Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Dear Reader:

My strong advice to you is to actually hire an attorney who practices in real estate as well as a Property Inspector to check on the property for code violations and what the cost would look like in order to get this restaurant up and running. It is well worth the little bit of money you will spend on an attorney and property inspector to find out if you can make this deal work within your budget. I have represented a few people who bought restaurants after the fact when they already lost THOUSANDS of dollars when they couldn't make the deal work. The restaurant could not be brought to code is a common problem.

You are asking a free question hoping to get free advice about a very complex problem. No responsible attorney could really advise you as to this transaction without really looking at the contracts, visiting the property and having a formal property inspection for code & safety issues.

But to answer your short question: What is the "Grandfather-In mean?" Essentially means that if you have a condition existing on the premises that does not present a life threatening condition that was not in violation of Code when it was installed, but later the law changes and now its a violation to have such a condition, you have the right to continue having that condition on the property so long as it does not become a life threatening condition AND you do not substantially alter it, OR you do not do a remodel where more than 50% of the building is affected, or until there is a sub-standard order on the property.

Example of this would be where you have homes in LA where the detached garage is sitting on the property line and there is no set-back met. If you built a new home, detached garages are required to have a set back. So as long as the owner doesn't do much to modify the garage they can keep the non-existent set-back. That is because the Garage in its existing condition is "Grandfathered."

Good Luck!

Ms. Rodriguez gave you a great answer. I just write to emphasize that you need to hire a good attorney on this. I know when you are setting up a business every penny counts and it never seems like there is enough money to pay for everything you need to get the doors open. There's an old saying, however, that the only time you make money in business is at the beginning of the deal. What that means is that if you don't structure everything to make sure you don't lose money down the road, you never make money.