Pre-Purchase Inspection Checklist for Los Angeles Multifamily Buyers

Buying a multifamily building in Los Angeles means buying someone else’s deferred maintenance, permit history and compliance calendar along with the rent roll. A house inspection checklist does not cover most of that. This is the checklist I use when a buyer brings me a two-unit to twenty-unit building during the contingency period: what to pull before the visit, what to look at on site, what the building already owes the County, the City or the State, and how to use what you find before the contingency expires.

If you are in escrow now, book the inspection first and read the rest while you wait. Access to every unit takes coordination, and the contingency clock does not stop for it.

Why a multifamily building needs its own checklist

Three things make an apartment building different from a house. First, it has tenants, and tenants have rights that follow the building: rent stabilization, just-cause eviction rules, habitability standards and, in much of the county, a mandatory inspection program with its own cycle. Second, it has shared systems. One water heater, one main panel, one sewer lateral and one roof serve several households, so a single failure is a building-wide problem. Third, it carries obligations with dates attached: balcony inspections under SB-721, soft-story retrofit ordinances, the County’s cooling standard, and whatever open cases the last owner never closed. A checklist that stops at the furnace and the roof misses the part of the purchase that costs the most.

Before the site visit: the records check

An hour with public records tells you what the walls cannot. Do this before anyone opens a door.

• Legal unit count. Compare the Assessor’s unit count, the certificate of occupancy and the permit history against what is actually being rented. A “six-unit” building that the City recognizes as five has an unpermitted unit, and that unit’s rent is at risk the day a tenant checks.
• Permit history. Pull every permit on the parcel from LADBS (City of Los Angeles) or the County’s Building and Safety records (unincorporated areas), plus the city’s own portal in Pasadena, Long Beach, Glendale and the other incorporated cities. Look for expired permits, permits with no final, and work you can see on site that has no permit at all.
• Rent registry and RSO status. In the City, check the LAHD rent registry and whether the building is under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Elsewhere, check the local ordinance and AB 1482. This sets the ceiling on what you can do with rents and which evictions are available to you.
• Open inspection cases. Ask for the last Systematic Code Enforcement Program (SCEP) report in the City, or the Rental Housing Habitability Program (RHHP) report in unincorporated County areas, and any notices of violation that followed. An open case transfers with the building. Check whether the property is in REAP.
• Balcony report. If the building has three or more units and any wood-framed balcony, deck, walkway or exterior stair, the SB-721 inspection was due by January 1, 2026. Ask for the report. If there is none, you are buying a building that is already out of compliance, and the next statutory deadline, January 1, 2032, does not reset because you bought it.
• Soft-story status. Tuck-under parking or a wide ground-floor opening in a pre-1978 wood-frame building usually means the retrofit ordinance applies. Confirm whether the retrofit was done, permitted and finaled.
• Seller disclosures and insurance history. Read the Transfer Disclosure Statement against the permit record and ask for the loss history. Claims for water damage tell you where to look first.

Structure, site and the exterior elevated elements

• Foundation and seismic. Foundation type, cracking pattern, foundation bolting, cripple wall bracing, and the condition of any retrofit steel. In a hillside building, the retaining walls and the drainage behind them matter as much as the footing.
• Balconies, decks, walkways and stairs. These are the SB-721 elements. Ledger attachment and flashing, the condition of the framing where it enters the wall, soft or stained soffits, loose guards, and the waterproofing on walking surfaces. The ledger connection to the building is where the Berkeley balcony failed, and it is where most of the deterioration I find hides.
• Roof and drainage. Remaining life of the membrane or shingles, ponding on flat roofs, scuppers and downspouts, and whether roof drains discharge somewhere sensible. On a multifamily building, the roof is a shared expense and a shared risk.
• Grading and site drainage. Grade should fall away from the building. Planters against stucco, downspouts that end at the foundation and settled walkways are the usual sources of the water damage you will find inside.
• Exterior cladding. Stucco cracking, failed sealant at windows and penetrations, and rot at trim and eaves.

Life safety and fire separation

This is the section a house checklist does not have, and it is where a County or City inspector spends most of the visit.

• Separation between units and from the garage. Rated walls and ceilings, unsealed penetrations, and garage ceilings that have been patched with the wrong material. A garage ceiling repair can trigger a fire-rating requirement for the whole assembly.
• Self-closing, self-latching doors. Between the garage and living space, on laundry and mechanical rooms, and on rated corridor doors. Missing or disconnected closers are among the most cited items in rental inspections and the cheapest to fix.
• Smoke and CO detectors in every unit. In each bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on each level, with CO detectors where there is gas or an attached garage. Check dates on the units; most expire at ten years.
• Egress. Bedroom window size and sill height, security bars with release hardware, and a clear path from every unit to the street.
• Common-area lighting, exit signs and emergency lighting. Fixtures that work, exit signs where required, and battery backup that actually holds a charge.
• Dryer vents and laundry rooms. Vent material and length, screens at terminations (not allowed), makeup air and drainage.
• Fire extinguishers, address numbers and gas shutoff access. Small items that show up on every inspection report.

Shared systems

• Electrical. Main service size against the number of units, a panel per unit or a house panel feeding everyone, Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels, aluminum branch wiring, knob-and-tube, open splices in attics and crawlspaces, and GFCI protection where required. Ask who pays for common-area power.
• Plumbing. Galvanized supply lines, the age and strapping of every water heater, pressure regulators, visible corrosion at unions, and signs of past leaks under sinks and at tub surrounds. Scope the sewer lateral; on an older building with mature trees it is the single most useful add-on.
• Heating and cooling. Every unit needs a working, permanent heat source. In unincorporated Los Angeles County, the 82°F cooling standard adds a cooling requirement with enforcement beginning January 1, 2027 for most landlords (small property landlords have until 2032 for all rooms), so note which units can hold that temperature and what the electrical service can support.
• Gas. Meter manifold condition, flexible connectors, shutoff valves at appliances and any corroded piping along exterior walls.
• Water intrusion. Staining at ceilings below bathrooms, swollen baseboards, efflorescence on garage walls and musty closets. On a multifamily building, trace it to the unit above before assuming it is a roof problem.

Inside the units: every unit, not a sample

Sellers and agents often offer two or three “representative” units. Decline. The unit you do not see is the one with the garage conversion, the missing detectors or the bathroom with no fan. Inside each unit, work the same list a County or City inspector works:

• Appliances. Since January 1, 2026, AB 628 requires the landlord to provide a working stove and refrigerator. Note any unit without them.
• Bathrooms. Exhaust fan or operable window, GFCI at the sink, caulking and grout, signs of moisture in the walls.
• Kitchens. Range hood or window, GFCI protection, water damage at the sink base, pest evidence under and behind appliances.
• Windows and doors. Operable locks on windows and sliding doors, deadbolts on entry doors, screens where required, broken glass.
• Walls, ceilings and floors. Active leaks, mold-like staining, holes, loose flooring and trip hazards.
• Occupancy and layout. Bedrooms that were living rooms, closets that became bedrooms, locked doors inside units, and any space being rented that does not appear on the permit record.
• Pests. Roach and rodent evidence, bed bug signs at mattress seams and outlets, and the gaps at pipe penetrations that let them travel between units.

The compliance calendar you inherit

Write these dates into the deal, because they will not wait for your first year of ownership.

• SB-721. First inspection was due January 1, 2026; then every six years. If the seller’s report lists repairs, the statute gives the owner 120 days to apply for permits and 120 days after approval to finish. Under Health and Safety Code section 17973(i)(2), if required SB-721 repairs are not completed within 180 days, and remain incomplete 30 days after the inspector notifies the local enforcement agency, the owner can be assessed a civil penalty of $100 to $500 per day under the local fee schedule until repairs are complete. Those windows may already be running.
• SCEP and RHHP. The City inspects on roughly a four-year cycle; the County program runs about every four years in unincorporated areas. Find out where the building is in its cycle and whether the last visit produced orders.
• Soft-story retrofit. City of Los Angeles deadlines have largely passed; several other cities have their own programs. An unretrofitted building is an engineering project, not a maintenance item.
• Cooling standard. Unincorporated County areas, enforcement from January 1, 2027 or when the County approves its fee, whichever is later.
• Lead-based paint. Pre-1978 buildings carry disclosure duties and, with young children in a unit, real exposure if paint is failing.

What to request from the seller

• All permits and final inspection cards for work in the last ten years.
• The SB-721 inspection report and any repair permits that followed it.
• The last SCEP or RHHP inspection report, notices of violation and clearance letters.
• The rent roll, every lease, and the rent registry filing, so you can match them to each other and to the legal unit count.
• Two years of utility bills for anything the owner pays.
• Insurance loss runs and any prior inspection or engineering reports.

Using what you find

A documented condition is a negotiating position. Price the repairs with real bids where you can, separate the life-safety and compliance items from the cosmetic ones, and decide which belong in a price adjustment, which belong in a seller-completed repair with a permit and a final, and which justify an escrow holdback. Some findings end the deal: an unpermitted unit that cannot be legalized, a soft-story building with no retrofit and no budget for one, or an open REAP case. Knowing that inside the contingency period is the entire point.

Order the inspection in the first days of the contingency, not the last. Scheduling access to every unit, pulling permits and scoping a sewer lateral take time, and a report that arrives the day before the deadline leaves no room to negotiate.

How we approach a multifamily pre-purchase inspection

I walk every unit, the common areas, the roof, the crawlspace or garage, and the exterior elevated elements, and I read the permit record before I arrive, so the report compares what was built and permitted with what is being rented today. Findings are written against the code and program standard that applies to that building, with photographs and locations, in a form you can hand to a seller, a lender or an attorney. If the building needs an SB-721 inspection or a property condition assessment for a lender, those can be scoped in the same visit.

Schedule a multifamily pre-purchase inspection, or call (626) 214-5929 with the address and the contingency date and we will tell you what can be done in the time you have.