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!