Nicole Curtis.Photo: Melanie Szafraniec
Nicole Curtis has filed a lawsuit against the City of Detroit Land Bank (DLBA) after a three-year-long conflict over who rightfully owns a dilapidated home she says she purchased with the intent to fix it up.
TheRehab Addict Rescuestar, 44, announced she had filed the suit with anInstagram post last Monday, sharing a photo of herself in a Detroit Tigers shirt.
“Today, I gave my attorneys the approval to file suit against the City of Detroit Land Bank. The news is running with this photo as I didn’t pose for one,” she wrote. “I mean, if you’re getting ready to take on another city you best run with a photo that looks like you’re an a– kicker, right? #internationalwomensday I was born for this [heart emoji] let’s go.”
A representative for Curtis’s company, Detroit Renovations, told PEOPLE that the home had been vacant for more than 30 years and she purchased it in a “private, legal sale in 2017, sight unseen.”
Including the purchase price, Curtis’s company has spent “approximately $60,000 including a significant amount of time and labor costs on the property” to date, according to the lawsuit. Other costs involved include “renovating, safeguarding, insuring, paying taxes and maintaining” the property, the filing states.
Issues first arose in February 2018, according to the lawsuit, when the DLBA - a public organization whose “mission is to return the city’s blighted and vacant properties to productive use,” according to their website - contacted Curtis and said that the house she had paid for actually belonged to them.
As of August 2020, the DLBA has “obtained Title' of the property, the suit states, and real estatelistings showthat the 2,641-square foot, 5-bedroom house was put up for sale at the beginning of March for $40,000.
“Nicole is suing them for the money that was invested in the home,” the Detroit Renovations representative says. “Nicole is still open for resolve, but the DLBA has refused.”
A representative for the DLBA tells PEOPLE that they refute this statement.
“Ms. Curtis has never been the legal owner of 451 E Grand, however she was offered multiple opportunities to sign an agreement with the DLBA to rehab the house, which she refused,” they said in a statement. “We’ve already won two separate legal actions about this property. The property is currently for sale and Ms. Curtis is welcome to make an offer and follow the same process to which we hold all of our buyers.”
DLBA Executive Director Saskia Thompson toldThe Detroit Newslast Tuesday that “the fact that [Curtis] is categorizing this as though we have taken something away from her is fundamentally incorrect.”
“She never owned the house. If she has any legal cause of action, it’s not against us,” Thompson told the publication. “We’re not the ones that took money from her for that property. Someone else did when they no longer owned it. It was not theirs to sell at that point.”
Sara Demick
“It’s very sad for all of us as we have our hearts and money invested in it,” Curtis told PEOPLE.
RELATED VIDEO: Why Nicole Curtis Stepped Out of the Spotlight 2 Years Ago - and Why She’s Back Now
This isn’t the first time Curtis has become entangled in a legal battle with a city.
The suit stated that her company “failed to substantially complete the Minimum Improvements on the Property.” It also claimed the company hadn’t paid property taxes or maintained insurance on the residence.
The city alleged breach of contract, and asked the court to give the property back to the city.
Curtis also reacted to the lawsuit on social media at the time, saying onInstagramthat she’d told her team to “to ignore the negativity.”
Detroit Renovations did complete the renovations and the home sold for $395,000, according to property records.
Discovery
Curtis hosted her first showRehab Addict, for which she bought and restored old houses in Michigan and Minnesota, on the DIY Network from 2010 to 2018,
She told PEOPLE in January that making the hit show was oftenexhausting for her as a young single mom. (She has two sons Ethan, 23, and Harper, 5.) “Everything you see on the show, I personally bought, picked up, put into place, ironed the curtains, everything,” she said. And filming could be grueling: “It was so raw. And I’d wear the same clothes every day. I didn’t have any makeup on.”
Curtis with her sons in 2019.
During the series' run, she also went through acontentious, years-long custody battle over Harperwith her ex-boyfriendShane Maguireand became an outspoken advocate for therights of breastfeeding mothers. Her choice to continue to breastfeed Harper at age 3drew criticism from someand became a flashpoint inher legal fight with Maguire. They finallyreached a custody agreementin October 2018.
OnRehab Addict Rescue,which premiered in January after Curtis’s two year-hiatus from television, the design expert is part renovation guru, part life coach, as she comes to the aid of families who are in over their heads after purchasing old homes in need of an overhaul.
source: people.com
