San Francisco- Multiunit building- legalizing 3rd unit

[Matthew Wright]

Hi BP members, I have a building in San Francisco that is classified as a 2 unit building, in reality it is x3 apartments, the ground floor work was done prior to acquisition and not permitted. I do not want to turn into a x3 unit building due to creation of HOA etc. Medium term I would likely look to combine the middle and lower units. For the ground floor (non-permitted) we need to do some bathroom improvements which are not presently to code. I would do these to current code standards, and other smaller alterations all to code, without gaining permits. Then when it comes time to legalize, looking to get everything approved at once, with the data point that it was built to code in the past. Does anyone have experience legalizing prior no-permitted additions in SF and can advise if this is a good or terrible idea?

Thanks!!

[Amit M.]

@Lawrence Leung yeah, that card is pretty scary. The equivalent of ambulance chasers of the housing industry in SF, I guess :(

Good advice above btw. That person should get an architect that is familiar with S.F. Byzantine planning and landlording regulations. Definitely not a try it yourself affair!

Most important thing: IF the city has no “records” of the inlaw (no NOV on it, no mention in rent board records), AND it’s not occupied, then the best thing to do is demo the kitchen right away! Get rid of the kitchen before any discussions with the city...otherwise you risk revealing to them yourself that it was an inlaw unit! (A Kitchen defines it as a “unit” vs just a few rooms downstairs.) Many times the illegal unit was never realized by the city, so just undo the kitchen and pretend it never existed. Much cleaner slate for presenting future developments to the city for approval. 

Keep us posted on this forum if you proceed forwards.