Sofia Vergara Sued by Los Angeles Contractors Over Alleged Unpaid Bills for Home Renovations
Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic Reading Time: 3 minutes
Sofia Vergara is concluding 2023 with a lawsuit on her end. The Modern Family star is being sued by the contractors who renovated her Los Angeles mansion. They are saying that Vergara didn’t pay them over $1.7 million.
Sofia Vergara Faces Lawsuit After Allegedly Not Paying Home Renovation Bills
Reside Custom Homes (RCH) is accusing Vergara of “breach of contract, promissory fraud, and intentional interference with contractual relations.” The company alleges that the actress has failed to pay two invoices from March and July of this year.
In March, the company sent her an invoice for $896,196.15. Then, the contractor gave the actress a final invoice in July, charging her $657,245.23 for the additional work they’ve done. Both claims, according to the company, have been outstanding since. RCH put a mechanic’s lien against the property in August.
As the contractor hopes to earn their revenue, the Colombian beauty is putting up a fight. In a statement, Vergara’s counsel, Martin Singer alleges that Vergara had a complaint filed against RCH before the “specious lawsuit.”
“Sofia Vergara’s claims were for significant overcharging by Reside, substandard and negligent work, and long delays seeking damages in excess of $5 million,” he said.
According to records, Vergara purchased the mansion in 2020 for about $26 million. She owns the home alongside CEO and founder of Latin World Entertainment Luis Balaguer. The Colombian actress then hired RCH in April 2022 to renovate the mansion. The company finished the original scope of work as planned by December 2022.
RCH further claimed that Vergara asked them to do additional work. This included adding plaster that “had to be sourced from a small, rural town in the United Kingdom.” She also allegedly requested to remove and replace the rear stairs which had to be custom fabricated.
Contractors Claim She Mistreated People in the Job Site
The contractors claimed that Vergara has “repeatedly represented and promised” that she will pay in full upon the project’s completion. They also claimed that she never complained about their quality of work throughout the renovation.
“Some seven months later and only after RCH recorded a lien against the Property did the Owner and Vergara complain for the first time,” the filing read.
Moreover, RCH alleges that the America’s Got Talent judge abused the employees and subcontractors in the site.
“Throughout the duration of RCH’s work on the Property, Vergara would routinely engage in aggressive outbursts and would humiliate, ridicule, harass, and seek to intimidate RCH’s employees, representatives and subcontractors, among others,” the complaint read.
According to the company, Vergara’s outbursts have become “so frequent and severe” that RCH had a hard time keeping subcontractors willing to continue working on the Project. They described the actress’ behavior as “pervasive, abusive, and hostile.”
RCH also alleged that things progressed further in October 2023 when Vergara hired counsel to bully them with “meritless allegations of wrongdoing and threats of litigation.”
“RCH is not, and will not be, deterred by baseless threats, and emphatically rejects Ms. Vergara’s conjured-up, belated and convenient accusations. Unlike Ms. Vergara and her counsel, RCH will not litigate its claims against Ms. Vergara in letters, emails, or the media. Instead, RCH looks forward to having the dispute adjudicated by an impartial tribunal applying the law to the true facts, and RCH is confident it will prevail on the merits,” Stephen E. Foster, lawyer for the contractor, said.
