LADBS Plan Check Corrections for Multifamily Sets

The correction sheet and what it asks for

Every multifamily set filed with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) comes back from its first review with a correction sheet. For an apartment or condominium building that sheet is built on the Department's standard correction list for R1 and R2 occupancies, a fourteen-page document whose posted edition is dated January 2020 and cites the 2020 Los Angeles codes. It is organized in sections (the permit application, clearances and administration first, then zoning, then the building code by topic: occupancy classification, building limitations, fire-resistance rated construction, fire protection, means of egress, interior environment, building envelope and so on), each with lettered parts and numbered items. The plan check engineer circles the items that apply to your set, marks the drawings and calculations, and attaches the supplemental correction sheets for the conditions of the site: methane, flood hazard, high wind, grading and shoring, sound between units, energy, bicycle parking and others.

The instructions printed at the top of the sheet set the method for the whole response. In the Department's words, your office is to "provide a written response or reference to details pursuant to the corrections", and the "location of any revisions on the plans shall be identified as part of your responses" (LADBS counter plan check correction sheet, PC/STR/Corr.Lst.058, rev. April 2026). Those two sentences are the standard a reviewer holds the response to. An answer that says "revised" without naming a sheet and a detail sends the reviewer hunting through the set, and a reviewer who has to hunt tends to write the item again.

Where the set sits in the process

LADBS reviews most multifamily sets electronically through ePlanLA. The Department lists the steps of an ePlanLA application as submittal for screening, application review, plan check, corrections issued, plan check complete and permit issued (LADBS ePlanLA FAQ). Screening checks the package for completeness under LAMC 91.106.3 before any plan check begins, and an incomplete package comes back with a list of missing documents: the code analysis, exiting, plumbing fixture count, accessibility plans, soils approval letters and City Planning entitlement actions are all on the screening form (LADBS submittal screening form).

The file rules for ePlanLA also shape how a set is issued and reissued. The Department asks for:

scaled, vectored PDF drawings uploaded as single files, in landscape layout, with true-type fonts;
PDF bookmarks by sheet number for every sheet;
no more than 50 MB per file;
a title page with a sheet index for each plan set;
the upper right corner of every sheet kept clear for the LADBS approval stamp, 2.25 inches from the right edge and 0.25 inches from the top;
calculations, reports and certificates as portrait PDFs no larger than 8½ by 11 inches.

Those rules come from the ePlanLA FAQ. A title block template that already leaves the stamp area clear and a sheet index that matches the bookmarks save a round of screening comments on every project.

Sorting the items before anyone draws

The first working session on a correction sheet should produce a sorted list, before a single sheet is opened. Every item falls into one of three kinds.

Drawing changes

A missing dimension, a door schedule that disagrees with the plan, a detail callout that points to the wrong sheet, a rated assembly listed without its listing number. These are drafting work. They can be answered by the team that holds the model, and the response names the sheet and detail where the change is drawn.

Decisions for your office

A reviewer reading a code section differently from your code analysis, an accessibility clearance that moves a wall, a separation that changes an assembly, an exiting count that changes a stair. These need your architect of record, who holds responsible control of the set and decides how the design answers the comment. The drawing follows the decision, and the response states the code basis your office relies on.

Consultant and agency items

Structural calculations, the building systems, the civil drawings, the soils report and the clearances of other departments. The response letter still answers these items, but the content comes from the consultant or the agency, and the letter should say where it comes from: "See revised structural calculations, pages S-12 to S-18, by the structural engineer of record."

The correction sheet itself flags the agency items early. Part B of the R1 and R2 list opens with the instruction to obtain every clearance on the "Clearance Summary Worksheet" and to apply immediately, because "it can take months for some departments to review the project" (LADBS R1 and R2 correction sheet). The clearances guide takes those departments one by one.

The response letter, keyed item by item

A good response letter mirrors the correction sheet. It uses the same part letters and item numbers in the same order, quotes or paraphrases each circled item, and answers it in one of four ways: revised, with the sheet and detail; clarified, with the sheet and detail where the information already appeared; provided, for a document or calculation that was missing; or a code basis stated for the reviewer's decision. Items that belong to a consultant or another department say who is answering and where their answer sits in the package.

A log kept in the same order does double duty. It is the working list for the team while the corrections are open, and it becomes the record your office needs when the reviewer returns a second round or a question comes up at inspection.

Item	Correction, in short	Kind	Answer	Sheet and detail	Decided by	Date
B.1	Obtain clearances on the worksheet	Agency	Fire hydrant and access, BOE sewer and dedication applied for	Clearance log, attached	Your office	Oct 6
E.4	Show rated corridor walls on floor plans	Drawing	Revised: rated walls tagged, legend added	A-201 to A-205, legend on A-200	Studio	Oct 8
F.2	Exit width at level 1 lobby	Decision	Door widened; exit width recalculated	A-101, detail 3/A-601	Architect of record	Oct 9
G.7	Accessible unit bathroom clearances	Drawing	Clarified: clearances shown on enlarged plan	5/A-411	Studio	Oct 8
S.3	Shear wall schedule at grid C	Consultant	See revised calculations	S-201, calcs pp. 12 to 18	Structural engineer	Oct 10

The item numbers and content above are illustrations of the format. The real sheet sets the numbering, and the log follows it exactly.

Revised sheets: clouds, deltas and one revision history

Every revised sheet should show the change clouded, tagged with a revision delta and entered in the revision block with its date and a short description. Three habits keep a resubmittal clean.

One revision number per submittal. Every change made for the first round of corrections gets the same delta, and the second round gets the next one. A reviewer can then filter the set by delta and see exactly what changed since the last review.
Clouds that close. A cloud drawn around the whole sheet tells the reviewer nothing. A cloud around each changed element, entered in the title block revision block, tells the reviewer where to look.
The sheet index updated with the revision. The index on the title page, the PDF bookmarks and the revision block on each sheet should agree. When they disagree, the reviewer has to check each sheet by hand.

The Department applies the same logic after the permit is issued. A supplemental permit for changes to an approved set asks for a copy of the original approved plans, a narrative of the changes and the changes clouded on the plans (LADBS submittal screening form).

Verification of corrections

Once the corrections are addressed, they are verified. For sets reviewed through ePlanLA, the Department's instruction is to upload the revised plans and the responses through the ePlanLA portal. For paper plans, verification is by appointment: your office brings the originally checked set of plans and calculations, the correction sheet and the revised plans with the responses (LADBS counter plan check correction sheet). The R1 and R2 list warns that unprepared responses with incomplete plans or calculations may result in cancellation of the appointment, and some correction lists add that corrections are verified only at the office where the plans were checked (LADBS ADU correction sheet, rev. October 2025).

The permit is issued once every item has been verified and every clearance has been signed off. The correction sheet says it plainly in its own terms: "the permit will be issued upon verification of compliance with the corrections included herein."

Plan check status and who to call

Status is on the ePlanLA dashboard for electronic submittals, and on the Department's online permit and inspection report, which accepts the permit application number, the plan check number or the assessor parcel number (LADBS online services; LADBS status FAQ). The plan check engineer and supervisor are named at the top of the correction sheet, and the Department's employee directory lists their contact information (LADBS FAQ). Questions about a specific item go to the engineer who wrote it, before the response is drafted, which is often the shortest path through a decision item.

The 18-month clock and extensions

A plan check is good for 18 months, and the period begins once the plan check fee is paid (LADBS Information Bulletin P/BC 2026-120, Policy for Plan Check Time Extension). The same bulletin sets the extension rules under LAMC 98.0603:

Rule	What the bulletin says
Initial period	18 months from payment of the plan check fee
Extension length	Six months each, one Plan Check Extension modification for each period
Administrative maximum	Up to four extensions, 24 months, for up to three and a half years from the original submittal
Beyond three and a half years	Case by case, with the plans resubmitted and rechecked to the current codes, plan check fee on an hourly basis
What an extension keeps	The building code edition in effect at submittal
What an extension does not keep	Current Planning and Zoning Code requirements and disabled access regulations apply as of the date the extension is granted
Clearances with their own expiration	Re-entered by the plan check engineer and re-approved by the agency before issuance

The practical point for a multifamily set is the code edition. A set designed to an earlier edition of the California Building Standards Code that lets its plan check expire has to comply with the current edition, which can mean redesign. A calendar entry for the expiration date, set on the day the fee is paid, is part of answering the corrections on time.

Where the studio fits

TECTO Studio takes a correction sheet and returns the package this guide describes: the sorted list, the revised sheets drawn in your Revit model, the response letter keyed to the sheet and the dated log. Decision items go to your architect of record with the options drawn, and nothing is resubmitted before your office reviews it. When the studio drew the set, errors in sheets it prepared are corrected at no charge through plan check. See plan check corrections and, for the steps after approval, Los Angeles permits.

How to answer an LADBS plan check correction sheet on a multifamily set