Resources you can gather

These are good resources for you to give the insurance company, architect, or whatever basic legal info on your property you may need.

Expedited permitting will occur for the existing house square footage. Called “Like for Like”. What does that mean? These documents will help.

Do ALL of these if you can! It will pay off majorly later.

1. MLS

If you purchased your home in the last 5-10 years the MLS listing may still have architectural images of the house and most importantly; it may have a plan. Download all of that. If you are no longer on the MLS ask your Real Estate agent if they have images and plans from the sale. We need the plans most of all.

Check out Redfin

Check out Zillow

2. Original Drawings

Do you have Original plans of the house? If they are on paper, then have them full size scanned at a print shop like ARC so they remain scaled drawings. Or maybe you did a remodel at some point? Reach out to the designer and ask for drawings as a .pdf or even better as a .dwg (cad) file if they have.

While you are at it, gather images of the house. Hopefully they show the elevations and details you want to remake (if you want it back).

If you have an old and historic house, the Museum of Pasadena History and Huntington Library collections may have copies of your plans. Worth a shot!

3. City & County Records

Contact the County or City and look for Records. There will be Building Dept permit records and Assessor records. Both are helpful. Imagine you are a lawyer doing discovery and your home is on trial. Get it all.

If you are in the unincorporated County (Altadena), you can Find these at the Public Works website. Scroll down to “Where can I find copies of plans and permits?” You will need to go to their office location to retrieve the Building Dept permit records. Their locations are HERE. Anyone can pull these, they are public record.

Only Owners or registered Agents can pull Assessor’s records. And for houses built in the 1920’s there most likely wont be much at the building dept. Fill out this Form EXM-202. And/or go to the LA County Assessors Office and ask for records. They have locations HERE. Building and Safety trumps the Assessor if they show different things. But if Building and Safety has nothing then the Assessor is the next best thing.

If you are in LA City then find building dept permit records on the LADBS website. Assessor’s records are same as the County Assessor instruction above. Zimas.lacity.org also has good data for LA City related to your property’s zoning.

You can also ask the County Recorder’s Office. We are unsure how these will compare with Building and Assessor. Could be a bit of both, or something new? We think this may be second tier material related to a rebuild. They have more legal, title, ownership or covenant oriented documents…LA City folks are we gonna have to put those LID rain barrels back?

If they have ALTA surveys of your property that would be very helpful! ALTA surveys or Boundary surveys will have easements and property boundaries located (Good stuff to know)

“Knowing is half the battle!”