Press · Announcement · November 6, 2026
Why 3 in 10 Buildoly homes are 749 square feet, and what changes on January 1
A new California law, SB 1117, removes the impact fee cliff at 750 square feet that has shaped backyard homes across the state.
LOS ANGELES, November 6, 2026. About 3 in 10 of the homes Buildoly designs and builds in Southern California are exactly 749 square feet. That is one foot under the size at which an ADU starts paying impact fees, and once it reaches 750 square feet, the fee is charged on the whole unit.
Starting January 1, 2027, SB 1117 changes that. For up to two ADUs on a lot, a city can charge impact fees only on the space above 750 square feet. An 800 square foot ADU will pay on 50 square feet, not 800.
“The fee rules have quietly decided the size of a lot of California backyard homes. Our two-bedroom is 749 square feet for exactly that reason. Starting January 1, families can build the size they actually need,” said Jeff Cheung, founder and CEO of Buildoly.
A second law that takes effect the same day, AB 956, lets a lot with an existing or planned single-family home add two detached ADUs by right instead of one. On that path a city can cap each ADU at 800 square feet, so the new fee rule matters most to homeowners building one larger ADU.
Neither law changes utility connection charges or school fees, and ADUs under 750 square feet still pay no impact fee.
Buildoly builds four standard models, from 325 to 996 square feet, on site and at a price the homeowner knows before signing. Jeff Cheung's plain-English guide to both laws is at buildoly.com/blog/california-adu-laws-2027.
About Buildoly
Building a home usually means hundreds of decisions passed between architects, engineers, suppliers, the city, builders and subcontractors, with no one owning the whole thing. Every home starts from scratch, which is a big reason housing costs so much and takes so long to build. Buildoly brings all of it into one vertically integrated process and offers the backyard home like a product. The Los Angeles company designed a set of building blocks, so each home can be shaped around a family, planned down to the last nail before work starts, and built on site at a price the owner knows before signing. Founded by Jeff Cheung while he was at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Buildoly builds across Southern California and has two designs pre-approved by the City of Los Angeles.
Media contact
Jeff Cheung, Founder and CEO
jeff@buildoly.com
linkedin.com/in/jeff-cheung