All Forum Posts by: John A Murray

Had intentions of doing this hands-on as owner-builder for (I hoped) around $40k, but instead hired a contractor total cost hands-off at $53k; 360sf garage conversion.
Most upset that the Long Beach Unified School District charged me $1,440 impact fees even with a letter from the Housing and Community Development Dep't stating that they can't charge me that fee. Worst part is nobody seems to be able to help. The School District just blew me off the greedy bastards!

Originally posted by @Amerfina Santiago:

@John A Murray any updates on your ADU?

Subsequent to my losing the internal kangaroo court with the Long Beach Unified School District I contacted all 5 School Board members and the Superintendant and Financial Manager. Waste of time. HCD has been helpful and I will be asking them for more help, like maybe the "Azusa School District" letter but addressed to Long Beach Unified as the situation is the exact same. I believe Long Beach Unified will still disregard and it's going to take the Attorney General to get action, unless someone has lots of attorney money to fight-and School District will fight (with our money).
Californians for Homeownership looks like a scam in my opinion. The email I got from their lawyer was comically rude. What a ....! Funny that you are in Irvine and they won't help you since on their website they boast about going after Irvine. Phony bastards in my opinion.
Should I just be glad the city has the integrity to follow the new law, unlike the Long Beach Unified School District?

Originally posted by @Nahid Alipour:

@John A Murray Thank you John for sharing your story. I thought I was the only one who had a bad experience with Californians for Homeownership. They told me flat right out to not contact them and remove them from the email thread.  I think if you contact the school district or the Mayor and report them for not following the state rules you might be able to get somewhere because HCD is not going to involve themself. Speaking from experience.  

As far as getting help for ADU issues I have not found ANYONE that be able to help. Because of my issue with the city regarding converting my garage and add above it for a two-story ADU I have spoken to anyone that has to do with ADU.

I have talked to one of the policymakers in HCD over probably 50 emails, the Department of finance, city Mayor, City attorney, the Californians for Homeownership, Regional Affairs Officer, Orange County,Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Orange County Projections (OCP), the Center for Demographic Research and still haven't anyone to help me but I still searching for someone to make the city understand. I think the next step is attorney general to see if he can help. Let's keep in touch and see how far we have to go.. 

Good luck, Keep me post it..

Originally posted by @Brian Larson:

@John A Murray - Sounds like they just made a mistake.  What did they say when you challenged them on the charge?

I know that my neighbor ran into issues in San Jose, CA. They city tried to double charge him fees because he was building an ADU above a garage. He is a licensed contractor so he called them on the error and they just corrected it.

My advice, cite the chapter and verse of the law to them and send them the URL.