The end may be near for Mohamed Hadid’s ill-fated and illegally built Bel Air megamansion.
The Los Angeles City Attorney last week asked a judge to order Hadid to tear down the massive unfinished home on Strada Vecchia Road to its foundation, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Hadid and the city have been battling it out in court over the spec mansion for over five years. In 2017, Hadid pleaded no contest to charges that he built the 30,000-square-foot home in violation of city codes and has since torn down parts of the mansion to bring it up to code. Hadid maintains he did nothing wrong and only pleaded no contest to move forward.
Until last week, the city had worked with him to bring the mansion to code. Neighbors have pushed to tear down the home as part of a separate lawsuit against Hadid since 2017. The FBI is also investigating allegations Hadid effectively bribed a city inspector to sign off on the project.
City Attorney Mike Feuer and his prosecutors cited the inadequacy of the concrete-and-rebar piles holding the foundation into the side of its steep hillside parcel. A structural engineer hired by Hadid’s attorney said that they weren’t drilled deep enough to meet standards and “do not comply with the minimum reinforcing requirements of the building code.”
The Department of Buildings and Safety said that Hadid’s proposed remedies weren’t adequate. The piles themselves must remain for stability, but almost everything else must go, said LADBS General Manager Frank Bush in a letter last week.
Hadid is the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid. He started his career selling classic cars and made his fortune in real estate development and investing, with projects such as Le Belvedere in Bel Air and the Crescent Palace in Beverly Hills.
[LAT] – Dennis Lynch