California’s new ADU laws now in effect

One new law could allow homeowners to sell their ADU separately from their main house.

LOS ANGELES — With a new year comes new laws and a handful of them deal directly with accessory dwelling units, better known as ADUs.

 One new law, AB 1033, gives cities the option to allow homeowners to sell their ADUs separately from the main house. Not surprisingly, there are those who support the idea and others who have serious concerns.

ADUs will sell for a lot less than a full house, allowing more people an opportunity to buy a home. 

“You're not sharing walls, you get a little bit of a yard, hopefully somewhere to park and that's what we're really hoping for. People get this opportunity to own a price of Los Angeles that otherwise may be locked out.

This can be great for seniors who own a home, but need more income to stay in their house. They can sell an ADU for extra cash.

The concern is that this law encourages outside developers to buy single family homes, build multiple ADUs, and then sell them, congesting neighborhoods with studios and doing nothing to encourage building homes for families.

Another new law is AB 976 which allows homeowners to rent their ADUs. That was already allowed, but the current law was set to expire and this extends it indefinitely.

And the third new law is AB 434 which forces cities that have been slow to adopt ADUs to have plans in place by next year to accept them.