About the Building
Vicente Del Mar is a for-sale condominium, and the public record adds an important qualification: it is a conversion rather than a purpose-built condominium. The assessor carries twenty-two separately assessed parcels at 446 San Vicente Boulevard on recorded condominium Tract 51215, Lot 1, addressed 101 to 108, 201 to 207 and 301 to 307. Every one sampled is coded 010E, which the assessor's own use-code table expands as condo conversion, as against 010C for a building mapped as a condominium from the start. The parcels were created on 1 November 1993.
The dates tell a coherent story. The assessor gives the year built as 1962 and the condominium parcels as created in November 1993, a gap of thirty-one years. Between those dates Santa Monica adopted its rent control charter amendment in 1979 and then, in June 1984, the Tenant Ownership Rights Charter Amendment, known as TORCA, which allowed tenant-participating conversions of rent-controlled buildings. No TORCA application could be filed after 1 July 1996. A 1993 conversion of a 1962 Santa Monica apartment building falls squarely inside that window, which makes TORCA the likeliest route, though the recorded map and the title report are what will confirm it.
That matters because a TORCA conversion leaves a specific paper trail. It required signatures from two thirds of the tenants and intent-to-purchase forms from at least half of them, gave sitting tenants a two-year exclusive right to buy at a stated price, levied a conversion tax equal to twelve months of maximum allowable rent per unit, and gave non-purchasing tenants continuing occupancy rights, indefinitely for senior and disabled residents and for five years for others. Those protection periods are long expired, but a buyer should still expect to see the history in the title work and should ask whether any unit remains subject to legacy tenancy rights.
The homes themselves are more varied than the building's small footprint suggests. Assessor areas sampled run from 421 square feet at unit 107, recorded with no bedroom and one bathroom, to 1,655 square feet at units 201 and 301, each recorded with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. In between the roll shows 956 square feet one-bedroom homes at units 104 and 304, 1,191 square feet at unit 307 and 1,447 square feet at unit 101. A condominium directory publishes 583 to 1,655 square feet, agreeing at the top and differing at the bottom.
Eight homes sit on the first level and seven on each of the two above, on a lot of 15,542 square feet. Directories describe the building as three storeys, modernised in 2001, with fireplaces in the formal living rooms, in-unit laundry, recessed lighting and updated kitchens, and give the common facilities as a lift, extra storage, controlled access, an automatic gate and secure parking. The 2001 modernisation date and the interior descriptions come from listing sources and cannot be verified from the public record. The assessor's quality class and its unchanged 1962 effective year suggest work at unit level rather than a structural rebuild.
Amenities & Services
The Residences
The assessor carries twenty-two separately assessed condominium parcels on Tract 51215 at this address, addressed 101 to 108, 201 to 207 and 301 to 307. Directories publish the same figure, which is welcome corroboration. Twenty-two is a small membership for a building with a lift, a gated garage and a full envelope to maintain, and it is the single most important number in the disclosure package. Every capital item divides twenty-two ways, and a small association has correspondingly little room to absorb an unexpected cost without reaching for a special assessment.
The size range is wide for twenty-two homes. Unit 107 is recorded at 421 square feet with no bedroom, a genuine studio; units 201 and 301 at 1,655 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Between them sit 956 square feet one-bedroom homes, 1,191 and 1,447 square feet. A directory publishes 583 to 1,655, matching at the top but not the bottom. Assessor and recorded-plan areas are measured differently, so take the figure for your target home from the plan itself rather than from either published range, and remember that a four-hundred-foot studio and a sixteen-hundred-foot two-bedroom in the same association will behave like different markets.
The addressing runs 101 to 108, then 201 to 207 and 301 to 307. Eight homes on the first level and seven on each of the two above is a straightforward stacked arrangement, and the sampled areas suggest the same plan repeats between the second and third levels: units 201 and 301 both record 1,655 square feet, and units 104 and 304 both record 956. Where a plan repeats vertically, differences between homes come down to condition, exposure, floor level and what previous owners chose to do, rather than to the plan itself.
Assessor bedroom counts across the sampled homes run from zero to two. That mix in a twenty-two home association is unusual and it shapes the ownership. A studio of 421 square feet and a two-bedroom of 1,655 pay very different assessments but carry the same single vote, and their owners typically want different things from the building. Read the declaration for how assessments are apportioned, whether equally by unit, by floor area or by common-area interest, because in a building with a four-to-one spread of sizes that single drafting choice has very real consequences for what you pay each month.
Whatever has been done inside, the shell is early 1960s: modest floor-to-ceiling heights by current standards, load-bearing or braced-frame walls that are not casually removed, plumbing and electrical risers laid out for the original plan, and window openings sized to the original elevation. Directories describe fireplaces, in-unit laundry and updated kitchens. In-unit laundry in a 1962 building is almost always a later addition, so ask when and under what permit it was installed, where the machines drain and vent, and whether the association imposed conditions on the work. Window replacement is the other question worth putting, since original 1962 glazing on a boulevard frontage is both draughty and noisy.
Directories describe secure parking behind an automatic gate and extra storage. What none of them says is how many spaces attach to a given home, whether they are deeded, assigned or exclusive-use common area, or whether tandem parking is used. In a 1962 building on a fifteen thousand square foot lot, space is tight and tandem or stacked arrangements are common. Read the allocation off the title report, check the physical dimensions against your vehicle, and ask the manager whether any space has been swapped or reassigned informally between owners over the years.
Due Diligence
The assessor carries twenty-two separately assessed parcels on recorded condominium Tract 51215, so the homes can be bought and sold individually. The use code is 010E, which the assessor expands as condo conversion, meaning the building was constructed as apartments in 1962 and subdivided later. Conversions are ordinary and perfectly financeable, but they behave differently from purpose-built stock on sound separation, metering, common-area definition and the way alterations were regularised at the time of conversion.
Parcels were created in November 1993, inside the window in which Santa Monica's Tenant Ownership Rights Charter Amendment allowed tenant-participating conversions of rent-controlled buildings. Applications could not be filed after 1 July 1996. TORCA required tenant supermajority consent, gave sitting tenants exclusive purchase rights for two years, levied a conversion tax and gave non-purchasing tenants continuing occupancy rights. Ask the title company and the association whether this was a TORCA conversion and whether any legacy tenancy right survives on any unit.
Santa Monica's rent control charter amendment covers residential units built before 10 April 1979, and a 1962 building is squarely within that. Costa-Hawkins exempts separately conveyed condominium units from rent ceilings, but the exemption is not unconditional: units built before 10 April 1979 can retain rent protections where the tenancy began on or before 1 January 1996. If a home is tenanted, establish the tenancy start date and the unit's registration status with the Rent Control Board before you agree a price.
The city's mandatory retrofit ordinance, adopted March 2017, covers wood-frame buildings built under code standards enacted before 10 November 1980 that have ground-level parking or similar open space with occupied levels above. A 1962 three-storey building over a garage is exactly the profile the programme was written for. Around 1,700 Santa Monica buildings were identified and orders were served between September 2017 and July 2018. Ask the association directly whether an order was served on this address and, if so, where compliance stands.
Under the soft-storey chapter the deadlines run from service of the order: two years to submit a structural evaluation report, three years to submit a permit application and plans, and six years to achieve final approval. Orders served in 2017 and 2018 therefore reach their final-approval date in 2023 and 2024. If this building was ordered, the work should be done or well advanced. Ask for the evaluation report, the permit, the engineer's drawings and the final sign-off, and read the minutes for how it was funded.
Santa Monica's separate non-ductile concrete chapter reaches concrete buildings constructed before 11 January 1977, with deadlines of three years for evaluation, four and a half years for a permit application and ten years for final approval from service of the order. A 1962 building qualifies on date if its structure is concrete rather than wood frame. Nothing in the public record establishes the construction type here, so establish it: the answer determines which of the two programmes, if either, applies.
A twenty-two home association funds a passenger lift, a gated garage, controlled access, the roof and the whole exterior wall of a sixty-year-old building. That is a narrow base for a real plant, and it is the reason to read the reserve study required by Civil Code section 5550 alongside three years of financials and minutes. Look specifically at the lift, the plumbing risers, the roof and any seismic work, and ask whether a special assessment has been levied or discussed.
Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 6.20 prohibits vacation rentals, meaning lets of thirty days or less where the resident host is not on site. Home-sharing with the host present requires a city permit, a business licence, transient occupancy tax registration, liability insurance and compliance with occupancy and vehicle limits. In a building where rent control and conversion history may also bear on tenancy, take advice before assuming any letting strategy, and read whatever rule the board has adopted under Civil Code section 4741.
Everything above is drawn from public records, city permit data and published sources. The association’s statutory disclosure package is the only authoritative answer on dues, rules, reserves, insurance and litigation — Ben will request it and read it with you before you remove contingencies.
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