What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California.
I live within Los Angeles County and my elderly parents live on the east coast. I would like them to move to Southern California but buying a home here is not easily affordable for them. An idea I considered is to build a small home for them on my existing property. I'm not familiar with what the local laws & codes are, how to determine them (correctly), or any other stages of this potential project. The only thing I was able to find so far is that new ordinances for Los Angeles (as of 2003?) are being considered which allow for "accessory dwelling units" (like small houses / guest houses) on an existing property so long as the land is at least 5,000 sqft and the proposed new structure is maximum 1,200 sqft of living space.
Here are the facts, I'd find it very helpful what all the steps are I would need to go through or be aware of:
- I have a mortgage on the property, so technically the bank still owns the house
- My current equity is less than 20%
- My land is over 7,000 sq ft and my current home is under 1,100 sqft
- I have neighbors on all 3 sides - left, right and back
- There is no clearance issue with any of the neighbors as none of their houses are close to my property lines but 2 of the neighbors have sheds/garages that are within 2-3 ft of the shared property line - no windows on their structures and a fence runs along all shared property lines
- I do not run a business on the property, it's residential
- It would be convenient if I could build the new structure to within 3 ft of the shared property lines - or else it might end up being too small of a structure
- It would be best if I could build 2 floors on the new structure
- I would like to also add an additional small driveway so I believe there would be some additional permit to construct that to touch the street
- I'm not sure how the plumbing / electricity / gas or other utilities would work - I would prefer to have it tied into my existing system
- I prefer not to subdivide the lot - that would make things too complicated, I would rather treat this like a property improvement (full-featured guest house) that overall increases the value of the land/property than to have a new subdivided plot that would make it extremely difficult if years later I wanted to sell the house/land/property
- Cost for construction would come from the parents, not my own funds
What am I in for? How do I investigate permits? What issues might I deal with in terms of the bank/mortgage? Is this something that others have done and what problems should I be aware of? Am I over-thinking this and should I just move forward with the idea?
I live within Los Angeles County and my elderly parents live on the east coast. I would like them to move to Southern California but buying a home here is not easily affordable for them. An idea I considered is to build a small home for them on my existing property. I'm not familiar with what the local laws & codes are, how to determine them (correctly), or any other stages of this potential project. The only thing I was able to find so far is that new ordinances for Los Angeles (as of 2003?) are being considered which allow for "accessory dwelling units" (like small houses / guest houses) on an existing property so long as the land is at least 5,000 sqft and the proposed new structure is maximum 1,200 sqft of living space.
Here are the facts, I'd find it very helpful what all the steps are I would need to go through or be aware of:
- I have a mortgage on the property, so technically the bank still owns the house
- My current equity is less than 20%
- My land is over 7,000 sq ft and my current home is under 1,100 sqft
- I have neighbors on all 3 sides - left, right and back
- There is no clearance issue with any of the neighbors as none of their houses are close to my property lines but 2 of the neighbors have sheds/garages that are within 2-3 ft of the shared property line - no windows on their structures and a fence runs along all shared property lines
- I do not run a business on the property, it's residential
- It would be convenient if I could build the new structure to within 3 ft of the shared property lines - or else it might end up being too small of a structure
- It would be best if I could build 2 floors on the new structure
- I would like to also add an additional small driveway so I believe there would be some additional permit to construct that to touch the street
- I'm not sure how the plumbing / electricity / gas or other utilities would work - I would prefer to have it tied into my existing system
- I prefer not to subdivide the lot - that would make things too complicated, I would rather treat this like a property improvement (full-featured guest house) that overall increases the value of the land/property than to have a new subdivided plot that would make it extremely difficult if years later I wanted to sell the house/land/property
- Cost for construction would come from the parents, not my own funds
What am I in for? How do I investigate permits? What issues might I deal with in terms of the bank/mortgage? Is this something that others have done and what problems should I be aware of? Am I over-thinking this and should I just move forward with the idea?