Planning to Remodel a Playa Vista Home After You Buy? Check the HOA's Architectural Rules First

Yes, you can usually remodel a Playa Vista home after you buy it. What you usually cannot do is start the moment you get the keys. Most Playa Vista homes sit inside a homeowners association, and many changes need the association's written approval before any work begins. That approval is separate from a City of Los Angeles building permit, and in many cases you need both.

The time to find out what is allowed is before you close, while you can still walk away. Every association that reviews changes has written rules for it, and the seller has to provide the governing documents during escrow. If the kitchen you plan to open up, the floors you plan to replace, or the patio you plan to cover matters to you, read those rules during your contingency period and plan the offer around what they say.

Playa Vista was built as a planned community, with a consistent look from one block to the next. Associations protect that look through architectural rules, and they also protect the buildings themselves, because in a condo or townhome your walls, floors, and ceilings touch your neighbor's. As this guide to Playa Vista HOA dues explains, many homes sit under more than one association, so a change can involve more than one set of rules.

Buyers coming from a street of single-family homes are often surprised by this. In much of the older Westside, a homeowner deals with the city and nobody else. In Playa Vista there is often a second set of eyes, and it has its own forms, its own calendar, and its own standards. None of it is a reason to avoid buying here. It is a reason to know the process before you commit to a plan.

Every association writes its own rules, so the only real answer is in the documents for the home you are buying. Across planned communities, though, the pattern tends to look like this.

• Usually needs approval: anything visible from outside, such as windows, exterior doors, paint colors, patio covers, balcony changes, and landscaping in a front yard or shared area.
• Usually needs approval in a condo or townhome: moving or removing walls, changing plumbing or electrical runs, and replacing carpet with hard flooring, because each of those can affect a neighbor or a shared system.
• Often needs approval: solar panels, air conditioning equipment placed outside, and other equipment mounted on a roof, wall, or shared space.
• Usually does not: interior paint, new appliances in the same location, cabinet fronts, light fixtures on existing wiring, and similar cosmetic updates inside your own walls.

Flooring catches more buyers than anything else. Many condo associations require a sound-rated underlayment beneath hard flooring, and some require the owner to submit the product specifications before installation. Pulling carpet and putting down wood without approval can end with an association asking you to change it, at your cost.

Playa Vista is part of the City of Los Angeles, so permitted work goes through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. The city looks at whether the work meets the building code. The association looks at whether the work meets its own rules and protects shared parts of the property. One approval does not stand in for the other.

That means a realistic remodel plan has two tracks. The association review comes first in most cases, because it can change the design. The city permit comes after the design is settled. A contractor who has worked in planned communities will usually know to ask for the association approval letter before pulling a permit. If one says they do not need it, ask more questions before you hire them.

California law also limits how far an association can go on some items. Solar is the clearest example. An association can require an application and set reasonable conditions, but it cannot simply ban solar. For most other changes, the association's written rules control, and a decision on an application is supposed to come back in writing, with the reason explained if the answer is no.

You will not have the full association package until you are in escrow, and you cannot apply for approval on a home you do not own yet. You can still learn a great deal early, and the rest fits inside your contingency period.

1. Tell me the plan before we write. If you are buying with a specific project in mind, say so. It changes what I ask the listing agent and how much review time I build into the offer.
2. Ask what the seller has already changed. If the current owner opened a wall or replaced the floors, ask whether it was approved. A written approval for similar work is a useful sign that your project has a path.
3. Read the architectural rules first. When the association documents arrive, look for the CC&Rs and any architectural or design guidelines. Find the section on alterations, read what needs an application, and note how long the association has to respond.
4. Look for open violations. The seller's association package should include any notice of an unresolved violation. If the seller made unapproved changes, you want that settled before closing, not handed to you afterward.
5. Talk to a contractor during escrow. A short walk-through with someone who works in condos and planned communities can tell you whether the plan is realistic, roughly what it costs, and what the association is likely to ask for.

If you are new to buying in an association, this overview of HOAs for Westside condo buyers covers the documents you will see and what each one tells you. The timing of all of this sits inside your offer's contingencies, which this piece on California contingencies walks through.

This is the scenario that costs buyers money. A previous owner removed a wall, enclosed a patio, or installed hard floors without asking. Nobody complained, so it stayed. Then a new owner applies for a different project, the association reviews the unit, and the old change surfaces.

Depending on the rules and what was done, the association may ask the current owner to apply after the fact, provide engineering or product information, or undo the work. The current owner is you. That is why I treat unapproved changes in an association the way I treat unpermitted work in a single-family home. Find it, document it, and decide in escrow who is responsible, while there is still room to negotiate.

Buyers often budget the purchase price and the construction cost and forget the time in between. An association review takes weeks, not days, and some committees meet on a set schedule. Then the city permit takes its own time. If you are planning to live somewhere else while the work happens, or to move in after it is finished, plan for both reviews before you set a lease end date or a moving day.

If the remodel is the reason you are buying, the home may also be priced with that in mind. A unit with an approved layout change already in place can be worth more to you than one that needs the same work and a review you are not sure will pass. That is a fair thing to weigh when you compare homes and when you decide how hard to push on price.

If you are looking at Playa Vista and you already know what you would change, tell me before we tour. I will help you sort out which homes make that plan easy, which ones make it hard, and what to ask for in writing once you are in escrow. I stay in touch, and I would rather answer this question before your offer than after it.

Send me a note here and tell me what you have in mind.