookup a stove. It's an appliance for goodness sake. It's not part of the building. Insurers consider range/ovens personal property, the same as refrigerators, washers and dryers. On holidays Mom would bake a turkey in the oven in the basement and cakes and/or pies in the kitchen oven, or she just baked everything in the basement oven to keep the main floor cooler, depending on how much she was baking. I don't get that code.

Bob