“Criminal ring of squatters” enjoy Beverly Crest home listed at $4.6M

“Squatters have rights.”

That’s what a court-appointed receiver told neighbors of a 5,900-square-foot home that’s now become a party house packed with intruders at 1316 Beverly Grove Place in Beverly Crest, Los Angeles Magazine reported.

The Mediterranean-style villa, listed for $4.6 million, has become home to “a very sophisticated criminal ring of squatters,” agent John Woodward IV of The Woodward Team at Keller Williams told the magazine.

He said interlopers now earn up to $30,000 a month renting rooms and hosting huge house parties with $100 entry fees.

The four-bedroom, seven-bath house was seized by the court from a fugitive surgeon suspected of hiring a hitwoman to kill his model girlfriend and of running the biggest insurance fraud in the state.

Dr. Munir Uwaydah, a former Marina del Rey orthopedic surgeon, is charged with hiring an employee in 2008 to kill his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, one-time Maxim covergirl Juliana Redding. The employee was later acquitted by a jury.

Uwaydah is also accused of a $150 million scheme to defraud insurance companies for unnecessary surgeries by nonsurgeons. He’s believed to be on the lam in Lebanon.

His Beverly Post Office house is now controlled by a receiver for the criminal court, making the state responsible for its upkeep, which includes a pool man and a gardener.

Now the disgraced doctor’s house is a hub for public nuisance and crime, neighbors say.

Los Angeles police have responded to 911 calls for the party house, directly across the street from a mansion under construction for LeBron James.

Woodward says the squatters took over the property in October with the help of a locksmith, who illegally changed the locks and code of a private gate. He found the illegal tenants in the house after the “pool man” called him and asked about the “new tenants moving in.” 

“I called the LAPD. When the cops came, the squatters produced a fake lease and the police said then it was a civil matter,” said Woodward, who as the listing agent knows of no such lease.

When neighbors begged the unidentified receiver handling the sale — the profits of which will satisfy court restitution in a case prosecuted by the office of District Attorney George Gascón — they were told “squatters have rights,” according to L.A. Mag. 

“Taxpayers are paying the utilities to keep the lights on and the pool running. Neighbors are beyond pissed,” Woodward told the magazine. “These squatters have been here since October, charging rents for rooms and throwing massive parties all night long. I just want to get this house sold to satisfy the court.”

Woodward said he requested the court to stop paying the utility bills, along with upkeep for the grounds and pool. He asked the court-appointed receiver “to cut the utilities and ruin their fun. They said they couldn’t because squatters have rights.” 

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office offered a complicated explanation about who is keeping the lights on at the house, according to the magazine.

“LADA has no authority over the home until the court grants LADA the right to dispose of the property for restitution,” a spokesperson for Gascón said in a statement. “The receiver controls the home, and L.A. City has jurisdiction over any nuisance incidents at the location.” 

— Dana Bartholomew

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