What does LA's soft-story retrofit ordinance mean when buying or selling?
Los Angeles Ordinance 183893 required seismic retrofits for wood-frame "soft-story" buildings, typically pre-1978 apartments with tuck-under parking. Compliance deadlines have largely passed, so today the question is binary: a completed, signed-off retrofit is a selling point; an incomplete one is an open liability that buyers will price at the full retrofit cost plus risk. Retrofit status should be settled, with paperwork, before a building goes to market.
Answered by Shaya Lowenstein, a Los Angeles multifamily broker at Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate, CA DRE 01942326, with 15 years in apartment buildings and land across Los Angeles County. His closed sales are published with addresses and recording dates, so anything claimed here can be checked against the county record.
Start typing the address. The answer comes from the county roll and the city ordinance, on this page, free, with no email required.
For sellers.
If your retrofit is done, surface the permits and final sign-off in the marketing package. It removes a negotiation lever and widens the buyer pool to lenders who require compliance. If it is not done, get bids before listing. An unpriced retrofit invites buyers to assume the worst number, and LADBS orders-to-comply follow the building, not the owner.
For buyers.
Verify status directly with LADBS records rather than the listing copy. Costs vary with building size and configuration, historically tens of thousands to low hundreds of thousands per building. Note that tenants may bear a capped share of retrofit costs through the RSO cost-recovery program, but the timeline for that recovery is long.
EDUCATIONAL ONLY, NOT LEGAL OR TAX ADVICE. RATES, THRESHOLDS AND ORDINANCES CHANGE, AND SEVERAL OF THE FIGURES HERE DEPEND ON FACTS SPECIFIC TO YOU. CONFIRM ANYTHING YOU PLAN TO ACT ON WITH YOUR OWN ATTORNEY OR CPA, OR WITH THE AGENCY THAT SETS IT.
How do I know if a building is on the soft-story list?
LADBS maintains the inventory of buildings subject to Ordinance 183893 and their compliance status; check by address before you write or accept an offer.
Does a completed retrofit raise value?
It protects value more than it adds any. Buildings with open orders get discounted more than compliant buildings get premiums. The paperwork is the point.
SHAYA LOWENSTEIN · LYON STAHL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE · DRE #01942326 · (323) 944-2221