Remodel Permits in Los Angeles: What Needs One, How Long It Takes, and When It Counts as New

Akopi Builders project: a bathroom remodel in Santa Monica with new plumbing and the tub set, before the walls are closed and inspected.

In the City of Los Angeles, almost every remodel needs a permit from the Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Only painting, papering and similar work, or work valued at $500 or less that does not touch the structure, is exempt. A kitchen or bathroom remodel with no structural changes can usually get an Express Permit at an LADBS counter the same day, with no plan check. Moving walls, adding space or changing the structure goes through plan check, which commonly takes about 4 to 12 weeks before the permit is issued. A remodel can be treated much like new construction once it gets big: on a hillside lot, when the work in one year passes 50 percent of the house’s replacement cost, and in Malibu and the Coastal Zone, when 50 percent or more of the exterior walls are replaced. Akopi Builders (CSLB 1112420) takes out the permits for the remodels it builds in Los Angeles.

You want the kitchen opened up to the garden. On the drawings that means losing a wall, moving the sink and widening the windows. To you it is still the same house. To the City it is several kinds of work, and the difference sets your start date. Here is what needs a permit, how long each route takes, and how to keep a remodel from turning into a new house on paper.

What needs a permit in a Los Angeles remodel

The City’s code starts from the other direction: construction, alteration and repair need a permit unless the code exempts them, and the exemption list for a house is short. Painting, papering and similar finishes are exempt, and so is work valued at $500 or less, unless it affects the structure or safety. Fences, low walks and patios have their own exemptions. Almost nothing else in a remodel does.

Expect a permit for:

• Walls. Removing, moving or adding a wall, and any new or widened opening. A load-bearing wall also needs engineering.
• Windows and doors. A same-size change-out still needs a permit (an Express one). A new or larger opening needs plan check.
• Plumbing and gas. Adding or replacing fixtures, moving a sink, a new gas line.
• Electrical. New circuits, a panel upgrade, new lighting circuits.
• Mechanical. A new or replaced furnace or air conditioner, new ducts, an exhaust fan.
• Roof and exterior. A reroof, re-stucco or new siding.

A building permit does not carry the others with it. A kitchen with a moved sink and new circuits usually has a building permit plus plumbing and electrical permits, and each gets its own inspections.

Express Permit or plan check, and how long each takes

Express Permit (no plan check). LADBS publishes a list of work it will permit at the counter, or online, without anyone reviewing drawings. For a house it includes:

• a kitchen or bathroom remodel with no structural changes
• same-size, same-type window and door change-outs
• reroofing, re-stucco and replacement drywall with no new walls
• replacing or adding plumbing fixtures
• replacing heating and air conditioning equipment, and duct changes

An Express Permit can be issued the same day. LADBS counters are in Metro (downtown), Van Nuys, West Los Angeles, San Pedro and South Los Angeles, and many express permits can be pulled online.

Plan check. Anything structural, any added floor area, and most work that changes the layout goes to plan check, where an LADBS engineer reviews the drawings. Smaller jobs can sometimes be checked at the counter in a few hours. Regular plan check for a larger remodel commonly takes about 4 to 12 weeks from submittal to permit, including one or two rounds of corrections. Those are timelines published by permit services and builders, not a City promise. LADBS will expedite plan check for an extra fee of 50 percent of the plan check fee.

Ask what the proposed start date assumes: drawings ready to submit, review finished, corrections cleared, or the permit actually in hand. Your rental and your moving van need the last one.

What remodel permits cost

LADBS fees are calculated from the valuation of the work, so somebody else’s kitchen is not your number. As a rough guide, published estimates put City permit fees for a $30,000 to $60,000 kitchen or bathroom remodel at about $1,200 to $2,500. A whole-house remodel through plan check costs more, and drawings and engineering are separate from the City’s fees.

Keep the City’s fees apart from the cost of working on your street. In Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu, parking, traffic and tight access make the same work cost more to build. That belongs in the construction budget where you can see it, not inside a line called permits.

When a remodel counts as new construction

You will hear “keep half the walls” quoted as a rule. In Los Angeles there is more than one 50 percent rule, and they measure different things:

Akopi Builders project: the permit drawings for a closet and bathroom, marked up on site.

• Hillside lots in the City of LA. The code defines a “Major Remodel, Hillside” as remodeling where the value of all the alterations within one year exceeds 50 percent of the replacement cost of the house. A major remodel has to meet the Baseline Hillside Ordinance limits on size and height that apply to new houses.
• Houses that do not meet today’s setbacks. A house that sits closer to the lot line than current zoning allows can keep that position through a remodel only if at least 50 percent of the length of the nonconforming exterior walls stays in place. Take more down and the rebuilt walls have to meet today’s setbacks.
• Malibu and the Coastal Zone. Under California Coastal Commission rules, and Malibu’s own Local Coastal Program, replacing 50 percent or more of a house, measured by its exterior walls, is a replacement structure, not a repair. That needs a coastal development permit, and in Malibu every existing nonconforming condition then has to be brought up to current standards. Parts of Pacific Palisades and Venice are in the City of LA’s Coastal Zone.

The trap is the same in each case. A remodel starts as a kitchen, the design grows, and halfway through demolition more of the house comes out than the permit allowed. Before you approve a change that removes more walls, have your architect confirm in writing which of these rules applies to your lot and what the new scope triggers. If most of the house is coming out anyway, compare the cost of tearing down and rebuilding vs remodeling.

Check which city you are in, too. Beverly Hills and Malibu run their own building departments, and some areas near Los Angeles are in unincorporated LA County. None of the City of LA rules above carry over to them by default.

Unpermitted work from a previous owner

If you suspect an earlier owner moved a bathroom or enclosed a patio without a permit, say so before the construction price is settled. Compare the house as it stands against the LADBS permit records, which you can look up by address, and list what does not match. Old unpermitted work can be legalized with a permit, but what it costs depends on what the inspector needs to see, which sometimes means opening walls. Anyone giving you a flat figure before that is guessing.

Inspections

Each permit has its own inspections. A typical kitchen or bath remodel is inspected at rough plumbing, rough electrical and framing before the walls are closed, plus any other inspections the scope calls for, then a final. The permit is not done until the final inspection is signed. Ask your builder for the inspection list for your scope and what happens to the finish date if one is missed.

Who handles remodel permits in Los Angeles

As a licensed general contractor, Akopi Builders takes out the permits for the remodels it builds in Los Angeles. For what a remodel costs, see the true cost of a major remodel in Los Angeles, what to expect during a major home remodel, our kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling pages, and, if you are weighing a full rebuild, permits for a new house in Los Angeles.

Your next step is small. Put the current drawings and the proposed budget in front of the same person on the same day, and ask which part of this price and this start date still depends on a permit decision.

The fees and timelines here are 2026 ranges from LADBS’s published rules and from Los Angeles permit services and builders. They are a planning tool, not a quote for your house.

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If you would like to talk through the scope of your Los Angeles remodel, contact Akopi Builders. Bring the drawings and the budget you have, including the questions still sitting between them.