What AB 587 Does.
Permits local agencies to adopt ordinances allowing ADUs to be sold separately from the primary residence when the property was built by a qualified nonprofit corporation and sold to a low-income buyer under a tenancy in common agreement. This created the first pathway for ADU homeownership in California, though adoption remained optional for local jurisdictions.
What It Means For You.
A narrow but useful carve-out: in qualifying affordable-housing arrangements, an ADU can be sold separately from the main house. It planted the seed that AB 1033 later grew into full condo conversions.
The Official Summary.
Below is the Legislative Counsel's Digest, the official plain-language summary that accompanies every California bill.
The Planning and Zoning Law authorizes a local agency to provide, by ordinance, for the creation of accessory dwelling units in single-family and multifamily residential zones and requires a local agency that has not adopted an ordinance to ministerially approve an application for an accessory dwelling unit, and sets forth required ordinance standards, including that the ordinance prohibit the sale or conveyance of the accessory dwelling unit separately from the primary residence.
Existing property tax law establishes a welfare exemption under which property is exempt from taxation if the property is owned and operated by a nonprofit corporation that is organized and operated for the purpose of building and rehabilitating single-family or multifamily residences for sale, as provided, at cost to low-income families.
This bill would authorize a local agency to allow, by ordinance, an accessory dwelling unit that was created pursuant to the process described above to be sold or conveyed separately from the primary residence to a qualified buyer if certain conditions are met. Those conditions include, among others, that the property was built or developed by a qualified nonprofit corporation that is receiving the above-described welfare exemption, a recorded contract exists between the qualified buyer and the qualified nonprofit corporation that imposes an enforceable restriction upon the sale and conveyance of the property that ensures the property will be preserved for affordable housing, and that the property is held pursuant to a recorded tenancy in common agreement that includes specified provisions.