LA City's Soft-Story Retrofit Program mandates seismic strengthening of pre-1978 wood-frame residential buildings with open ground floors (tuck-under parking) vulnerable to earthquake collapse.
Enacted 2015, the ordinance identified ~13,500 soft-story buildings citywide and established a compliance timeline. Owners must engage licensed engineers, submit retrofit plans to LA DBS, complete construction, and receive a Certificate of Compliance.
Many older LA City multifamily buildings sit somewhere in the compliance process. Complete and certified = clean. In-progress or unaddressed = buyer-side concern translating to concession. Sellers should verify compliance status early and present documentation proactively.
From the Sterman LA Multifamily Glossary — defined the way a broker with $1.41 billion across 254 closed transactions actually uses these terms.
Michael Sterman, Senior Managing Director Investments, Marcus & Millichap.
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