The ADU another builder walked away from

Taking over someone else's permit is the part most builders decline.

The owner called us with an ADU that was structurally there and legally nowhere. The original contractor had stopped partway through for personal reasons, and what was left behind was a half-finished building tied to an open permit and a list of inspections nobody had cleared.

We did not quote it on the first visit, and we would say the same to anyone in this position: on a takeover, the paperwork is the job. Before agreeing to anything we went through the permit file and the inspection card line by line to establish what had actually been approved, what had merely been built, and what the city would still require. That review is what tells you whether a takeover is a project or a trap. Only once we could see the whole path to sign-off did we put a price on it.

From there it was sequence and follow-through: bring the outstanding work up to code, then schedule, walk and pass every remaining inspection until the city issued the final sign-off. That signature is the difference between a structure in a backyard and a legal dwelling that can be occupied and rented.

The part we would point to: the owner went on to hire us for the outside of the main house and then the inside of it. Finishing what someone else abandoned is how that relationship started.