Building an ADU in Inglewood: What the City Code Says, and Where State Law Now Reaches Past It

For Owners · Inglewood · October 2026 · 12 min read

Say you own a 1950s house in Inglewood with a detached two-car garage at the back of the lot, and you are thinking about turning that garage into a rental, or building a new backyard unit beside it. You open the city’s municipal code, find the accessory dwelling unit article, and read that a detached ADU can be one story, sixteen feet tall, at least 500 square feet, and must sit behind the front of the house. Then a contractor tells you the state allows something different. Both of you are reading real rules. They just come from two places that no longer line up.

Inglewood’s ADU rules live in Chapter 12, Article 35 of the municipal code, adopted as Ordinance 24-02 in December 2023. California rewrote and renumbered its ADU law several times after that, and on May 12, 2025 the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) sent the city a findings letter with sixteen numbered findings on where the ordinance falls short of state law. This guide sets the city text and the state rules side by side, then covers what changes once a tenant moves in: the rental term, Inglewood’s rent and eviction ordinance, fees, and what to settle with the city in writing before you pay for plans.

What Inglewood’s code says

Article 35 runs from section 12-145 to 12-150 and applies in all residential and mixed-use zones. Read on its own, it allows the following.

Single-family lots

• No more than one ADU and one junior ADU (JADU) on a lot with a single-family house (section 12-149).
• Every ADU must be at least 500 square feet. A detached ADU is capped at 1,000 square feet or the size of the house, whichever is less, and at 850 square feet where the house itself is under 850. An attached ADU is capped at 850 square feet or half the house, whichever is less.
• The ADU’s front facade must sit farther from the front property line than the house’s.
• Setbacks: a front yard of at least 25 percent of the lot depth (up to 25 feet), side yards of 10 percent of lot width (at least 3 feet, never more than 5 required), and a 4-foot rear setback.
• A detached ADU may not exceed one story or 16 feet to the top of the roof pitch. An attached ADU may not exceed the height allowed for the house.
• The design has to match the house: roof pitch, window casings, color and exterior finish, with privacy measures on second-story windows that look into neighbors’ yards.

Multifamily lots

• Internal or attached ADUs in non-livable space (storage rooms, boiler rooms, attics, basements, garages) up to 25 percent of the existing units, rounding a half or more up, and at least one per lot.
• No more than two detached ADUs on a lot with an existing multifamily building.

JADUs

Section 12-150 allows one JADU inside the walls of an existing or proposed single-family house, between 150 and 500 square feet and no more than half the house, with an efficiency kitchen and the option of sharing the main bathroom. The house must be owner-occupied, with the owner living in either the house or the JADU.

Process and restrictions

• A new detached ADU goes through Site Plan Review. Conversions of existing space, and deed-restricted affordable ADUs, are exempt (section 12-147).
• The Economic and Community Development Director “shall act” on a complete application within sixty days.
• No impact fees for an ADU under 750 square feet.
• No rentals for less than thirty days, and no use or advertising as a short-term rental (sections 12-147 and 12-148).
• No separate sale of an ADU or JADU, and a covenant saying so must be recorded against the property before a building permit issues.

Where state law reaches past the city text

California’s ADU law now sits in Government Code sections 66310 through 66342. HCD’s March 2026 ADU Handbook explains it, and HCD’s May 2025 letter applies it to Inglewood’s ordinance section by section. The points an owner planning a unit needs first:

The last row postdates HCD’s letter. It comes from 2025 legislation summarized in the addendum to HCD’s Handbook.

The categories the state protects outright

Government Code section 66323 describes four kinds of units a city must approve ministerially and may hold only to the standards in that section, which HCD calls “66323 Units.” For a single-family lot that is one ADU converted from space inside the house or an accessory structure (with up to 150 square feet added for a stair or entry), one JADU, and one new detached ADU of up to 800 square feet with 4-foot side and rear setbacks. HCD’s Handbook says these units do not have to comply with local lot coverage, front setback or design standards, though they still have to meet the building code. For a multifamily lot it is conversions of non-livable space (at least one, up to 25 percent of the existing units) plus detached ADUs, eight at most on a lot with an existing building and never more than the existing unit count. A city also cannot make you change an existing multifamily building whose side or rear setback is under 4 feet as a condition of approving the ADU.

Height

The state base for a detached ADU is 16 feet. It rises to 18 feet within a half-mile walk of a major transit stop or a high-quality transit corridor, with up to two more feet to match the roof pitch of the house, and to 18 feet on a lot with an existing or proposed multistory multifamily building. An attached ADU can be held to 25 feet or the house’s height limit, whichever is lower, and the city does not have to allow more than two stories.

Parking

The state caps ADU parking at one space per unit or per bedroom, whichever is less, and the space can be tandem on a driveway. No parking can be required at all for an ADU within a half-mile walk of public transit, in a historic district, inside the house or an existing accessory structure, where on-street permits are required but not offered to the ADU’s occupant, within one block of a car-share vehicle, or when the ADU is permitted together with a new house or apartment building. HCD’s letter notes that Inglewood’s parking section lists only two exceptions. When a garage, carport or uncovered space is demolished or converted for an ADU, the city cannot require those spaces to be replaced. JADUs need no parking, even when built in an attached garage, and neither do 66323 Units.

Timelines

The permitting agency has 15 business days to tell you in writing whether the application is complete, and if not, what is missing. On a lot with an existing house or apartment building it then has 60 days from a complete application to approve or deny. A denial has to come with a written list of what is deficient and how to fix it, and the agency must offer an appeal of an incompleteness finding or a denial.

Garages and units that already exist

A garage that was converted years ago without permits is a separate problem from a new build. State law, as amended in 2024, bars a city from denying a permit for an unpermitted ADU built before January 1, 2020 because it violates building standards or does not comply with ADU law or a local ordinance. There are two exceptions: where the city finds that correcting the violation is necessary to protect the health and safety of the public or the occupants, and where the building is substandard under Health and Safety Code section 17920.3. HCD’s Handbook adds that a homeowner can get a confidential third-party inspection from a licensed contractor before applying, to see what the unit would need. If you are buying an Inglewood house with a back unit already rented out, that inspection is worth doing before you close, and the permit history is worth pulling either way.

Renting the ADU

The thirty-day line

Inglewood says an ADU or JADU cannot be rented for less than thirty days or used or advertised as a short-term rental. State law lets a city require terms longer than 30 days for 66323 Units, and since January 1, 2026 (AB 1154) it requires any rented JADU to be leased for longer than 30 days and bars JADUs from short-term rental use outright. The clean answer is to write every lease for longer than 30 days. Our Inglewood short-term rental guide covers the city’s separate rules for hosting at your own home, which do not open the door to renting out an ADU by the night.

Inglewood’s rent and eviction ordinance

Inglewood’s rent limits and just-cause rules apply to “rental units,” and section 8-120 defines a rental unit as a dwelling unit other than the five exemptions listed in section 8-121(b). Two of those exemptions bear directly on ADUs.

• You live on the property and rent out one unit. Section 8-121(b)(4) exempts an owner-occupied residence where the owner-occupant rents or leases no more than one dwelling unit, and the text names ADUs and JADUs as examples. If you live in the house and rent only the ADU, that unit sits outside the ordinance’s rent cap and just-cause rules. Rent a second unit and the exemption no longer fits.
• New construction. Section 8-121(b)(5) exempts housing issued a certificate of occupancy for new construction within the previous fifteen years. A newly built detached ADU is the kind of unit that clause describes. A conversion of an older garage or of space inside the house is less clear, so get the city’s answer in writing before you set rent on the assumption that it is exempt.

If neither exemption fits, the ADU is a rental unit like any other: the cap in section 8-127 (which our Inglewood rent increase guide walks through), just cause after twelve months, and relocation on a no-fault termination as set out in our guide to ending a tenancy in Inglewood.

Registration is a separate question. The city’s Residential Registry covers properties with two or more units, and adding an ADU can put a house lot into that count. Ask the Housing Protection Department, (310) 412-4330 or housingprotection@cityofinglewood.org, whether your property has to register before the first lease is signed.

The state cap

California’s statewide rent cap in Civil Code section 1947.12 (8.7 percent in the Los Angeles area for increases taking effect August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027, per the Attorney General’s table) does not reach housing issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous fifteen years. A new ADU will be outside it for that period. A converted unit’s status depends on its own certificate history, which is one more reason to keep the permit file.

Fees and sprinklers

No impact fees can be charged on an ADU with 750 square feet or less of interior livable space, or on a JADU of 500 square feet or less. Above 750 square feet, impact fees have to be proportional to the square footage of the primary dwelling. The Inglewood code’s own exemption is worded as “less than seven hundred fifty square feet,” so an ADU of exactly 750 is one more item to confirm. Fire sprinklers are not required for an ADU if they are not required for the house, and building an ADU or JADU cannot trigger a sprinkler requirement for the existing house. These are fee and code limits, not a budget, so price permit, plan check, utility and school fees with the city and your designer for your own lot.

Apartment buildings

Take a six-unit Inglewood building with a storage room and a strip of carports along the alley. Under the city text you could convert non-livable space into two ADUs (25 percent of six is 1.5, which rounds up) and add two detached units. Under state law the detached ceiling is eight with an existing building, capped at the number of existing units, so six on this lot, with 4-foot side and rear setbacks and the height rules above. Whether the lot can physically fit them, what utility upgrades they need, and how removing the carports affects your tenants’ leases are site-specific questions. The carports themselves do not have to be replaced under state parking rules, but a lease that promises a parking space is a separate obligation. Read the leases before you plan around that space.

Before you hire a designer

1. Confirm the parcel is inside the City of Inglewood, not unincorporated County land with a similar mailing address.
2. Pull the permit history for the house and any accessory structure, and note any existing unit built without permits.
3. Ask the Planning Division in writing which ADU standards it will apply to your application: Article 35 as published, state law, or a mix. Bring HCD’s May 12, 2025 letter.
4. Decide whether you will live on the property. That decision drives the JADU owner-occupancy question and the section 8-121(b)(4) exemption.
5. Ask Housing Protection whether the finished property needs to register, and get its view on the fifteen-year exemption for your type of unit.
6. Check the leases of any existing tenants for parking, storage or yard rights that the project would take away.
7. Talk to your CPA about how the build is depreciated and how the new rent is reported.

For how Culver City handles the same questions, including its eight-detached cap and a 2026 amendment allowing ADUs to be sold as condominiums, see our Culver City ADU guide. Our ADU owner’s guide covers the decision to build in the first place.

Questions owners ask

Can I build a garage conversion, a backyard unit and a JADU on one Inglewood lot?

The city’s code allows one ADU and one JADU. State law, as HCD reads section 66323, requires the city to allow a converted ADU, a JADU and a new detached ADU together on a single-family lot, and HCD’s 2025 letter told Inglewood to provide for those combinations. Ask the Planning Division in writing how it will treat your application before you design three units.

Does my backyard ADU have to be at least 500 square feet?

That is the city text. HCD found it noncompliant because state law covers efficiency units, which can be as small as 150 square feet, and told the city to provide for them.

Do I have to live on the property?

Not for an ADU. State law bars owner-occupancy requirements for ADUs. For a JADU, Inglewood’s code requires the owner to live in the house or the JADU, and state law, as amended in 2025, requires it only where the JADU shares sanitation facilities with the house. Living on site also affects whether the ADU falls under Inglewood’s rent and eviction ordinance.

Can I rent the ADU on Airbnb between long-term tenants?

No. Inglewood bars rentals under thirty days and any short-term rental use or advertising of an ADU or JADU, and state law allows cities to require terms longer than 30 days for ADUs. Since January 1, 2026, state law itself requires a rented JADU to be leased for longer than 30 days. Write the lease for longer than 30 days.

Can I sell the ADU separately from the house?

Not under Inglewood’s code. State law lets a city adopt an ordinance allowing ADUs to be sold as condominiums, and Inglewood’s published code does not. HCD’s letter also told the city to allow the narrow separate-sale exception in section 66341, which applies only to qualifying projects built by a nonprofit for low- or moderate-income buyers.

Will the new ADU be under Inglewood rent control?

Not if you live in the house and rent out only the ADU, or if it is new construction with a certificate of occupancy less than fifteen years old. Those are the section 8-121(b)(4) and (b)(5) exemptions. Confirm which one applies to your unit with Housing Protection before the first lease, and keep the certificate of occupancy with the lease file.

Sources and disclaimer. Inglewood Municipal Code, Chapter 12, Article 35, Accessory Dwelling Units, sections 12-145 through 12-150 (Ord. 24-02), and Chapter 8, Article 9, Just Cause Eviction Protections, sections 8-120 and 8-121, as published by General Code (eCode360). California Department of Housing and Community Development, findings letter to the City of Inglewood on Ordinance No. 24-02 (May 12, 2025), and Accessory Dwelling Unit Handbook (updated March 2026, with the addendum on 2025 legislation), citing Government Code sections 66311.5, 66311.7, 66314, 66315, 66317, 66321, 66322, 66323, 66326, 66333, 66341 and 66342. California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, rent cap table; California Civil Code section 1947.12. City of Inglewood Housing Protection Department contact details from the city’s rent ordinance FAQ. Current as of October 2026. This article is general information for property owners from a California DRE-licensed property management company, not legal, tax or construction advice. State ADU law changed in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025, and Inglewood may amend Article 35 at any time. Confirm the standards that apply to your lot with the City of Inglewood Planning Division, confirm rent ordinance and registration status with the Housing Protection Department, have a California real estate or land-use attorney review your plans and leases, and talk to your CPA about the tax treatment of the build.