Illegal construction and stalled work at Mohamed Hadid’s unfinished spec mansion in Bel Air has earned him 200 hours of community service and a lawsuit from neighbors demanding it be demolished.
It turns out the property, at 901 Strada Vecchia, has also caused the developer considerable tax issues.
Hadid had boasted that the 30,000-square-foot home would be worth $100 million. That led Los Angeles County to assess the property at $70 million, leaving him with a hefty tax bill. He’s successfully reduced the bill, but still has yet to pay it, according to the Los Angeles Times.
To reduce those taxes, Hadid changed his tune, arguing the property was worth just $10 million. In August, the county reassessed the property at $29 million, which saved Hadid $500,000 in property taxes.
The disparity in appraised values pulls back the curtain on the property’s worth. The previous assessment was largely guesswork because appraisers weren’t granted access to the property, according to the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor. For the revised assessment, they were allowed on-site.
In a memo regarding the change, appraiser Laura Booth said the 30,000-square-foot home was “not an ultra high-end luxury improvement.” She added that some of the building would have to be demolished as part of a settlement of a criminal case for violating dozens of zoning violations, which reduced its value.
Robert Kalonian, a spokesman for the assessor’s office, added that “the property as it stands now is not the property that we believed was being built.”
Hadid is still in the middle of a fight with neighbors, who are suing to demolish the property because they say it destabilized the Bel Air hillside and is a danger to them.
In a recent interview with The Real Deal, Stephen Kotler, Douglas Elliman’s CEO for the Western Region, said that some high-end spec homes in L.A. are considerably overpriced by sellers, by as much as 50 percent. [LAT] – Dennis Lynch