Since 2011, Mohamed Hadid–father to Gigi, Bella, Anwar, and additional Hadids like Alana and Marielle–has been ensconced in a legal battle regarding the construction of an obscenely enormous mansion in Los Angeles’ tony Bel Air neighborhood. The house, which remains half-built, comes in at 30,000 square feet and violates multiple building permits. And after years of fighting city ordinances, Hadid has finally been ordered to tear it down.
The mansion, dubbed the “Starship Enterprise” by Hadid’s irate neighbors, has been causing headaches for years. The real estate developer built the house higher than permits allowed and added balconies, bedrooms, and an Imax theater that had not been approved by the city of Los Angeles. After the city revoked building permits entirely, Hadid kept right on building. Neighbors documented landslides caused by the construction.
Back in May 2017, Hadid pled no contest to various misdemeanor charges relating to the mansion’s construction and in July of that year he was basically given a slap on the wrist, sentenced to 200 hours of community service, three years’ probation, and approximately $3,000 in fines. Fun fact: he was represented by one of O.J. Simpson’s lawyers, Robert Shapiro, who was memorably portrayed by John Travolta in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. Shapiro described the mansion at the time as “safe as any building that’s ever been built.” But in 2019, the law disagrees!
As TMZ reports, in LA Superior Court this week Judge Craig Karlan argued that since the house was built in flagrant violation of safety codes, it poses a “clear and present danger” to Hadid’s neighbors and thus has to be demolished. A structural engineer testified that Hadid built the house’s foundation only 20 feet deep into bedrock, as opposed to the required 30. And so Karlan added that “if this house came down the hill it would take a portion of the neighborhood with it.”
Hadid was not pleased with the decision, telling TMZ that the Starship “has not moved a millimeter!” and was not endangering his neighbors. He argued that the home was inspected in 2012, and that the city should have told him then, before he spent a Scrooge McDuck-worthy sum of money on additional construction. The house needs to come down by April 1st.
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