The Unit Nobody Filed
Ground floor and rear in-law units are a defining feature of Richmond housing, and a substantial share of them were created without permits over decades.
A fire brings the City into the building, and what was previously an arrangement between an owner and a tenant becomes a fact on a record. Section 37.9(a)(11) governs a temporary eviction for capital improvement work, and where that work will exceed 3 months a Petition for Extension of Time must be filed with the Rent Board before the notice is served. Planning Code section 317 covers unauthorised units as well as legal ones, which means removing one is a Conditional Use decision rather than a permit question, and every development application must disclose whether any exist. An application identifying none must carry a declaration signed under penalty of perjury. The rules layer is on our page covering units, tenants and demolition control.
What Do I Do About an Unpermitted In-Law Unit?
The Occupant of That Unit May Have Rights Too
Richmond buildings date largely from the 1900s through the 1930s. Planning Code Section 317 covers unauthorised units alongside legal ones, and Building Code Section 103A.3 imposes a 5 year permit restriction after an unlawful residential demolition. Where the Rent Ordinance applies, the unit must be offered back within 30 days of repairs completing, with 30 days for the tenant to respond.
The second point owners miss. An unauthorised unit is unauthorised as against the building code; it does not follow that the person living in it had no tenancy.
Where the Rent Ordinance covers the building, the position of a displaced occupant is a question to establish rather than assume, and assuming is where owners get into difficulty. This is a lawyer's question and worth asking before soliciting offers rather than after.
Does the In-Law Tenant Have a Right to Return?
We publish no guidance on whether a particular unauthorised unit can be legalised or must be removed. That is a Planning Department question, it turns on the specific building, and the answer materially changes what the property is worth.
Two or Three Units Changes the Maths
Compared with the larger buildings further east, a Richmond two or three unit property has fewer tenancies to resolve and a correspondingly simpler file. Compared with a single-family house, it produces income that supports a restoration a house would not.
That middle position is usually favourable to a seller: enough units to make restoration economic, few enough that documenting the tenancy position is a manageable task rather than a project.
The Richmond in Context
Where unauthorised units are most common and the disclosure question dominates, see our page about where unpermitted units surface most often. Where the stock is single-family and frequently outside the Rent Ordinance entirely, see our page for a district of attached single-family houses.
Richmond Questions
The In-Law Unit Burned but the Flats Above Are Fine.
Then the question is what may lawfully be rebuilt in that space, which is a Planning question rather than a construction one. Establish it before pricing anything.
Should I Tell a Buyer About the Unpermitted Unit?
Yes. They will find it, and finding it themselves gives them a reason to reduce. Disclosing it gives them something to price.
Will You Buy a Building With an Unauthorised Unit?
Yes. It affects the figure because it affects the options, but it is common here and it does not stop us buying.