Change of Use: R2 Duplex to R1 SFR with attached ADU

[Tess Sweet]

We purchased a duplex in the City of Los Angeles.  It is on an R2-1 lot (zoning regs. allow R2 or R1 use. We live in the front unit and are preparing to rent the rear unit. ( I am not a contractor, but have a lot of construction experience and have always worked on my own house. ) As I attempt to make minor repairs, such as replacing a stove hood, I have been told that because it is a rental unit, I have to hire a contractor to pull the permit and perform the work.  They said I can do it in the unit that I occupy as my residence, but not in the back rental unit.   

There has been other unexpected red tape that we are dealing with as well, and it is all based on the fact that the building is a duplex (income property). Meanwhile, next door to us, also an R2-1 lot, there is a single family residence, and a newly completed 1150 sqft ADU (bigger than the original SFR). The owner rents both the SFR and the ADU, however, is allowed to pull permits and do work on both because it is not under the Housing dept (HCIDLA) jurisdiction because it is still viewed as an SFR.

Our possible solution is to change our use of the lot to a SFR (the front unit we live in) and then permit the rear unit as an attached ADU. (note: ADU's still fall under RSO (rent stabilization) but not SCEP (systematic code enforcement program) which is where we have encountered the red tape.

We are unable to find anything in zoning that says we can't change our use. And an attached ADU is legal and accepted in the ADU ordinance.

Questions:

1. does anybody know of anything within the L. A. City codes or ordinances that would prohibit us from doing this?

2. Would it somehow negatively affect our property value and/or create problems in the future if we try to sell the property?

[Nabil Suleiman]

@Tess Sweet

Hi, May I ask who is telling you that you can not pull owner builder for your home?

and I would leave it as a duplex. If you have a detached garage you can still turn that into an ADU and have three units to rent out.

1. I think I answered above

2. yes, but the questions I would ask are. A) how many duplexes are around you? AKA if you do sell in the future, are there comps to support an appraisal? B) a duplex you can separate all utilities, vs an ADU will be sharing partial utilities with the SFH. (ways around this but not awesome)

These are my opinions.