These have always been a pain to investors. Should we deal with the city and hope they don’t make you rip the whole thing down? Or should you just stay quiet. It’s a crapshoot. You really don’t know what to expect. Many people – not just investors- turn their garage into a rentable unit.
Well good news! Because of the housing shortage, L.A. is looking to pass a bill to easily make these units legal. However, there are still problems.
Here’s the rub: You still have to satisfy the city that they meet all code requirements. That could be too costly to justify doing it.
In addition, the units have to be “affordable”. (whatever that means) This new law will only apply to properties already zoned for multi-family. So “granny flats”, the garage conversions etc, that exist on properties zoned single family are not covered in this law. That’s another whole problem that needs to be fixed. Between 2010 and 2015, 1700 units had to be destroyed after city inspectors swooped in. We can’t afford losing more rental units.
What do you think?
