Coverting to Legal ADU - NELA

[Erin T.]

Hello BP commmunity! My family and I live in NELA (Highland Park/Eagle Rock) and have an illegal ADU in our backyard (studio, approx 400SQFT, bathroom, no kitchen). We don't now exactly when it was built but it's probably in the last 20 years.

We've been using it for when friends/family visit, but as we look to move out in the next couple of years, we're considering renting out our main house and also converting the guest house into a legal ADU.  So far we've had two quotes on the conversion. Both told us we need to demolish the current dwelling and start from scratch to be legal.  Both quotes to do so were in the $300K range, and said it would take about a year.

Has anyone out there been in this predicament? It seems if we want to make this legal, we need to start from the beginning, which is kind of a shame because the structure is livable, so just wanted to see if we have any other options. I believe the previous owner rented it out becaus we still get mail for the tenants... Thank you! 

[Will Barnard]

I too agree with Joel, do NOT call the city and have them come out!!! I too am a GC and developer and I also specialize in ADU's. I have done many deals in NELA for both clients and my own portfolio. Garages are not "livable space" either yet we convert them all the time and it does save some money since you have some walls, roof, etc.

Best bet for you is to have an experienced contractor familiar with ADU builds/conversions come out to look at your site. Within 15-30 mins of a site visit, I can assess and deliver pertinent info for potential options and then costs after that.

I will repeat, do not call the city, but do look up permit records from LADBS. I will also state that the advice given by another above about renting it out the way it is and "who cares" is not good advice. If you rent it out the way it is (non legal and non habitable) and someone gets injured or dies, your insurance carrier is likely not going to cover you since you were negligent by renting what you knew was not legal or safe. Is that risk worth it to you? It would not be to me!