City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety

Came here to get a certificate of occupancy expecting to wait forever but was surprised to be helped fairly quickly. I waited about 20 min and the lady that helped me took less than 5 to help me. The only thing I didn’t like was the parking situation, otherwise my experience here was pretty pleasant.
When you get here one thing you need to do is make sure you get a number. That should be the FIRST thing you do.

City workers are leeches. Fake reports are made, now I am stuck dealing with lazy department and they leech out money in any way they can. Got an order to comply within 30 days yet the letter arrived on the 11^th which leaves me with about 19 days, and it doesn’t help that the supervisor is incompetent and the inspectors are not available. Privatize all these governmental departments and fire incompetency.

1. There’s no recourse for false violation reports that came from spiteful neighbors that suck up everyone’s time.
2. It takes 15+ months for the inspector respond to anything here in the Highland Park area.
3. It’s physically impossible to meet their less than 30-​day compliance notices when A.) you can’t even get permits that quickly, and B.) the inspectors won’t see you for more than a year.
4. Somehow they can violate federal usury laws by imposing a 250% fee on late violation payments with 12% accruing interest on top of the late fee.
The positive reviews on here are 100% fake, not that it isn’t obvious given how they’re written.
This department is way understaffed, probably underfunded, and full of the stereotype of sub-​intelligent people who work a bureaucratic government job.

While they have clarified the building permitting process over the years and the people who work here are generally polite and competent, the process can be needlessly cumbersome and time consuming. CRA counter doesn’t open on Monday or Friday and even when it does, it opens 30 minutes later than the rest. Industrial waste is in Echo Park. The integration of Building, Planning and Engineering is almost non-​existent.

Being a General Contractor, I visit the city quite often. Every visit is different. Some good some bad, nothing else can be done, so every-​time i visit i hope for everything to go smoothly.

I have been trapped in the maze of city planning, city zoning and the city attorney’s office for one year following the death of my father and the city zoning department’s unwillingness to grant me more time to complete my modification. In fact, they have persisted in sending horrendous fines and billing statements every two weeks in spite of my written and personal appeals. The bureaucrats at the zoning enforcement division, led by Ed Jakeman, are heartless, mean and unreasonable when you present them facts that your own father died on December 2013, the family is still in grieving and you have not been living at the residence and in fact, have out of state residency due to your business.
There is no present danger from my shower enclosure to myself or to the public. I can attest that I have been treated in an unfair, prejudice and argumentative fashion by Ed Jakeman who is the city supervisor for code enforcement. In my case, a disgruntled roommate called the building department to report an un permitted pool shower that has been operating perfectly well for many years. Due to this complaint, the city sent out inspectors to show up at my property, without first calling for an appointment and they feel justified to invade my privacy during a family tragedy. In fact, when I was out of state on business, the building department inspectors violated my property and gained entrance without my permission. They even have it in their own record that I asked them to bring a subpoena to enter my home due to a family death and they still took it upon themselves to violate my property. Apparently, the Right to Privacy takes a back seat to the menace of a shower enclosure.
Next came the campaign of intimidation from zoning fining me $ 385 for noncompliance (which I paid) $ 550 for noncompliance by their deadline, and another «one month late fee» of no less than $ 1300 plus 18 percent interest (which I consider usury and extortion). All this arriving to the property while I am not residing there, I am attending to my father’s needs, hospice care, burial, family travel and rescheduled business travel. After many attempts, written and personal, to gain a continuance for a very simple 9 foot wall enclosure to an existing pool shower, my requests are denied. No one could even instruct me how to gain a continuance. It was not until I was able to fly to Los Angeles to obtain my building permit in November the following year, 2014, did the polite and intelligent gentleman at plan check explain to me that building and safety operates independently of zoning enforcement. Therefore, I am told now by zoning, that all the fines from zoning enforcement are valid in spite of my attempts to draw plans, hire contractors, and pay for a building permit to correct the work.
I spent over an hour with Mr Jakeman recently during my Los Angeles visit to the City Attorney on November 25, 2014 explaining my out of state residency, my father’s death and my recent business travel out of state which made it impossible to conform with these arbitrary deadlines. Our discourse was based on his prolonged argumentativeness of how he owed taxpayers– of which I am one– the fines he was imposing on me every two weeks unless I could show legal proof of residency. I suspect his bonus structure is tied in to the amount of the fines he extracts is a closer spin than the truth of his arguments. Next day, when I complied and sent my lease to financial services, I got a response that Mr. Jakeman was not accepting my lease as legal proof (as required by the Attorney General) as his latest argument is that the dates of my lease do not coincide with the department’s continuous billings for September– even though the billings and statements began in February through August, the same cross-​over months of my lease. Go figure!
This is nonsense that a late fee would apply when the original bill would be excused due to the lease dates! It seems this department is incapable of wrapping it’s head around modern times, where traveling nurses and traveling doctors exit and air travel is normal and taxpayers can and do hold dual residency. There is a land where people breathe, work and die; a land where fixtures and plumbing is not the same primary value held by the pin heads and peanut counters with their tunnel vision.
In sum, this is NOT a user friendly department of Los Angeles county that serves taxpayers well. I would say quite the opposite– that the building department has only added to the pain and suffering, financial hardship of my family and been counterproductive in allowing me to make progress with my construction and the required corrections by stabbing me with burdensome fines and personal insults. I am having my attorney review this case at this time. I feel these actions by the Los Angeles zoning department are reprehensible, unlawful and I am spending my Thanksgiving Day writing letters of this civil disgrace.

I have been very lucky or I have great contractor. The city staff and the supervisors really go out of the way to fix your concerns. I feel it’s very important to have some soy who knows what they are doing.
The city staff have a lot of knowledge. I’m very happy working with the great City of Los Angeles. A lot other cities can be a nightmare. If you are just looking a simple permit or major construction you will get the help that’s needed.
The city panniers really do a good job keeping their appointments on time.
Knowledge 10
Customer service 9
Scheduling 10

Records staff are typically friendly and knowledgeable. If you need to find out if that add-​on is permitted, this is the place!
Although it may have the ambiance of the DMV, the service here is first rate. Try to get here before 9 a.m., otherwise be prepared to wait awhile. There is a Trimana outside in the main lobby area!