San Jose/Bay Area - Permitting/Expanding Unpermitted ADU

[Tom Goodwin]

Hi Everyone,

We are looking at potentially buying a house in San Jose. The house currently has a detached 1/1 ADU, around maybe 400 sq feet, which we are pretty sure wasn't permitted.

If we bought the house, I think we would like to extend the bedroom/bathroom out a decent amount. The original owner definitely prioritized the main loving space size over the bedroom/bathroom.

I have read through the new/updated rules about permitting Unpermitted ADUs, but not quite sure how the ideal sequence would go if we also want to expand it. We would certainly want to get it permitted, but the amnesty, etc only works for work down prior to 2020.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of scenario?

I was thinking something like:

1) get it inspected by the city.

2) fix/correct everything that needs to be fixed immediately per the inspector (seems likely mostly tied to safety)

3) work with a designer/architect/engineer to design the ADU expansion, while also incorporating any of the other issues that need to get fixed on the original ADU but that don't need to be immediately fixed,

4) get the permits for step #3,

5) build.

Thoughts? Thank you!

We are hoping to get my parents to move out here to spend half the year in the ADU.