All Forum Posts by: Tess Sweet

We just bought an R2 Duplex in Eagle Rock that has an illegally converted garage. It was tagged by housing for being unpermitted and so we need to either convert it back into a garage or save ourselves by building covered parking/an attached carport on the property.  We have an easement with the house next door and the area is somewhat tight. But if we tear off the back deck we have the space, we think, but we need to be absolutely sure. Anyone know the best way to find out how and where to build a carport legally? Allowing for turning radius, handling a shared driveway, etc. Who is the right person to bring out to our property to confirm? We are also looking for a designer to help make a more stylized carport. In practice and after inspections, we want it to be more like a large shaded area people can use for outdoor living space. There is tons of on-street parking and I know the tenants would enjoy outdoor space more than a parking spot. Thanks in advance for any ideas on this!

Thanks @Dan H., @Xander Tertychny, and @Seth Borman  for replying to my thread. So helpful! Now we are in the situation of trying to save our illegally converted garage by building some covered parking/an attached carport on the property. But the issue is, we have an easement with the house next door and the area is somewhat tight. If we tear off the back deck (which is ugly and not used anyway) we have the space. But we need to be sure. Anyone know the best way to find out how and where to build a carport legally? Allowing for turning radius, handling a shared driveway, etc. Who is the right person to bring out to our property to confirm? We are also looking for a designer to help make a more stylized carport. We want it to be more like a large shaded area people can use for outdoor living space. There is tons of on-street parking and I know the tenants would enjoy outdoor space more than a parking spot. I think I will post a separate thread for this. It might be a different issue than my original question :)

Also curious - is the best way to get a variance approved by working with a real estate lawyer to help build "our case"? It's by a college, they need housing in the area, etc... 

@Xander Tertychny, thank you! Just to clarify, this issue is with a third unit. The duplex has a certificate of occupancy. However, escrow is being held up because a housing inspector came out a month ago and gave a citation to the current owner for the unpermitted work on the garage. We are being told by housing that the work has to be ripped out and converted back into a garage. But a building inspector said we could switch occupancy to "R" - but then nobody can live in it. After researching a little, I saw that we might be able to have a legal third unit, as you mentioned, but it seems the only way is to get a variance from R2 to R3? Unless you know of another way? We plan to live in one of the units for a year while we work to fix up the property.

City of Los Angeles. In Eagle Rock, down the street from Occidental College main entrance.

Thanks for asking!

We have since heard that it is not possible to have an ADU but we may apply to switch the certificate of occupancy from a garage (U) to a Rec Room (R). That way we can keep the bathroom and not demo the walls, unpermitted building interior work. Hopefully. Crossing fingers. Any other ideas or suggestions?

Hi! 

Just curious if you ever found out about this. We are in escrow on a duplex that has an additional building/garage we were hoping to convert into a unit we can occupy while we fix up the duplex.  It seems LA city and LA county have different requirements for legal ADUs but it's hard to tell. @Emma Flanders

We are in escrow on a duplex zoned R2 that has a detached garage that was converted into an additional unit without permits. The housing department states that it needs a new certificate of occupancy because it's no longer a garage. How can we go about making this a legal unit? The lot is big enough for 3 units because its 7700 square feet - but its zoned r2. Anyone know how hard it is to attain zoning variance? We don't want to have to tear out what has been built in the garage. (They did nice work! And we wanted to live in it while we fix up the duplex...)