I just finished one. Converted my garage to a 1bed 1bath in Atwater and the new tenant is signing the lease today.
A lot to type out for the whole process, happy to grab a coffee and go over all of it with you. I think there's a lot of income to be made by doing it in LA.
I did the design work and had a structural engineer draw up those plans. I went a little overboard vaulting the ceilings, adding sqft and some extras but I think the area calls for it and it makes a smaller space feel huge.
Specific to the ADU......
Property is on flat land so no hillside regs.
It's within .5 miles of public transportation so we're able to convert the garage and not have to put in covered parking.
Design was a little tricky since the original structure is non-conforming to the setbacks.
A huge issue people have been running into is changing more than 50% of the structure. The city will call it all new and then everything would have to be within the newer setback regs.
Gas and power are on new meters. Water is subbed. (utilities were the longest process so jump on them early)
@Frank Lin I am living in the primary. We haven't been reassessed yet....waiting for it though. Filled out all the paper for the county. From what I understand they typically only change the taxes for the new use or the additional sqft and not the entire property but I could be totally wrong. We'll see. Down for coffee. Shoot me a PM and we can set it up.
@Alicia Johnson that's odd they won't let you keep the existing building. They let us stay non-conforming for the existing structure but anything new had to be 5'. - Not sure how much you're planning to change.
I know this thread is old. I have a question. I'm building an ADU, fully permitted, by converting my garage. I live in Rancho Park.
I called SoCal Gas to ask them to set up a new meter. Our current meter is in an underground cubby in the parkway. The gas company said they would need to do two cuts in the street to separate out the lines and bring the meters onto my property. They said it would be $5k minimum to do that, which is insanely expensive.
Do others have experiences with this? Any potential solutions to this?
New to BP forums but really digging the podcasts as my LA work commute is long... can one convert a garage to ADU in LA WITHOUT adding new utilities ? That is I'm in escrow on a sfr with a converted garage that appears unpermitted. I'm trying to cost analyze to see if worth conversion to ADU or leave ‘as-is'. Thx for your thoughts/answers BP peeps !
Glad to see this thread! I am looking to buy a home that has an existing un-permitted garage conversion with bathroom and kitchenette. I know under the ADU ordinance it is possible to get the unit permitted but I am wary about opening up a can of worms if the conversion wasn't done to code. Has anyone taken on this type of project? What issues did you run into and what were your permit costs?
@Victor Viyuoh - The main zoning obstacles for ADUs are local setbacks and parking restrictions. I would call your local building department to get more information. Every city has it's own requirements.
@Victor Viyuoh - The main zoning obstacles for ADUs are local setbacks and parking restrictions. I would call your local building department to get more information. Every city has it's own requirements.
It is a good idea to call the city... but the state stepped in and made most of those requirements obsolete. Particularly the parking requirements.
@Alex Hepp, my partner and I built/building a few of these ADUs in OC, and every city has its own requirements; so check with them for their regulations. Be mindful with the permit fees and underground utilities, because those can add up tremendously.
I'm hoping to build one in the back of my home in North Hollywood area. I'm on a RD 1.5 lot and already have a small 3 unit building on it. Long story short, I'm in LA rent control area and it's not realistic to move the tenants but I would like to build a ADU to move into it myself. I know, weird but hey... rent control. Anyway, from what I gather it has to be zoned single family but I'm kinda single family with h the 1.5 zoning. However is the 3 units making me ineligible? In a perfect world I would tear down the garage and build a ADU above a new one or on paper keep it the same garage with additional ADU on top. Garage is a mess as it sits. Anyway if anyone wants to jump in on this that would be great. PM me or continue the convo. Superb thread BTW...
@Steve Knoll - You are correct, you aren't eligible for an ADU conversion since you have multiple units on the property. I talked to LADBS last month about this. I have a client with a 4plex who wanted to added another unit and they said its for SFRs only.
I would recommend giving them a call and seeing if you can squeeze any more SF onto the lot. You never know what options you have.
Yes I do! I'm currently working on two A.D.U'S. One is an 18'X18' garage and a 2 story 1146 sqf one. There both in L.A.
Two major components when doing an Adu foundation and a stem wall in the garages. Separate dwellings need to collect rain water by having planters but for the most part you need to collect them and barrels. This is a time to take advantage of the fact that we can add additional dwelling to single residence. I'm currently making offers on a few properties.
@Christopher Franco its awesome that you are being careful and doing your research on these companies. This bill is so new, companies aka Builders, real estate agents, solar panel companies, people renting licenses... are offering them for way below market price. City fees (3K-13k) , for a full set of Drawings ($2700-$8500) that's close to $15K just for permission, and "contractors" are selling them for $30K.
We have 3 clients that the builders took the money and ran.
At a networking event, I heard from one of our finance group of a company that sold over 30 ADU's... The company owner is in Panama with over 1.5 million while the contractor is claiming he rented out the license to him... Shady!!
@Alex Hepp unless the garage was converted and everything meets Green building code with an occupancy slip, its illegal. at least 60% of our conversions were illegally done. (Like the saying goes one pull to remove the bandage... dont try to take it off slowly.) We always start from the beginning giving the inspectors full transparency and none of the doubt. For every time the inspector says "I need this and this done right, ill come back next week" that's two days of lost work.
Hope this helps gentleman, I have to run but ill come back and share more tips. Peace!
Great thread. I am a homeowner, we are retired senior citizens and we need extra income to supplement our social security. We want to do a garage conversion. It's approx. 400 s.f. and we live in the van nuys area (kestrridge district to be exact). What should I expect to pay per s.f. for the conversion? and what can I expect to charge for rent? Thanks so much!!!
We interviewed multiple companies and went with one that will be about $160/sqft. We're using high quality materials and hired a very creative architect. We're stalled with the city of LA right now. If anyone wants to follow along in the process, you're more than welcome to.
Has anyone dealt with a garage conversion in the city of LA when the property is on a hill?
We're stalled with the city of LA right now. If anyone wants to follow along in the process, you're more than welcome to.
Has anyone dealt with a garage conversion in the city of LA when the property is on a hill?
Did you ever get your issues with the city resolved and what is the current status of your project? How did the property being on a hill affect your ADU?
Hi everyone, Really helpful information here. I am just putting things together for my garage conversion to an ADU, as I am willing to do as much as I can myself along the process (I just finished remodeling my kitchen and bathroom in the main house which included drywall, tiling, plumbing, etc... ). I've already spent a whole morning at LADBS to understand what were the ADU requirements in terms of zoning/electrical/plumbing, and I think the best solution for us as far as utilities would be to have everything connected to the main lines since we have solar panels. Not planning on putting gas, so it would be just water, electrical and sewage. I guess that the next step would be now to have an architect do the drawings for the permit application. The zoning office at LADBS told me that I would need foundation and frame plan. Are there any other plan I should be aware of that should be included in the application? @Andy Brohard, do you remember how long it took to get the permit issued?
@Julien Jorda once I had my plans together I got the permit approved same day. You have to have architectural, structural, green plans/notes and Title 24. It took a little bouncing around LADBS to get the sign off on address split and a handful of other things.
I did the architectural plans myself and hired a structural engineer off of those. Title 24 was quick and easy once all the plans were done.
@Andy Brohard Thanks for these info. For the achitectural plans, did you also have to add the details of the main house or did you just focus on the ADU itself ?
@Andy Brohard hey bud, i am in the process of building a detached ADU and went the same route you did, as far as making it as much DIY as possible.
I drew up my plans and had a structural engineer handle the important aspects he needed to. I submitted all my plans but was hoping you may be able to clear up some questions for me about utilities?
So gas is required for ADU since july 2018 ( new ordinance came out).
gas, water, electrical and you can add sub meter, sewer must be connected to the outside of the house, so for anyone doing that I suggest you get the company to tell you where the sewer is running, they pretty much run the camera down the clean out pipe and you figure out where to connect. Hope this helps. This thread helped me as well.