The 37 Checks That Decide Whether L.A. Legalizes Your Unpermitted ADU

A state amnesty forgives the setbacks, the size and the impact fees. It doesn't forgive the wiring.

You're wondering whether the city can still make you tear it down. If the unit was finished before January 1, 2020, and it isn't dangerous, the answer is no — and since July the Department of Building and Safety has had a form number for it. The law is a state amnesty, it is narrower than the word suggests, and the whole thing turns on a 37-item checklist that starts on page 5 of a city bulletin. We read it, and the other 15 pages.

Here is the order: what the amnesty actually forgives, what it refuses to forgive, the three clusters on that checklist worth reading twice, what to bring to the counter, what it costs, and how many Angelenos have already tried it.

What the state forgives

The rule is Government Code section 66311.7, and its first sentence is the one that matters: a local agency "shall not deny a permit" for an unpermitted accessory dwelling unit or junior ADU built before January 1, 2020 on either of two grounds. Not because the unit violates building standards. And not because it fails to comply with state ADU law or with the city's own ADU ordinance.

That second ground is the larger gift, and it's easy to skim past. Setbacks, unit size, parking, lot coverage, the distance to the main house — the ordinary zoning rules that would stop somebody building this unit today cannot be used to refuse a permit for one that already exists. The city's bulletin says it plainly: a pre-2020 unit is "allowed to maintain their existing non-conforming setbacks."

Nor is this the old deal. Until 2025 the same protection existed for units built before January 1, 2018, and it covered accessory dwelling units only. Assembly Bill 2533, approved September 28, 2024 as Chapter 834, moved the line forward two years and added junior ADUs — defined in state law as no more than 500 square feet of interior livable space contained entirely within a single-family house — to the protection. Then the section number changed underneath it: what was Government Code 66332 was renumbered 66311.7 by Senate Bill 543, effective January 1, 2026. Both numbers are still circulating. L.A.'s own permit records cite 66332, 66311.7 and even the former 65852.2 on different files.

What it doesn't forgive

Two subdivisions of the same section pull most of the way back, and if you read only the headline you will be surprised at the inspection.

Subdivision (b) lets the city deny the permit anyway if it finds that correcting the violation is necessary to meet the standards in Health and Safety Code section 17920.3. Subdivision (c) goes further: the amnesty "shall not apply" at all to a building that is deemed substandard under that same section. So the entire program runs through one definition, and it's worth knowing what it says. A building is substandard when it has any of fifteen listed categories of defect — inadequate sanitation, structural hazards, faulty wiring, defective plumbing, faulty mechanical equipment, inadequate exits, and nine more — present "to an extent that endangers the life, limb, health, property, safety, or welfare" of the occupants, the neighbors or the public.

The trade is therefore specific, and it is a good one. You're excused from the zoning code and from current construction code. You're not excused from health and safety. And subdivision (f) adds the part that makes it safe to raise your hand: if the inspector finds noncompliance, the city "shall not penalize an applicant for having the unpermitted" unit, and shall approve the permits needed to fix it.

The form L.A. built out of that

The city turned the statute into Information Bulletin P/BC 2026-161, effective July 15, 2026 and revised September 2. It runs 16 pages and carries three forms. Form AB2533-01 is the one to read first: the Los Angeles Substandard Checklist, 37 numbered items under eight headings, which is what an inspector will carry through your unit. Form AB2533-02 is a site plan template. Form AB2533-03 is the same 37 items reprinted as standard notes for the permit set.

What the form says: "ADU/JADU is required to be provided with fire sprinklers only if the existing primary is sprinklered." What it means: if the main house has no sprinklers, you are not adding a sprinkler system to a converted garage.

What the form says: habitable rooms must be at least 70 square feet and at least 7 feet in any horizontal dimension. What it means: a six-foot-wide strip partitioned off a garage is not a bedroom, whatever year it was built.

What the form says: the exit door "shall be a minimum of 3 feet in width," and the path out may not require travel through a garage. What it means: the half-garage conversion, where the unit's only door opens into the bay that stayed a garage, does not pass as drawn.

What the bulletin says: the unit "may either comply with current code requirements or the codes in effect at the time the unpermitted ADU/JADU was constructed." What it means: wiring installed to 1994 rules, maintained and safe, passes as 1994 wiring. An old electrical panel installed in compliance with the code of its day can be approved. A panel modified or installed after January 1, 2020 cannot, and water pipes installed or replaced after that date without a permit have to be insulated to the current Energy Code. Everything older is judged by its own era.

What the bulletin says: you may obtain "a confidential third-party inspection from a California-licensed contractor." What it means: you can hire someone to walk the same 37 items before you file anything, and the results "are not required to be submitted or disclosed" to the department. It's a private look at your own odds.

The three that matter

Thirty-seven items is a long list, and much of it is smoke detectors, working faucets and hot water. Three clusters are the ones to read closely before you file anything.

Egress, items 4 through 9. Every sleeping room needs an emergency escape window or door with a clear opening at least 20 inches wide and 24 inches high, a net clear opening of 5.7 square feet — 5 square feet if it is a ground-floor window — and the bottom of that opening no more than 44 inches above the floor. Garage windows were not sized for that, which is why these are the numbers to take a tape measure to before anything else.

The foundation, item 24. The checklist says only "adequate foundations are provided" and warns that verifying it "may require exposing an area of foundation." The bulletin's own questions and answers define the word: no excessive cracking, a minimum depth and width of 12 inches, no evidence of moisture seepage on a slab, and for a raised foundation, sound wood with at least 12 inches of clearance from soil to framing.

Separation and fire rating, items 35 and 36. A unit attached to the main house needs a one-hour fire-resistance-rated wall between them. For a detached unit in a building without sprinklers, facing another building, the bulletin sets a ladder: one-hour rated wall with no openings between 5 and 8 feet, one-hour with openings limited to 25 percent between 8 and 10 feet, and no rating required at 10 feet or more. Under 5 feet, it says, distances "are not allowed." That last line is the one to measure for before you spend anything.

Bring these

The bulletin lists five things at submittal, and the first is the one people underestimate.

1. Proof the unit was built before January 1, 2020. Any one of seven kinds counts: a Rent Stabilization Ordinance rent registration certificate, contractor's bills or building material receipts, utility bills or insurance documents for the construction, code enforcement paperwork such as an Order to Comply, a signed and dated lease, real estate documents including loan documents, an appraisal or an MLS listing — or anything else the department finds acceptable. An old citation for the unit is evidence in your favor here, which is a strange and welcome inversion.
2. Form AB2533-03, the standard notes, signed into the permit set.
3. The Certificate of Occupancy or permit records for every permitted building already on the lot.
4. A site plan on Form AB2533-02 showing lot lines and dimensions, every existing structure with its setbacks, the unit's setbacks and its distance to the main house, easements, driveways, any pool or spa and its barrier, and the unit's floor area, height, length, width, number of stories, and bedroom and bathroom counts — plus a note saying whether the main house has fire sprinklers.
5. The plan check fee, due at submission. The bulletin does not name an amount.

Three things the bulletin says you do not need, which is unusual enough to state: a complete set of construction plans, a licensed architect or engineer, and compliance with the California Energy Code.

Seven things that put you back in the ordinary line

The streamlined path has a scope, and a unit outside it is still eligible for the amnesty but needs architectural and structural plans, possibly a soils report, and calculations. You are outside it if the building has a basement, is taller than one story, sits on a slope steeper than 5:1, falls in an Alquist-Priolo fault zone or a landslide or liquefaction area, is attached to an apartment or commercial building, is built of anything other than light-frame construction, or stands less than 3 feet from another building on the lot if the buildings are sprinklered, or less than 5 feet if they are not.

What it costs, and what it no longer costs

The statute bars impact fees and connection or capacity charges on these units outright, with one exception: utility infrastructure that has to be built to meet the health and safety standard. In Los Angeles the bulletin names what that removes — the Residential Development Fee under Los Angeles Municipal Code 21.13.3 and the Dwelling Unit Construction Tax under 21.10.3 — and notes that ADUs and junior ADUs are already exempt from park fees under 12.33 and from the Affordable Housing Linkage Fee under 19.18.

School fees are the exception that survives. The bulletin requires Los Angeles Unified's developer fee for any ADU larger than 500 square feet, and that threshold traces to the Education Code, which lets a district levy its fee on residential construction other than new houses "only if the resulting increase in assessable space exceeds 500 square feet." What the fee is now is genuinely hard to pin down from outside: the State Allocation Board raised the statewide Level 1 ceiling to $5.38 per square foot of residential space on January 28, 2026, up 4.06 percent from $5.17, and Building and Safety posted a notice that the district's new Level 1 rates took effect August 11, 2026 without printing them. The district's own fee site would not open for us. So: a ceiling of $5.38 a square foot, and a district rate at or under it that you will learn at the counter.

Three other departments can hold the permit up, and one of them always will. The Bureau of Engineering signs off on every ADU and junior ADU, for two things — sewer capacity, and an address clearance, because a unit that has never legally existed doesn't have a street address yet. The Department of Water and Power comes in if the structure sits in a public utility easement or within 10 feet of one. The Fire Department signs off on hydrants and access. The bulletin says others can apply, parcel by parcel.

Eighty-four files, six finished units

The bulletin tells applicants that the work description on the permit application "shall make a reference to AB 2533," which leaves a trail. We pulled the city's building permits submitted from 2020 to present on September 23 and counted every application whose work description names the law.

There are 84. Eighty-one were submitted on or after January 1, 2025, when the current version of the amnesty took effect, and 23 have come in since the bulletin landed on July 15. Thirty-nine have been issued a permit. Seventeen are sitting on correction notices. Four have reached a Certificate of Occupancy and two more are finaled, which is six legal dwellings at the end of the process, the earliest of them in February.

They are spread across the whole city: Council District 13 has the most with 11, District 8 and District 3 have 10 apiece, and every one of the 15 districts has at least two. Sixty-two are filed as alterations or repairs, 17 as additions. Nine are supplemental permits amending an earlier application, so the number of distinct properties is a little under 84. The count is only as good as the descriptions — a file that legalizes an old unit without naming the law will not appear in it.

What to do, in order

1. Date the unit from the seven-item evidence list above. If you cannot, nothing else on this page applies to you.
2. Measure the escape window and the distance to the nearest building before you spend money on anything else. Those two numbers decide whether this is a paperwork exercise or a construction project.
3. Consider the confidential third-party inspection. It's optional, it's yours, and the department never sees it.
4. File on ePlanLA or in person by appointment with a "B" application, with the work description referencing AB 2533. The bulletin gives model wording: "Permit previously unpermitted conversion of existing 1-story garage to an ADU per AB 2533."
5. Pay the plan check fee and clear Water and Power, Engineering and the Fire Department.
6. Take the permit and request the inspection. The inspector walks Form AB2533-01 and may ask for covered or concealed work to be opened up. Anything that fails comes back as a correction notice, and the corrections have to be done before final approval.

Then the Certificate of Occupancy, which is the end of it and the point of all of it: the unit becomes a legal dwelling with an address of its own. Four addresses in Los Angeles got there this year.