Web Design in Los Angeles for Firms That Answer an Order to Comply

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Los Angeles gives the owner of an older wood-frame building over ground floor parking seven years from an Order to Comply to finish a soft-story retrofit, and gives the owner of a concrete building whose plans went in before January 13, 1977 twenty five years. A firm whose site treats the two orders as one job loses the owner at the first question. Web design in Los Angeles for retrofit contractors and structural engineers builds both clocks, the Housing Department’s tenant steps and its cost recovery rules into the intake, the service pages and a page for tenants. Progression’s team sits in New York, builds for Los Angeles firms remotely, and comes to your office or yard in person whenever you ask.

A quote form with one box for two different orders

A hypothetical retrofit firm built its quote form around one building option, a checkbox that reads Soft-story retrofit. An owner of a concrete office building fills in the form and writes in the message box that an Order to Comply has arrived. The form sends the inquiry to the wood-frame estimator.

Nothing on the form told the owner it was the wrong door, and nothing told the firm the order named a different program. The fix is small: the form asks which order the owner holds before it asks anything else.

Web design in Los Angeles for retrofit contractors and engineers

Los Angeles runs two mandatory earthquake retrofit programs through the Department of Building and Safety, known as LADBS. The Soft-Story Retrofit Program covers buildings of two or more stories in wood frame, built under codes enacted before January 1, 1978, with ground floor parking or similar open floor space. Residential buildings with three or fewer units are outside it.

The Non-ductile Concrete Retrofit Program covers concrete buildings with a roof or floor carried by a concrete wall or column, submitted for plan check before January 13, 1977. A concrete building built under a permit application from before that date is covered whether LADBS has identified it or not.

Most Los Angeles web design companies build a contractor site as a gallery with a quote button. A retrofit firm’s site has to start from the order instead. Plain advice: each service page names the program it serves, and scope questions go to the LADBS unit that handles them rather than being answered on the page.

Seven years against twenty five, milestone by milestone

Los Angeles web design for this trade starts from the table below rather than from a portfolio grid. Every row is a point where an owner, an engineer or a tenant opens a firm’s site and needs one particular page.

The wood-frame order and its tuck-under parking

The soft-story order gives two years to submit proof of a previous retrofit, or plans to retrofit or demolish, three and a half years to obtain a permit to start construction or demolition, and seven years to complete construction. Each owner’s clock runs from receipt of the Order to Comply.

• Name the program on every soft-story service page.
• Link the LADBS Soft-Story Retrofit Unit, which receives all plans and structural analysis.
• Offer the unit’s lookup, Verify if My Building Applied, beside the form.
• Leave any claim about a building’s status to LADBS.

Concrete owners and the three year checklist

The concrete order starts with a completed checklist that LADBS reviews to determine whether the building is non-ductile concrete at all. Proof of a previous retrofit, or plans to retrofit or demolish, follows at ten years, and construction closes at twenty five.

• Explain the checklist in plain steps and link the Non-Ductile Concrete Retrofit Unit.
• Point owners to the Permit and Inspection Report, also called the Property Activity Report, to check a building’s record.
• Keep the concrete and soft-story pages on separate addresses.
• Never set a year for any building.

Housing Department steps that begin once permits issue

For rent stabilized buildings, the Housing Department adds its own steps. After permits are pulled, the owner completes the online Tenant Habitability Plan application. After the work is done, the owner may apply for cost recovery.

• Send plan questions to LAHD’s Tenant Habitability Program unit.
• Keep tenant names and rents out of open forms and email.
• Gather the closeout documents in one place.
• Say nothing about an approval before LAHD gives one.

An inquiry form that asks for the order before the budget

The first fields are which program the order names, the date the owner received it, the stories and units in the building, and whether it is rent stabilized. Beside the form sit links to LADBS’s Verify if My Building Applied tool and, for concrete owners, to the Property Activity Report.

No field asks for tenant names or rents. The form never computes a deadline and never tells an owner a building is exempt. Routing sends concrete inquiries to the engineering lead and soft-story inquiries to the estimator.

Good website design in LA for this trade treats the order date as the first fact, not the last. A website design company in Los Angeles that builds this intake also sets who answers each route, and the contractor website design page covers the quote form side in more detail.

• Order named: soft-story or concrete.
• Date the order was received, typed by the owner.
• Stories and number of units.
• Rent stabilized: yes, no or not sure.
• Route: the engineering lead or the estimator.

What a retrofit firm’s site costs to build

Pricing depends on scope and is set in the written proposal. Published prices are subject to change. A web design company in Los Angeles prices the intake, the tenant page and the closeout portal as separate parts of the scope.

Retrofit firm site prices Progression publishes

These are the fixed-scope starting prices on our website design and development page.

A firm that wants its site on WordPress can also see our WordPress developers in Los Angeles page, and one that sells outside the city can start from our web design in California page.

A page written for the tenants named on the notice

A contractor’s name reaches tenants on the Tenant Habitability Plan and on the notices around it, so tenants look the firm up. Give them a plain page for tenants of buildings under retrofit, separate from the sales pages.

• State the plan’s work hours as LAHD’s Tenant Habitability Program page describes them: measures so that tenants are not required to occupy an untenantable unit outside 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.
• Say that the plan runs through LAHD, and give the number for the Tenant Habitability Program unit, (213) 482-7039.
• Leave out building addresses, tenant names and promises about dates.
• Write in the languages your tenant notices use.
• Keep the page free of sales language.

Web design in LA for this audience means short sentences and a phone number. A website design agency in Los Angeles that builds this page also writes it with respect for access needs during work, and our multilingual website design page covers pages in more than one language.

Why is the tenant page separate from the sales pages?

Because the reader is different. An owner is deciding whether to hire the firm. A tenant is trying to learn who is working in the building and who to call.

Cost recovery, put the way LAHD puts it

On its Seismic Retrofit Work Program page, LAHD describes a cost recovery program that allows a pass-through of up to 50% of total seismic retrofit costs, divided equally among all rental units, if LAHD approves. The maximum rent increase is $38 per month for 120 months, and the recovery period may be extended until the full approved amount is collected.

The application is made online within 12 months of completing the retrofit work. LAHD lists these documents: the current Registration Statement, the Tenant Habitability Plan and Declaration of Service, documentation of costs such as contracts, invoices and proof of payment, a rent roll with move-in dates and current rents, final permits, and the Certificate of Compliance for the seismic retrofit work.

Plain advice: the owner pages explain the program and link LAHD’s Seismic Retrofit Work Program page, and the client portal gathers contracts, invoices, proof of payment and final permits into a closeout packet. No page promises an approval or a monthly figure.

LA website design for this trade keeps the rent roll out of email and open forms, because LAHD treats tenant information in the plan as confidential. Owners of rent stabilized buildings also see property management marketing for the owner side of the relationship.

Website design in Los Angeles for engineers on the concrete track

The concrete clock is long, and it starts with a checklist that decides whether the building is non-ductile concrete at all. Web design in Los Angeles, California, for a structural engineer therefore gives concrete owners a checklist page that explains what LADBS asks for at three years.

A second page covers proof of a previous retrofit. A third, on phased work, never sets a year for any building. The soft-story structural analysis for the two year step is prepared by an architect or structural engineer, as LAHD’s page says, so engineers carry a separate page for that step. See engineering website design for the practice side.

• A checklist page for the three year step.
• A page on proof of a previous retrofit.
• A phased work page with no year for any building.
• A separate page for the soft-story structural analysis.

Does proof of a past retrofit need its own page?

Yes. Both orders list proof of a previous retrofit among the early steps, and an owner who already finished work should not have to search the checklist page for it.

Claims kept off a retrofit firm’s pages

Web design companies in Los Angeles that serve this trade write every program fact with the department’s name beside it, and leave several claims off the page entirely.

• No City approved, LADBS certified or earthquake proof badges.
• No deadline pressure lines.
• No photographs of damaged buildings and no fault maps.
• No loss or injury figures.
• No grant or financing promises.
• No statement that a building is, or is not, on the City’s list.
• No cost recovery amounts for a named building.

Scope and order questions go to the LADBS units, and tenant or cost recovery questions go to LAHD. Website design firms in Los Angeles that keep these claims off the page also keep the firm out of arguments with owners and tenants. See construction website design for the wider contractor site.

Can a firm’s site tell an owner a building is exempt?

No. Exemption and scope are LADBS questions. The site links the department lookup and says so in one sentence.

Who answers which question, and where the site sends it

A retrofit firm’s site works best when each question has one named place to go. The table sets out the split, and the three answers below put the same split in plain words.

Who answers a scope question?

The LADBS unit for the program. The Soft-Story Retrofit Unit takes soft-story plans and analysis, and the Non-Ductile Concrete Retrofit Unit takes concrete questions.

Who answers a tenant or cost recovery question?

LAHD. Its Tenant Habitability Program page and its Seismic Retrofit Work Program page are the places to link, with the Tenant Habitability Program page first for tenants.

Who answers a legal question?

Counsel. A firm’s site can say that plainly and leave the interpretation of any ordinance to a lawyer.

Set before the next order arrives

LA web design for a retrofit firm is ready when an owner and a tenant can each find their page in one click. The card lists what to finish first.

Web design agencies in Los Angeles test the two routes before launch: one inquiry for each order, one tenant visit, one closeout upload. The team can do this with your estimators on a call or at your office.

Frequently asked questions