‘Granny flats’ let aging relatives live close -- but not too close

Their homes are too big, their friends have moved or their families are too far-flung. But those aren’t the only reasons aging adults are moving into separate residences on their children’s properties.

“I think it’s good for my grandkids to see the respect between me and my children, and for them to respect me,” said Tani Moe, 67, who six years ago moved into the guesthouse behind her daughter and son-in-law’s three-bedroom, lemon-colored rental in West Hollywood. “When I grew up in Hawaii, extended family lived together, and we helped each other.”

FOR THE RECORD:
Multi-generational living: A story in Saturday’s Home section on “granny flats” said that USC gerontology professor Jon Pynoos’ father lived on his property and received end-of-life care there for five years. It was Pynoos’ father-in-law, not father, who lived in the guesthouse, and he was not given end-of-life care there. The remodeling described, including leveling the floor and installing grab bars, was rather so his father-in-law could function independently in the guesthouse. —

“We love this dynamic,” said Chris Rios, 41, Moe’s daughter, who with her husband, Arthur Viecco, 47, owns a hair salon. “She has her own living space, her own life, and has her own close relationship with my boys. My husband and I are lucky because she helps take care of them while we’re at work.”

Whether a “guest suite” in Beverly Hills, a “granny flat” in West Hollywood or an “accessory unit” in a new master-planned community, a growing number of aging adults are moving to their children’s homes. These parents of boomers -- and Gen-Xers -- are passing up senior- or assisted-living complexes, sometimes at their offspring’s urging.

“There are benefits for all the generations of living with family,” said Emma Tyaransen, a principal of the Concord Group, a real estate-market consulting firm in Newport Beach.

Services that post home listings and sales don’t typically track “granny flat” or “in-law” categories. Plus, estimating the number of families who have embraced this lifestyle is impossible, experts say, because some people convert garages or add guesthouses without permits.

“We do know, however, that these conversions are happening regularly,” said Russell T. Valone II, president and chief executive of San Diego-based MarketPointe Realty Advisors.

The first wave of the trend emerged in the late ‘90s and 2000, Valone said. Builders offered accessory units then to comply with cities’ affordable-housing policies rather than meet consumer preferences. Many of the guest units were used as lower-priced rentals.

The preference for multi-generational living increased as more boomers began dealing with their parents’ age-related issues, and as a growing number of immigrants who value that living arrangement started buying homes. Builders in the Inland Empire, especially, have caught wind of the demand.

Monica and Joel Arellano, who have 7-year-old and 20-month-old children, bought a home at Pacific Coast Communities’ Otay Ranch in Chula Vista that has a suite with a separate entrance to accommodate Monica’s parents, who are 66 and 68.

“They baby-sit my kids when I work days and sometimes nights, and pay us $550 a month,” Monica Arellano said. “When they want to, they can close the door and be alone in their own unit.”

The up side of the arrangement is clear: Parents help kids; kids help parents; grandkids and grandparents bond; kids get help with the mortgage. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges.

Top among the negatives is a lack of privacy. Grown children suddenly have to establish boundaries with their parents, who get a bird’s-eye view of their children’s parenting techniques and habits and may butt in with unwanted advice.

“Parents get to know their children in a different way, which takes a rethinking of the relationship and roles,” said Jon Pynoos, a USC professor of gerontology whose father lived on his property and to whom he gave end-of-life care for five years. “They can’t revert to the old roles when parents were in charge.”

Children also must consider remodeling costs, including making the units accessible to wheelchairs, Pynoos said. He removed all the thresholds in his father’s guesthouse so that the floor was level; installed grab bars tailored to his father’s height; put nonslip tile and an anti-scalding device in the shower; and installed an alarm system.

“This living situation isn’t for everyone,” Pynoos said, “but I’ve seen it work. It did for me.”

In a reversal of the typical multi-generational living arrangement, Gardy Buss, 64, and his wife, Jeanne King, 50, fixed up and remodeled the 450-square-foot guesthouse behind Buss’ parents’ house in Burbank a decade ago so they could live there and help take care of his aging parents.

Buss had grown up in the main house and would have preferred living there, but his parents “couldn’t have handled that small backyard unit,” so he and King took it over. They cooked his parents’ dinners, paid their bills, drove them to appointments and hired help when their needs grew. Buss’ mother died in 2005, his father in 2006; both were 94. Buss and King now live in the main house, and the guesthouse is for, well, guests.

Although illegal granny-flat conversions abound in Southern California, it’s possible to get approval for such plans and avoid problems when future buyers want those guesthouses to be in sync with the laws. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, though.

The state passed a measure in 2003 to help ease the second-unit approval process by allowing those wanting to build in-law units to bypass city planners and go straight to the building departments with their plans, said Jane Blumenfeld, a Los Angeles city planner.

But the state law did not prevent cities from requiring that a number of criteria be met to get approval. And every jurisdiction has its own set of regulations, said Jesse Brown, assistant planner for Burbank.

Probably the toughest criteria in L.A. are that second units must be no larger than 640 square feet, and they must meet yard setbacks and height requirements. A 5,000-square-foot lot with a main house, for example, would need an extra 2,500 square feet of yard to accommodate a second unit. Also, there must be at least one covered or uncovered parking space for the granny flat.

In Burbank, “second-dwelling units” are not permitted within 300 feet of the main house, and they may not exceed 500 square feet.

“We don’t get a lot of applications because owners have detached garages, the lots are small, and people want to enjoy yards,” Brown said. “We have a lot of standards.”

But regulations won’t stop owners from building granny flats or converting their garages, experts acknowledge. The tide is turning,

Most boomers aren’t going to retire to a desert community, analyst Tyaransen said. “They’re going to want a multi-generational experience.”

Wedner is a former Times staff writer.

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