Building an ADU in Beverly Hills: What the September 2026 Rules Allow, and How the Unit Rents

For Owners · Beverly Hills · October 2026 · 13 min read

Say you own a house south of Santa Monica Boulevard with a detached garage off the alley, and you are weighing two plans. One is to convert the garage. The other is to tear it down and build a two-bedroom unit you can lease for twelve months at a time. Before September 11, 2026, you would have worked that out against an ADU ordinance the city adopted in 2024. Since then, a new one applies.

The City Council adopted Ordinance No. 26-O-2940 on August 11, 2026, and it took effect on September 11. It rewrites Article 50 of the zoning code, the part that governs accessory dwelling units, to line it up with the state’s ADU law in Government Code sections 66310 through 66342. The codifier’s page for the old section 10-3-5001 may still show the 2024 text, so if you are reading the code online, make sure you are reading the ordinance and not the superseded section.

This guide covers what the new ordinance lets you build, the separate incentive unit for large lots, and the part an architect will not cover: what the rental rules look like once someone moves in.

Two routes: the state-law units and the city’s own ADU

The ordinance is built in two layers, and it helps to keep them apart.

Section 10-3-5000 implements Government Code section 66323. These are the units the state requires every city to approve with a building permit alone, and the ordinance says they are not subject to the local development standards in the rest of the article. HCD’s ADU Handbook sorts them into four categories:

• On a single-family lot, one ADU converted from space inside the house or an existing accessory structure, plus one junior ADU (JADU) within the space of the house.
• On a single-family lot, one new detached ADU of up to 800 square feet with four-foot side and rear setbacks and a height limit of 16, 18 or 20 feet depending on the site.
• On a multifamily lot, ADUs converted from space not used as living area, such as storage rooms, boiler rooms, attics, basements or garages, at least one and up to 25% of the existing units.
• On a lot with an existing multifamily building, up to eight new detached ADUs, but never more than the number of existing units on the lot. On a lot with a proposed multifamily building, up to two.

HCD’s reading is that the city must let the first two be combined, and the last two be combined. On a single-family lot that means at least a converted ADU, a JADU and a new detached ADU together.

Sections 10-3-5001 and 10-3-5002 are the city’s own ADU, built to the city’s standards. For a single-family lot the ordinance reads: “In addition to the ADUs and JADUs that may be approved through Section 10-3-5000, one ADU is allowed on any lot zoned for residential or mixed-use with an existing or proposed single-family dwelling.” Section 10-3-5002 says the same for multifamily lots.

The city route is the one to look at when you want a unit bigger than the state’s 800 square feet. Which units can be combined on your particular lot is a question to put to the Planning Division in writing before you commission drawings. The text says “in addition to,” and you want the city’s answer on your lot, not an inference from the code.

A single-family lot: size, height and placement on the city route

The size and height limits depend on where the property sits. The maximum floor area is the figure below or the site’s remaining allowable floor area, whichever is less, and in no case is the maximum set below 800 square feet.

A few more rules shape the design:

• Placement. A detached ADU must sit to the rear of the main house. An attached ADU must be within or attached to it. A new detached ADU must be at least six feet from any other building on the site.
• Attached height. The main house’s height limit or 25 feet, whichever is lower.
• Estate lots. A detached ADU of up to two stories within the principal building area of a Central Area estate lot of at least 24,000 square feet follows the height limit for the main house.
• Setbacks. In the Central Area, state law governs, and no side or rear setback applies to the part of an ADU that abuts an alley. In the Hillside Area and Trousdale Estates the main house’s setbacks apply, but never more than four feet. A conversion or a rebuild within the same footprint and size needs no added setback.
• Patios and carports. Converting an unenclosed structure such as a patio cover, gazebo or carport is not allowed unless the result meets the standards for a new detached ADU.
• Privacy. Porches and decks no more than three feet above grade, no rooftop decks, and windows within ten feet of and facing a side or rear property line either set with sills at least six feet above the floor or built as awning windows with translucent glass that open no more than six inches.
• Historic properties. An ADU converted from a structure on the California Register has to keep the character-defining features identified in the historic assessment.

Parking, fire sprinklers, impact fees and utility connections follow state law. Deviations from the city standards are possible through a minor accommodation permit, but not for rooftop decks, height or floor area above the district limits, or building and life-safety code items, and a minor accommodation cannot be granted for a JADU or an incentive ADU.

The incentive ADU on lots of 13,000 square feet or more

This is the piece of the ordinance written with rental housing in mind. On a single-family lot of 13,000 square feet or more, the city allows one additional unit, the incentive ADU, with a building permit. The conditions:

• New construction, attached or detached. It cannot be a JADU or a conversion.
• No larger than 800 square feet, and its floor area does not count toward the site’s maximum.
• Height under the state limits in Government Code section 66321(b)(4), with at least four-foot side and rear setbacks.
• Rented with the first and every later rental period at least one year, with no subletting and no short-term use.

Within 30 days of the building permit, the owner records a covenant with Los Angeles County. It tells future buyers the unit’s maximum size and any required parking, that the unit cannot be sold, transferred or assigned apart from the main house, that it “shall not be owner occupied,” and that the one-year rental rule runs with the land. The covenant also gives the city the right to inspect with notice and requires the owner to keep rental agreements, tenant information and rental periods available to the city on request.

Read that as a commitment that outlasts you. The unit must be leased, a year at a time, by you and every owner after you, and the paperwork has to be ready if the city asks. If there is any chance the space becomes a home office, a studio or quarters for family, build it under a route that does not carry that covenant.

A multifamily lot

On an existing building, the state-law units come first: conversions of non-living space up to 25% of the existing units with a minimum of one, and up to eight new detached ADUs capped at the number of existing units. A fourplex gets four detached units, not eight. The city route then allows one more ADU on top of those, under section 10-3-5002:

• Up to 1,200 square feet, with no minimum lot size.
• A detached unit goes behind the existing building, stays at least six feet from other buildings and is limited to 24 feet in height. An attached unit follows the main building’s height limit.
• Balconies are allowed only where they face the interior of the property, stay within the first-floor footprint and total no more than 15% of the ADU’s floor area.
• In the R-4 zone, an R-4 permit can allow deviations from some of the standards, with the same exclusions for rooftop decks, height and life-safety items.

Before you count units, find out whether the building is covered by the city’s rent stabilization chapters. That changes how the existing tenancies run while you build, and it may affect how a converted unit is treated afterward. More on that below.

JADUs: owner occupancy and the covenant

A junior ADU is a unit within the walls of the house, up to 500 square feet under state law. The new ordinance requires the owner to live on the property only where the JADU shares sanitation facilities with the house. A JADU with its own bathroom carries no owner-occupancy requirement, and none applies where the owner is a government agency, land trust or housing organization. That tracks the 2025 change to state law.

Within 30 days of the building permit, the owner records a covenant stating that the JADU cannot be sold, transferred or assigned apart from the main house and must keep the square footage and features it was approved with.

Renting it: the 30-day line in the ADU code, and the one-year rule above it

The ADU sections say a rental must be for a term longer than 30 days “and be subject to the city’s short-term rental regulations applicable to the underlying zone.” In Beverly Hills, those regulations are the stricter rule. Since September 5, 2025, section 10-3-508 has required an initial lease term of at least one year for single-family and multifamily units citywide, and the rule reaches guest houses and ADUs as well as main houses and apartments. So the practical minimum on a new ADU is a twelve-month first lease, not a 31-day one. We covered that rule, and the federal lawsuit challenging it, in the Beverly Hills one-year lease rule.

The incentive ADU goes further: every rental period, not only the first, has to be at least a year, and subletting is barred. A month-to-month rollover after the first year, which the general rule allows, does not fit that covenant. Write renewals as new one-year terms.

Rent control and eviction rules for a new unit

Beverly Hills has two rent stabilization chapters, and on the face of their text a newly built ADU falls outside both. Chapter 5 exempts structures completed after September 20, 1978. Chapter 6 covers buildings of two or more units but excludes units with a certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995. A new backyard unit will have a certificate of occupancy dated decades after either line.

The less clear case is a conversion inside an older building, such as a garage or basement in a 1960s apartment house. Whether the city treats the converted unit by its own new certificate of occupancy or by the building’s date is a question for the city’s rent stabilization program, and the answer decides the rent you can charge and the grounds on which a tenancy can end. Get it in writing before the first lease. Our guides to Beverly Hills rent increases and ending a tenancy in Beverly Hills set out the two chapters if the unit turns out to be covered.

State law points the same way for new construction. The statewide rent cap in Civil Code section 1947.12 and the just-cause rule in section 1946.2 both exempt housing issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years. Section 1946.2 also exempts a single-family residence where the owner lives on site and rents out no more than two units or bedrooms, an ADU or JADU included. The exemption runs 15 years from the certificate of occupancy, and section 1946.2 as currently written is set to be repealed on January 1, 2030, so check where the state rules stand at each renewal rather than assuming today’s answer holds for the life of the unit.

Fees, timelines, and a guest house that is already there

• Impact fees. State law bars impact fees on an ADU of 750 square feet or less of interior living space, or a JADU of 500 square feet or less. Above that, fees must be proportional to the size of the main house. School districts may charge their own fees on units over 500 square feet.
• Review time. The city has 15 business days to tell you in writing whether the application is complete and, with a house already on the lot, 60 days from a complete application to approve or deny it. Appeals of an incompleteness finding or a denial go to the Planning Commission under the new ordinance.
• Sprinklers and old violations. Sprinklers cannot be required in the ADU if the house does not need them, and the city cannot make you correct nonconforming zoning conditions as a condition of approving the ADU.
• An existing unpermitted unit. If the property already has a guest house or a garage that has been lived in without a permit, Government Code section 66311.7 bars the city from denying a permit to legalize an ADU built before January 1, 2020 because it violates building standards or ADU rules, unless the city finds that correcting the violation is necessary for health and safety or the building is substandard under Health and Safety Code section 17920.3. Legalize before you lease it, not after a tenant complains.

Can the unit be sold separately?

Not on the strength of this ordinance. State law lets a city adopt a local ordinance allowing ADUs to be sold as condominiums, and Culver City did that in February 2026, which we covered in Culver City’s ADU rules. The Beverly Hills ordinance says nothing about condominium sales of an ordinary ADU, and the covenants for JADUs and incentive ADUs expressly bar selling them apart from the main house. Plan on the ADU staying with the property, and price it as part of the property.

Three things to settle before you draw plans

1. Which route, and what it commits you to. A state-law detached unit tops out at 800 square feet with no rental covenant beyond the 30-day line and the citywide lease rule. The city route allows more space. The incentive ADU adds a unit on a large lot but binds every future owner to year-long leases and record keeping.
2. The rent stabilization answer for this unit. New construction looks exempt on the text. A conversion in an older building needs a written answer from the city before you set a rent.
3. The lease you will actually sign. Twelve months minimum for the first term citywide. For an incentive ADU, every term. Build the cash flow on that, and leave nightly and seasonal income out of the numbers entirely.

Questions owners ask

How many units can I add to a single-family lot in Beverly Hills?

State law requires the city to approve, with a building permit, a converted ADU, a JADU and a new detached ADU of up to 800 square feet, and the city’s ordinance allows one ADU under its own standards “in addition to” those. A lot of 13,000 square feet or more can also have one incentive ADU. How those combine on your lot depends on the site, so get the Planning Division’s answer in writing before design.

How big can a Beverly Hills ADU be?

Under the city route, up to 1,200 square feet in the Central Area south of Santa Monica Boulevard, 1,400 north of it and in the Hillside Area, and 850 or 1,000 square feet in Trousdale Estates depending on bedrooms, each limited by the site’s remaining floor area but never below 800. The state-law detached unit and the incentive ADU are each capped at 800 square feet. On a multifamily lot, the city-route ADU is capped at 1,200.

Do I have to live on the property?

Not for an ADU. For a JADU, only where it shares sanitation facilities with the house. An incentive ADU is the reverse: its recorded covenant says it shall not be owner occupied, and it has to be rented a year at a time.

Can I rent the ADU for a few months at a time?

No. The ADU sections require terms longer than 30 days, and the citywide rule in section 10-3-508 requires an initial lease term of at least a year. An incentive ADU must be rented for at least a year in every rental period, with no subletting.

Is a new ADU under Beverly Hills rent control?

On the face of the code, a newly built unit falls outside Chapter 5, which exempts structures completed after September 20, 1978, and Chapter 6, which excludes units with a certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995. A conversion inside an older building is less clear. Ask the city’s rent stabilization program before the first lease and keep its answer with the certificate of occupancy.

Does a Beverly Hills ADU need a parking space?

Parking for ADUs under the new ordinance is governed by state law, which limits what a city can require and lists situations, such as proximity to transit, where it can require none. Confirm the requirement for your address with the Planning Division, and do not promise a tenant a space you have not confirmed.

I also own in Los Angeles. Are the rules the same?

No. The City of Los Angeles has its own ADU standards and its own rules on whether a new unit falls under the RSO or only the just cause ordinance. We covered that in should you build an ADU on your LA rental, and the Inglewood version in Inglewood ADU rules.

Sources and disclaimer. City of Beverly Hills Ordinance No. 26-O-2940 (adopted August 11, 2026, effective September 11, 2026), amending Article 50 of Chapter 3 of Title 10 with sections 10-3-5000 (building-permit-only ADUs and JADUs, rental terms, JADU owner occupancy and covenant, sprinklers, nonconforming conditions), 10-3-5001 (ADUs on single-family lots, incentive ADUs, size, height, location, setbacks, privacy standards, IADU covenant, minor accommodation) and 10-3-5002 (ADUs on multifamily lots, balconies, R-4 permit), as published by American Legal Publishing; Beverly Hills Municipal Code section 10-3-508 as amended by Ordinance 25-O-2918, and sections 4-5-102 and 4-6-1 on rent stabilization coverage. California Department of Housing and Community Development, Accessory Dwelling Unit Handbook (updated March 2026), citing Government Code sections 66311.5, 66311.7, 66317, 66321, 66323, 66333 and 66342. California Civil Code sections 1946.2 and 1947.12. Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, City of Beverly Hills Imposes One Year Minimum Lease Requirement (coverage of guest houses and ADUs). 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 has changed every year since 2023, and the city’s ordinance is subject to review by HCD and may be amended. Confirm the standards for your lot with the City of Beverly Hills Planning Division, confirm rent stabilization status with the city’s rent stabilization program, 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.