AB 956 explained: two backyard ADUs, your HOA, and where ADUs are off the table

Keep your house. Build two more homes behind it. No hearing. From 2027, the city has to approve two detached ADUs behind a single-family home, with no hearing. I'm John Jung, with Brick Work. Let's work it through on one lot. Here's what actually changed, what your HOA can still do, where ADUs are off the table, and when a lot split beats them. Part one. What changed. The old law guaranteed one detached ADU. AB 956 makes it two, each with side and rear setbacks of no more than four feet. The city can cap each one at 800 square feet of living space and set a height limit. That's it. It can't add other standards to an ADU that qualifies. On a fifty by one-fifty lot with the house up front, two 800-square-foot cottages fit in the back yard. One lot. Three homes. There's a trade. Build two detached, and the city no longer has to approve a junior unit inside the house as well. Whether you can still convert a garage on top of the two is a question to put to your city, in writing, before you design. The clock helps. The city has fifteen business days to call your application complete, and sixty days to decide when there's already a home on the lot. It can't make you add sprinklers the house doesn't have, or fix old nonconforming conditions. Rentals have to run longer than thirty days. Part two. Your HOA. HOA rules that effectively ban or unreasonably restrict an ADU were already void on single-family lots. AB 956 widens that to any lot zoned to allow a single-family home, so more lots in mixed zones are covered. An HOA can still set reasonable rules, as long as they don't unreasonably raise the cost or effectively block the unit. Under the general rule, fees and other financial requirements don't count as reasonable. And an outright ban is void. Part three. Where ADUs are off the table. Here's the catch for builders. On lots created by the small-lot subdivision laws, SB 684 and 1123, a city can refuse ADUs entirely. If it allows them, they don't count toward the ten homes. Unincorporated LA County allows no ADUs or junior units at all. The City of LA allows only a junior unit on SB 1123 lots on single-family land, and an ADU on SB 684 lots on multifamily land. The new townhome law, AB 1751, says nothing about ADUs, so ask first. Part four. ADUs, or a lot split? So, ADUs or a split? If you live there or have tenants, ADUs, because there's no tenant-history test. If the lot is vacant or the house is truly run down, SB 1123 lets you sell homes, unless tenants lived there in the last five years. And to sell ADUs on their own, your city has to have adopted an ADU condo ordinance. Applying in LA? Check the zone and overlays in ZIMAS. Draw two detached units with four-foot side and rear setbacks, up to 800 square feet each. File the building permit with LADBS in the city, or County Building and Safety in unincorporated areas. Then it's fifteen business days to complete, and sixty to a decision. Want to know what fits behind your house, and whether a split beats it? Send us the address. We'll run every path on your lot. brickwork.la.