When Does Torrance's Soft-Story Retrofit Ordinance Hit My Building?

Published August 10, 2026

Torrance's mandatory seismic retrofit rules do not run on one citywide deadline. Your clock starts when the certified order lands in your mailbox, and then you have five years of milestones to hit.

The short answer

Torrance's soft-story ordinance does not hit on a citywide date. It hits your building on the day you receive the Building Official's certified order. From that service date, Torrance Municipal Code 815.1.050 Table A gives you five milestones over five years: screening report at one year, retrofit plans at two, permit at three, construction started at four, construction finished at five.

Last verified: August 10, 2026

Which buildings are actually in scope

Torrance added Division 8, Chapter 15 to its municipal code through Ordinance 3916, adopted March 14, 2023 and effective April 11, 2023. Article 1 covers wood-frame soft-story buildings.

Under 815.1.020, a building is in scope when both of these are true:

1. The Building Official determines it was built under code standards enacted before the 1976 Uniform Building Code, with the local amendments adopted August 1, 1978.
2. The ground floor or basement contains parking or similar open floor space that creates soft, weak or open-front wall lines, or most of that level is open floor space, and there is at least one story above.

The classic profile is partial tuck-under parking with apartments overhead.

There is one exception, and it is the one most South Bay owners ask about. The chapter does not apply to single-family residences or to multifamily buildings with three or fewer units. Four units and up is where this starts.

Your permit date is not the final word

Read 815.1.020(a) closely. The trigger is what the Building Official determines about the construction standard, not what your permit card says. Owners who assume a 1977 permit date puts them clear are reading a rule that was never written that way. If you get an order and you believe the determination is wrong, that determination is itself appealable.

How the priority order works

Torrance is not mailing every order at once. Section 815.1.050(c) sets three enforcement tiers:

• Priority I: buildings with three or more stories.
• Priority II: two-story buildings with seven or more units.
• Priority III: everything else in scope.

Three-story buildings get orders first. A two-story sixplex sits in Priority III and is likely to hear from the city last. That is a sequencing decision, not an exemption.

What "notice" means in practice

Section 815.1.060 is precise about this, and it is worth knowing before an envelope arrives. The order goes out by registered or certified mail to the owner shown on the last equalized Los Angeles County assessment roll. Your compliance period begins on the date you receive it, not the date the city drafted it. Under 815.1.060(d), failing to receive the order does not invalidate anything that follows, so a stale mailing address on the assessment roll is your problem to fix now rather than later.

As of this verification date, the city had not published a mailing schedule for these orders. Do not treat silence as safety. Call Building and Safety at (310) 618-2550 or email Seismic@TorranceCA.Gov to confirm whether an order has issued on your parcel.

The three traps in the fine print

Appeals stay the clock, but only for 30 days. Under 815.1.060(e), you may appeal any decision or order to the City Manager, and the appeal must be filed within 30 days of the order. Filing stays the order and its time limits, and the City Manager decides within 90 days. Miss the 30 days and the clock simply runs.

Extensions come late, not early. Section 815.1.060(f) only lets you apply for an extension after you have submitted the screening report and the city has approved your retrofit plans. There is no way to buy time at the front of the process. If you are behind at year one, an extension request is not available to you yet.

Noncompliance gets recorded against title. Under 815.1.060(g), a building that misses the Table A limits gets a certificate recorded with the LA County Recorder stating it is in scope and requires retrofit. That is a cloud on title that shows up during a sale or a refinance. A second certificate clears it once the work is done. Separately, 815.1.040 allows a noncompliant building to be declared unsafe under Section 116 of the California Building Code.

What we tell owners to do now

Pull your build year and confirm whether the ground floor has parking or open space under living units. Update the mailing address on the county assessment roll so the certified letter reaches a human. Get a licensed structural engineer to walk the building before an order forces the schedule, because the screening report under 815.1.050(a) has to come from a California licensed design professional either way. Knowing the likely scope of work early is what turns a five-year requirement into a budget line instead of an emergency.

One more thing owners forget. Section 815.1.070 requires you to notify all current and prospective tenants in writing about the project, including scope, expected duration and a contractor contact. Plan that into your leasing calendar, not the week construction starts.

FAQ

My building is two stories with six units. Am I exempt?

No. The three-or-fewer-unit exception in 815.1.020 is the only unit-count exemption. A two-story sixplex is in scope and falls under Priority III, which means the order likely arrives later than it would for a three-story building. Later is not never.

Can I start the retrofit before I get an order?

Yes, and there is no penalty for doing so. Voluntary work done to the chapter's standards puts you ahead of the queue and lets you schedule around vacancies instead of around a deadline.

Does the ordinance force me to upgrade plumbing or electrical too?

No. Section 815.1.020 states that compliance does not require existing electrical, plumbing, mechanical or fire-safety systems to be brought current, unless the Building Official finds they are a hazard to life or property. It also does not require mitigation of site hazards like liquefiable soil.

How long do I really have?

Five years from service of your order to a completed retrofit, with four interim milestones along the way. In practice the first year is the tight one, because a screening report needs an engineer with availability and Torrance has roughly a thousand buildings across all covered categories chasing the same engineers.

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Schofield Property Management manages residential property in the South Bay. This article summarizes Torrance Municipal Code Division 8, Chapter 15 as published and is general information, not legal or engineering advice. Scope determinations, screening reports and retrofit designs must come from a California licensed design professional, and questions about your specific building or order should go to a licensed engineer, an attorney, or the City of Torrance Building and Safety Division at (310) 618-2550.

Topics: Torrance, soft-story retrofit, seismic ordinance, compliance, South Bay, multifamily, property management

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