ADU Guides & Resources
Plain-language guides to renting, building, and financing an Accessory Dwelling Unit in Los Angeles County.
What is an ADU?
A plain-language definition of Accessory Dwelling Units, the main types, and what makes one a legal rental.
How to build an ADU in Los Angeles
What your lot will take, what the city may and may not require, what the permit costs, and the order the work happens in. By a California-licensed architect.
How to rent out your ADU in Los Angeles
A step-by-step guide for first-time ADU landlords: permits, pricing, screening, leases, and rent collection.
LADBS Standard Plan Program, explained
How Los Angeles pre-approves ADU plans to cut plan-check time, and how to use a Standard Plan ADU.
ADU rules in Los Angeles County
The California state baseline that applies in every LA County city, and where individual cities actually differ.
ADU rules in the City of Los Angeles
The two tracks an ADU can be approved on, which local standards attach to each, what the state found non-compliant, the free YOU-ADU plan, and rent stabilization.
ADU rentals & regulations in Long Beach
Local ADU rules, coastal-zone permitting, and rental guidance for Long Beach, California.
ADU rules in Santa Monica (Coastal Zone)
The Coastal Development Permit step, the pending Local Coastal Program, and the 2025 AB 462 changes.
ADU rules in San Diego
The ADU Home Density Bonus after the 2025 cap, why a coastal parcel follows different rules, the free county plans, and what a permit costs.
ADU rules in New York City
What City of Yes and Local Laws 126 and 127 allow, who has to live on the lot, why a garage conversion is not a backyard ADU, and what the certificate of occupancy has to say.
Free ADU tools and data
LA ADU permit fee calculator
Line-item permit fees for a detached ADU in the City of LA, unincorporated LA County and ten more LA County cities, with code citations. Free, no account.
NYC ADU permit fee calculator
Department of Buildings work-permit fees for an accessory dwelling unit under City of Yes.
San Francisco ADU permit fee calculator
DBI permit-issuance and plan-review fees for an ADU, with Building Code table citations.
Los Angeles ADUs by neighborhood
The 20 neighborhoods where the City of LA has issued the most ADU permits since 2020, with year-by-year counts, unit types and sizes from LADBS data.
Pre-approved ADU plans in Los Angeles
Every plan set A-du publishes from the LADBS Standard Plan Program, with size, bedrooms and price for each, and what a pre-approval actually saves you.
Pre-approved ADU plans in San Diego County
The county and city catalogs in one list, with the jurisdictions each approval actually covers.
Pre-approved ADU plans in New York City
The city's ADU for You Pre-Approved Plan Library from HPD, with size and bedroom count for each design.
What an ADU costs in Los Angeles
Declared construction valuation from every finaled ADU permit in the city, split by garage conversion and new detached build, per square foot, and by neighborhood.
The LA ADU Index
Every finaled ADU permit in the City of Los Angeles: how many, what kind, where, and the declared cost, regenerated from LADBS Open Data.