All Forum Posts by: Derek Daun

@Sue M.

It’s code for multiple things:

“I bought the property for cheap and am only selling because values are so high.”

“It won’t cash flow at current rents”

“I don’t want to be the bad guys and raise rents, which will likely require the current tenants to move, even though I know the buyer will do exactly that.”

FYI: Following up on this thread. For one this is custom build, so I expect the price to be higher than cookie cutter. I did get a quote from an architect, and his quote was about 15k, not actually including the engineering drawings, which would be extra as wells as title 24. We went with the non-architect designer for half the price, and have been super happy so far.

HD Supply Home Improvement off of Mather Field. (I think there might be north of Watt/80 as well) They offer multiple options of different quality in flat pack boxes or higher quality solid wood prebuilt. I've used the cheapest white flatpack ones in a couple of remodels and they've held up good over the years. I also like getting my kitchen appliances for rentals there as well, since they actually keep them in stock. No more waiting for deliveries. They have one line of stainless steel and one line of white, both in the optimum rental grade quality/price range. 

@Paul Dashevsky The quote doesn't include Title 24, but they have a referral for that, for an extra $300. 

They don't provide any plan processing with the city; that will my responsibility. They follow through on any issues through the permit being issued though. The CA state law prohibiting cities from standing in the way of ADUs had cleared a lot of the red tape though. 

@Dennis Maynard - Yeah, we've had a potential meeting scheduled with an architect as well, but Covid messed up his schedule. He would have been our second quote for comparison. Now we're debating just going with the proposal we have in hand if the architect doesn't follow through.

I was wondering what the expected going costs would be for design and engineering plans for an accessory dwelling unit and garage. We are planning on putting an ADU in our backyard to use as a rental for visiting medical professionals (we're right next to UC Davis Hospital), and as the occasional place for family to stay. With the new statewide ADU laws, it's really a no brainer from a cost standpoint since we have a huge yard, alley access, need to build a garage anyway. It would pull in 1500-2000 a month in rent.

Proposal would be approximately 30x(20-25)sqft footprint. (600-750sqft) Garage/workshop on the bottom, living space upstairs. 

I received a quote from a design firm I've used in the past for $8500. That includes everything needed for permitting and plans ready to give to contractors. This was little higher than I was expecting for this firm, since they are just a designer/drafter and an engineer. (no architect). But then again, they are fairly busy these days. This is my first time doing a project this big. Is this a reasonable ball park?

Seems completely reasonable. It's great to see they're calling this a 'compromise' even though Mayor Steinburg pretty much got everything he wanted. The pro-rent control side is also calling this a victory, which will give landlords a lot of cover. 

@Russell Brazil - I completely agree that the rent control policies started in some cities in the 70s-90s did exactly that, but this policy is different if you look at the details. 6% - 10% annual increase is enough to keep up with market rates in the long term around here. 120 days to back control of a unit to do what ever you want with it is more than enough time. This won't have negative market consequences classical rent control had.

This is also a great defense against more extreme rent control. It impacts the extreme cases rent control advocates claim to care about.

Quick update: I changed out the flex pipe just to make sure. Interestingly, after testing everything, I came back about 5 minutes later, and there was a gas smell around the burners that wasn't there when I had turned them off. This fits the description from the tenant, and points to a thermal expansion leak inside the piping going to the burners. Ugh, I can only imagine how difficult this will be to get the warranty to cover.

@John Warren. Switching the stove is a good idea. I had kind of considered it, but ruled it out as being to much of a hassle, but now that I think about it, it's going to be one of the next steps. This tenant is one of my charity cases, so I can justify swapping it with an older oven from a house with market rate tenants down the street.

I have a potentially small and intermittent gas leak in a house that's becoming a real pain. And before you immediately chime in with 'call the gas company right away', I already did that. That's why it's becoming a pain.

It started when I was getting ready for a city rental inspection when my inherited tenant casually mentioned that I should keep the fans in the kitchen on, as she uses them to keep away the smell of gas that has been coming and going since the stove was replaced 10 months ago. Apparently she didn't think it noteworthy to mention this to me before that. Would have been nice to know when it was installed, to have the installer/manufacturer deal with it. Anyway; I take a look, and don't smell anything, but tell her to call me next time it happens. A couple weeks later it happens again; she has the fans on when I get there, so I still don't smell anything. I call PGE (gas company) regardless. 

PGEs tech comes out, and makes a comment regarding 'what is it this time'. Apparently he's been out here before (I've only owned the place for a little over a year). He uses the sniffer around the range and find nothing. Leak tests the house - finds a leak at the meter (which is outside, and not close to kitchen) - but the house line looks sealed. Sniffed around the hot water heater -fine, but he does flag a cut in the plug gasket where the ignition assembly enters the combustion chamber. He says its an okay short term fix while waiting for the gasket part, but as the gas company, he can't leave the house with it like that. He says that wouldn't be the issue anyway, and he thinks tenant is simply leaving the knobs turned on the range.  Then he gets called out on an emergency call - so he turns the gas off and leaves for a couple of hours. 

I'm not there when he returns, but I understand he unhooks the gas line to the water heater, turns the gas back on, and inspects the stove some more. He tells her to use the hood, thinking she is just complaining about the gas you smell when you ignite the burners. As far as I know he didn't test the water heater with it actually ignited.

I ordered an OEM ignition system for the hot water heater, and in the meantime put some gasket sealant on the plug, and hooked it back up.

Well, 4 days later I get a call from the tenant saying the entire house smelled like gas again. I go over there right away. She has all the doors open with a fan running, but there is very slight smell of gas around the stove. I check for leaks everywhere around the range using soapy water, and get nothing. I notice the oven knob isn't completely in the off position, but that shouldn't matter since the oven gas (unlike the burners) is triggered by the thermostat current, not the knob position.

The tenant is a little flaky, but is generally competent in taking care of things, and would  know if she is leaving the range on. I also talked to the daughter when she was over, and she confirmed having smelled gas previously, and the first thing they check is the knobs on the range.

I assume if it was always leaking, the pressure check on the line would have caught it, so I assume it's intermittent. Any theories?

My thoughts:

• Something on the stove. Range burners seem unlikely since the mechanisms are so simple. Maybe the oven ignition system. The tenant seems to think it happens after she has used the range, so possible jostling the oven slightly opens the oven gas relay?
• Hot water heater. It's outside in a hot water heat closet, but it does butt up against the exterior kitchen in wall. It seems possible, but unlikely, that some sort of leak could be penetrating through the wall penetrations, and someway working it's way into the kitchen. A possibility of being intermittent could be if there is a leak between the line going from the ignition assemble to the burner. Then it would only leak when the water heater was on. Seems unlikely.
• Furnace is on the roof, so that seems very unlikely. 
• Tenant is going crazy. She has had some mental health history problems, and could be trolling herself with the gas burners.