LAW OFFICES OF MICHAEL G. KIM,
A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION
Serving clients in San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Imperial Counties since 1991.
Areas of Practice
Our law firm specializes in common interest development law and serves as legal counsel to homeowners associations located throughout Southern California. We also provide civil litigation services, real estate development and land use representation, and trust/will drafting and fiduciary services.
REAL ESTATE & HOA
We are a full service HOA law firm providing general counsel, governing document amendment, assessment collection, rules enforcement and litigation legal services to our clients.
Homeowner Association Law
Our law firm specializes in common interest development law and serves as legal counsel to homeowners associations located throughout Southern California. We are a full service homeowner association law firm providing general counsel, governing document amendment, assessment collection, rules enforcement and litigation legal services to our clients.
We are highly regarded for our general counsel legal services providing guidance and pro-active solutions to the financial and maintenance responsibility issues facing homeowners associations. Our law firm specializes in efficiently correcting the effects of past decisions, and providing frameworks within the corporate and financial architecture of a common interest development for the resolution of issues that present a clear path forward. We have saved our clients considerable sums of money and provided needed clarity through the through implementation of our recommendations.
Our law firm is noted for skill in homeowner association rules enforcement and architectural control issues. I gave the keynote speaker presentation on architectural control issues (“Beating the Architectural Blues”) at the California Association of Community Managers (“CACM”) Annual Convention in the Disneyland Grand Ballroom, and am a CACM Vision Award nominee. The Vision Award is CACM’s highest honor. I am considered an expert in this area of common interest development law, and have been hired as a consultant as well as served as lead trial counsel for community associations in lawsuits involving rules enforcement and architectural control issues.
Our law firm prides itself on innovative and cost-effective solutions to the delinquent assessment collection problems faced by many homeowners associations. Our rate of recovery is well above the average due to our comprehensive approach which includes lien services, nonjudicial foreclosure, and obtaining personal, money judgments that survive bank foreclosure.
Our law firm provides general counsel and litigation legal services for homeowners associations on a retainer or a straight hourly basis.
Real Property & Disclosure Law
We have successfully handled real property disputes involving non-disclosure, encroachment, party wall, tree, partition and transactional issues. We have had particular success in mediating these real estate disputes to a successful conclusion before the North San Diego County Association of Realtors (NSDCAR) and other local trade groups.
Municipal Land Use Practice
We have successfully represented the interests of parties adversely affected by municipal and other governmental and regulatory actions, including zoning restrictions that effect the value of real property.
Recently, we represented the interests of ninety-six owners of condominiums located inside the gates of the La Costa Resort to successfully convince the City of Carlsbad’s City Council to specifically exempt those condominiums from the scope of a City ordinance enacted in May of 2015 that prohibited the business use of those condominiums (known as the “Chateaus”) as vacation rentals, as had been the norm for almost forty-five years before the ordinance was enacted. The market value of each of the Chateaus, which had historically factored in the rental value of the Chateaus, was significantly increased by this very rare exemption. Click HERE to read article in San Diego Union Tribune.
Subdivision Development Services
As an outgrowth of our work in the fields of construction defect litigation and common interest development law, our law firm is increasingly being retained by domestic and foreign developers and real estate investors to provide a wide range of legal services directed at expediting the approval of real estate development projects including industrial, condominium, mixed-use and timeshare. These legal services include property acquisition services, map approval, local governmental interface, the drafting of governing documents, and Bureau of Real Estate subdivision approval.
Due to our extensive work in successfully representing homeowner’s associations, particularly in construction defect litigation, we have a unique perspective that our developer and builder clients value, and we incorporate that experience and knowledge into the governing document legal architecture and advice for HOA incorporation and operation that our law firm provides.
Litigation Services
Our foundation is in litigation, having been trial lawyers of civil disputes continuously since 1991. We have tried civil cases of virtually every category, from insurance defense, medical malpractice prosecution, construction defect, contract enforcement, breach of contract, equitable claims seeking injunctive or declaratory relief, and regulatory compliance claims. Our legal team’s results speak for themselves, as virtually every case we have tried in twenty-six years has resulted in a favorable verdict or settlement for our clients.
A large measure of our success can be attributed to the adage “pick your battles.” We counsel clients with civil disputes based on the facts, law and the economics of litigation. Sometimes, a client’s interests are best served by an amicable resolution. Other times, litigation is the proper choice. At all times, we are focused on maximizing the client’s bottom line economic and practical result.
Trust & Wills and Fiduciary Services
We draft revocable living trusts and wills for small to medium sized estates, and also provide fiduciary services such as trust administration, and serving as trustee and executor. We have been appointed as guardian ad litem by the San Diego Superior Court court in conservator and trust proceedings. We petition for trust modification and litigate trust and probate disputes.