Southern California ADU (SB-13) granny flat

[Robert Geiser]

Hello, any southern Californian real estate investors building ADUs now that SB-13 was signed by governor Newsom? I own a property that I’m trying to get an adu (granny flat) permitted but my local city is being very difficult to work with. They have not adopted all from SB-13 as the effectivity date is 1/1/20. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Tim G.]

I'm also in the process of understanding the new legislation. Which seems to be aimed at stopping certain cities from creating barriers to building ADU's.

Ultimately waiting until the law is effective is likely going to be your only option, thankfully that is not too far away. 

I'm no expert on the topic, but what I am doing to get a better idea of things is the following. 

Drive your neighborhood, if you see a completed or active construction of an ADU go introduce yourself and ask as many questions as you can. Process, cost, time frame etc. Most folks are really eager to share about the experience, you can also find subs/contractors by doing this.

Look up to see if your city is doing any events on the topic, my city is doing a forum at city hall to help residents understand the process. Its likely many cities are scrambling to comply with the new laws and they are certainly in our favor to speed up the process and reduce our costs. 

Be ready to deal with stupid rules that apply to us for reasons that don't always make sense. Accept it and find a way to make it work. Taking the path to least resistance when it comes to building departments and focusing on the end goal (a cash flowing unit) over it having a specific size or design that we wanted. 

I'm really excited to continue discussions, I can't stress how helpful visiting other ADU projects is. I found plans sitting at one and obtained the owners number from it, called them and now we're sharing ideas and resources. Don't be shy, get creative in finding them and asking questions.