Paul DeSantis

About Paul DeSantis

For more than thirty years, The Law Office of Paul C. DeSantis has served California homeowners associations (HOAs), condominium owners, and buyers and sellers of condominiums and other residential properties. Based in Santa Monica, we provide a wide range of services designed to help our clients protect their rights and achieve their goals.

We specialize in assisting midsize and small condominium associations to meet the demanding California Condominium requirements. We help the owners, officers, and directors of HOAs meet these challenges by providing operational guidance and customized documents which address each association’s specific needs.

The Law Office of Paul C. DeSantis is a California real estate law firm based in Santa Monica with more than thirty years of experience in condominium-related matters.

We especially pride ourselves in our focused work with midsize and small condominium associations. We understand that complying with California’s complex procedures, rules, and regulations governing HOAs can be very burdensome for self-managed or minimally-managed projects. These HOAs find it much more difficult to meet the state’s legal requirements compared to larger HOAs with full-time professional management and on-call attorneys.

A current priority for many HOAs is to update and customize their Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs), Bylaws, and Operating Rules to conform to recent major changes in California’s Davis-Stirling Act. We help HOAs meet these challenges by customizing new documents to address each association’s specific concerns.
Among the numerous issues associations need to deal with are:

  1. Compliance with new Davis-Stirling Act procedures
  2. Compliance with California HOA corporate record-keeping rules
  3. Establishing project-appropriate leasing restrictions
  4. Regulating Airbnb and other hosted short-term leasing services
  5. Addressing Noise and Nuisances
  6. Regulating pets, service animals, and comfort/emotional support animals
  7. Establishing optimal insurance standards and allocation of risks
  8. Designing rational dispute resolution processes

We also can assist owners and HOAs to take advantage of new laws promoting Solar Photo-Voltaic Systems.
Our office specializes in Santa Monica’s “TORCA” condominium conversion projects

Background

Paul received a J.D. from Georgetown University, an M.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook, and a B.A. from Syracuse University. He was admitted to practice law in New York and Iowa and is a licensed California real estate broker. Before beginning his legal practice, Paul served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Fourth Infantry Division in Vietnam.
In 1984, Paul co-authored the City of Santa Monica Tenant’s Ownership Rights Charter Amendment (TORCA) with Santa Monica Mayor Dennis Zane, which allowed the conversion of apartment buildings to condominiums. The voters enacted Article XX to the Santa Monica City Charter Amendment by more than a two-thirds majority in 1984.
Paul has also volunteered for various community activities, including his dedication to affordable housing. For over 25 years, he has served as Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors of Community Corporation of Santa Monica, a leading California nonprofit housing provider.