A Santa Monica judge has ordered Mohamed Hadid’s Bel Air “Starship Enterprise” spec mansion demolished to its foundation slab and put into receivership.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan ruled from the bench Wednesday that Hadid must tear down his illegally built creation, siding with a plaintiff group of Bel Air neighbors led by Judith and John Bedrosian.
The demolition order, which TMZ first reported, might be the beginning of the end for Hadid’s 30,000-square foot home at 901 Strada Vecchia that has triggered not just multiple lawsuits, but also a criminal case and FBI probe.
Karlan’s ruling comes a few weeks after City Attorney Mike Feuer also demanded the building torn down in a simultaneous criminal case against Hadid.
A Van Nuys criminal court judge has yet to rule on Feuer’s request, and it is not clear how the civil ruling may affect the criminal case. Messages left with the city attorney’s office Monday were not returned.
In his oral ruling, Karlan cited assertions from the city attorney and Department of Buildings that the building was structurally unsound and could not be fixed using the beams and columns now holding up the edifice.
The judge also noted it was not in dispute that Hadid built the mansion without city approval.
In ordering the building razed, Karlan invoked a state civil procedure code that lets judges appoint a receiver in cases, “necessary to preserve the property or rights of any party.”
Karlan also requested a proposed order from plaintiff lawyers Ariel Neuman and Shoshana Bannett of Bird Marella that would name a receiver for the property.
The judge’s order followed oral arguments in which Hadid’s lawyer Bruce Rudman of Abdulaziz, Grossbart and Rudman said his client had had neither the $5 million needed to demolish his estate, nor even the $500,000 to put it into receivership. Messages left with Rudman on Monday were not returned.
A native of Palestine, Hadid made his real estate fortune in the Washington D.C. area in the 1980s before expanding out west. He developed a handful of Southern California multi-million dollar mansions including Le Belvedere in Bel Air, which sold for $50 million in 2011.
Hadid is father to supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid.
The post Mr. Hadid: Tear down that mansion, judge rules appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.
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