The ADU permit
timeline, for real.

The state-mandated clock

ADU permits are ministerial under California law — no public hearing, no discretionary review, no design review board. If your plans meet building code and the applicable ADU development standards, the city is legally required to approve them. Once your application is deemed complete, the city has 60 days to approve or deny it. Miss that window, and the application is deemed approved by operation of law.

What starts the clock: the completeness check

As of January 1, 2026, a new state law (SB 543) requires the permitting agency to determine whether your ADU application is complete within 15 business days of submittal. If the city doesn't respond in that window, the application is automatically deemed complete — which starts the 60-day ministerial review clock either way. This closed a real gap: cities used to be able to sit on an "incomplete" determination indefinitely.

What this looks like in practice in LA

The 60-day figure is the legal ceiling, not the typical experience. In practice, most Los Angeles ADU permits are issued in 6 to 10 weeks when the construction documents are clean and complete on the first submittal — a number driven almost entirely by how complete your package is going in, not by the city dragging its feet. Total permit cost typically runs $4,000 to $15,000 depending on the ADU's size and type, separate from the actual construction cost.

What actually extends it

The ministerial nature of ADU review doesn't disappear if your first submittal has gaps — it just means each correction cycle restarts the clock on getting to a complete, reviewable package. The projects that blow past 10 weeks are almost always ones where the plans went in with missing structural details, an incomplete site plan, or a scope that quietly triggers a non-ministerial review (a variance, for instance). Clean paperwork the first time is the actual lever here, more than anything else.

What this means for your project

We build ADU submittals to be complete on the first pass specifically because the 60-day clock rewards it — a complete package moves through ministerial review the way the law intends, while an incomplete one just restarts the countdown. We'll give you a realistic date based on your specific lot and scope, not the statutory ceiling treated as a promise.