ADU Emergency - City of Los Angeles

[Erin T.]

Hello BP community!

My family and I live in NELA (Highland Park/Eagle Rock) and we had an unpermitted ADU in our backyard. After attempts to get it approved as legal were denied, we demolished the existing structure last fall in order to build a new one.

As of today our contractor informed us that the City of LA told him we cannot get the permits for the ADU UNLESS we completely update our main house to bring it into code. Apparently there's no record of a Certificate of Occupancy issued for our main house. Our main house was built in 1923 and since it's so old, there areas of the house that are not up to code such as insulation, electrical, etc. I don't think it makes financial sense for us to do that just to build a legal ADU. 

Has anyone heard of this issue before? I see ADUs being built all across NELA, and I'm completely shocked at this news. If anyone has experienced this or has any advice for us, please let me know. Thank you!

[Dan H.]

As of the start of 2023, I believe the jurisdiction is not legally allowed to not permit the ADU for existing permit violations on existing structures. See SB897. Ideally just referencing this would be sufficient to show they cannot prevent an ADU for the reason they are trying to use.

The issue is HCD has shown to be toothless.  Jurisdictions that ignore the rules seem to be able to get away with it.  So this may take a while, but I suspect eventually the jurisdiction will relent.

As other post has already stated, the units built prior have different rules.  Unfortunately, I am experiencing an issue in San Diego county (City of Escondido) that I got a code violation for something that may have been done before permit was required.  The jurisdiction is making me prove it was done prior to the need for permit.  How am I going to do that?  Seeing they marked it as a permit violation, you think it would fall on them to show that the work was performed after the need for a permit.  I did not fight it as I expected the permit process to be reasonable, but now I wish I had fought it more as I have had multiple issues getting the permit.  It is stupid bureaucratic items.  I think it is crazy.

Good luck