Title 24 reports for Los Angeles permits.
Los Angeles runs six different plan-review routes through ePlanLA, publishes no numeric turnaround for its regular route, and spans four building climate zones — the zone is set by the parcel, not by a handout.
Four climate zones inside one city
LADBS is a standalone city department, and its ePlanLA portal runs the entire plan check process electronically — verification and permit issuance included. It lists six review routes, from Counter Plan Check to Preliminary Plan Check, and publishes no numeric turnaround for the regular route: Regular Plan Check plans are “returned within weeks depending on workload,” and 50% more of the plan check fee buys an expedited review. On the completeness-screening form, “Energy calculations and forms for Title 24 compliance shown on plans” is its own line item — a thin energy set is a completeness problem before it is ever a plan-check correction.
Climate zone is where Los Angeles gets interesting. City ZIPs land in four CEC building climate zones: 6 along the coast (Venice, Mar Vista, Pacific Palisades, San Pedro), 8 in 90001, 9 downtown and across most of the Valley, and 16 in Sunland-Tujunga. LADBS’s own standard-plan bulletin still says to run Climate Zone 9, but that handout is 2019-code-cycle vintage. Ordinance 187,714 separately requires new buildings to be all-electric, and its residential exception covers attached ADUs on existing gas piping, not detached ones — so the heating equipment call is settled before the model starts. No local energy reach code beyond the state code was found on the city’s pages.
One thing that doesn’t change by city: my price and turnaround are flat statewide — $99 first report, $150 flat after, 24–48 hours on your first job. What differs city to city is what happens on the plan-check side before and after the CF1R lands in your permit set, which is what this page covers.
Nearby, same flat rate: Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank and Downey.
Prices
Flat fees, in writing before I start. No hourly, no bid package, no change-order games — the number on the quote is the number on the invoice.
One honest note
I’m not a licensed engineer or architect, and I don’t stamp drawings. On the CF1R I’m the documentation author — you stay the responsible designer. Nothing about your role on the job changes.
That’s on purpose. I’m not after your scope or your clients. I do one piece of the permit set — the piece that usually holds it up — and I do it fast.
Los Angeles plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
Does LADBS publish a plan-check turnaround?
Which climate zone does a Los Angeles project use?
Does my ADU or addition actually need one?
Almost certainly. New conditioned floor area — ADUs, JADUs, garage conversions, additions — triggers Title 24. So do alterations that touch the envelope, the ductwork, or the HVAC equipment, including a straight change-out. A remodel that only moves non-structural interior partitions usually doesn’t.
Send it either way. If it doesn’t need a report I’ll say so and there’s no charge for the look.
What do you need from me to start?
A PDF of the architecturals and the project address. Floor plans, elevations and a window schedule is plenty.
You don’t need the HVAC or water heater picked. If the plans don’t call them out, I model what I’d normally specify for that job — and I list every assumption in the email so nothing is buried. Swap any of it and I rerun; that doesn’t count against your free revisions.
The design doesn’t have to be finished either. Early is often better, because that’s when a compliance problem is still cheap to fix.
Send your Los Angeles plans.
Give me the address and the CF1R comes back run on that parcel's climate zone, labeled for the ePlanLA upload.