Scofflaws who built illegal granny flats across Berkeley can go scot-free.
The East Bay city has launched an amnesty program that gives single-family homeowners a path to legalizing previously unpermitted accessory dwelling units, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The ADUs affected by the four-year pilot program range from converted basements and garages to in-law garden units. The amnesty, which began Jan. 1, extends through 2028.
Berkeley scofflaws can approach city planners about getting unpermitted granny flats inspected for safety, then legalized.
The amnesty is confidential and no penalties will be assessed on the previously undocumented apartments. A Berkeley planning report estimates there may be as many as 4,000 illegal units.
“It’s a situation where people have these units and are nervous about coming clean with the city,” Jordan Klein, Berkeley’s director of planning and development, told the Chronicle. “We want to make it as easy for people to come out of the shadows.”
The ADUs are among the most affordable homes in a city where typical home values are nearly $1.3 million and the average rent is nearly $2,700, according to Zillow.
It was recently retired Councilwoman Susan Wengraf who worked with city planners to create the amnesty program, saying some landlords had left their unpermitted ADUs vacant.
Some had been stiffed by tenants who stopped paying rent upon learning the unit was illegal; others worried about liability risk or getting slapped with a notice of violation. Many are afraid of renting an unpermitted apartment in a city with some of the strongest pro-tenant laws in the U.S.
“There are a lot of horror stories out there,” said Wengraf, who retired in December after four terms on the City Council and 32 years of public service. “Unfortunately, a lot of these homeowners are older single women who can be easily intimidated.”
To get on the right side of the law, such homeowners can either get a certificate of occupancy or a housing certificate of compliance.
To obtain a certificate of occupancy, property owners must follow the standard building permit process, submitting site plans and detailing code compliance requirements such as fire-resistant rating of a wall.
To obtain a certificate of compliance, they must demonstrate that the unpermitted unit already meets housing code and minimum fire and life safety standards.
The less rigorous “certificate of compliance” option, which just requires an inspection using federal Housing and Urban Development standards, was a result of a bill pushed in 2023 by the Casita Coalition, which advocates for ADUs, according to the Chronicle.
Berkeley’s amnesty program comes as the state works to make it easier and cheaper to build ADUs, regarded as one of the most affordable and fastest ways to create housing.
The laws, three more of which went into effect on Jan. 1, have resulted in more than 80,000 ADUs permitted in California since the first reform bill was passed in 2016.
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