Is Tarek El Moussa Evicting Tenants for HGTV Show in LA?

Dec 22, 2023

After drug dens, SWAT raids, and charges for arson and murder-for-hire plots, the tenants of a North Hollywood building had been through it all. And then Tarek El Moussa stepped in.

El Moussa, 41, who currently stars in HGTV’s The Flipping El Moussas, first made a name for himself when he starred in the same channel’s Flip or Flop with his then-wife, Christina Anstead, 40. The show followed the duo purchasing derelict properties in Los Angeles at auction, sometimes sight unseen, and then hastily fixing and flipping them. Now married to Selling Sunset’s Heather Rae El Moussa, 35, who is also his co-host, he is part of a project to turn a 16-unit compound on Hartsook Street in NoHo into a 138-unit building.

“I’ve been flipping houses a long time and — and this project is hands down the biggest flip I’ve ever done,” Tarek proudly announced on July 13 in a now-deleted video. “On the rooftop, there’s gonna be a pool, cabana chairs. I mean, just an incredible location. An incredible building — and this is Hollywood, man. This is where everybody wants to live. So we got so lucky to find this land because finding land like this in North Hollywood, it’s literally impossible, and we got real lucky.” He also urged his 1.3 million Instagram followers to “Hit me with a 100K in my DMs so that we can partner.” Tarek also runs a real-estate-investing education company called HomeSchooled that was born out of another TV series of his, Flipping 101. Tarek deleted the videos after the building’s current tenants started speaking out via the @hartsook.tenants Instagram to accuse the reality-TV star of being part of a plan with their previous landlord to evict them.

Prior to Tarek’s involvement, residents said they had already been through hell and back. The remaining tenants (the NoHo 138 website refers to only three, but the tenants confirm to Vulture that there are five) had previously filed a 53-page lawsuit against their landlord in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 20 for assault, breach of common care, and intentional infliction of emotional distress for an alleged prolonged harassment campaign.They claimed their landlord’s goal was to have tenants leave their rent-controlled apartments. Among other complaints, they said they suffered rodent infestation; racoons in the crawl space; black mold; broken appliances; a SWAT raid; sewage flooding; and, to top it off, a blazing fire with 20-feet flames. But they soon found out that wasn’t even the worst of it.

The landlord, Arthur Raffy Aslanian, 54, of La Cañada Flintridge, had hired people to burn down the building. Aslanian was convicted on July 7 of not just three federal criminal counts of arson but also conspiring with “hit men” in a murder-for-hire plot. The hit man he hired alerted law enforcement to the plot and later showed Aslanian a fake “dead” bloody picture of the person he had been hired to kill, according to a 35-page trial brief filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The details of the arson on the North Hollywood Hartsook building were revealed during the investigation of Aslanian’s murder-for-hire plot.

Tarek became one of the partners attached to the Hartsook property’s redevelopment sometime while Aslanian was still awaiting trial. Clare Letmon, 32, who lives in one of the units paying $1,650 a month and heads the resident’s Hartsook Tenant Association, said her husband saw a film crew shooting outside their apartment in April but that it wasn’t until June 14 that they actually learned of Tarek’s involvement in tearing down and redeveloping their complex after reading an Urbanize LA article. The story said the new development would entail “the construction of a seven-story, approximately 111,000-square-foot building featuring 138 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments above a two-level, 69-car subterranean parking garage.” Still, the five remaining residents of the complex were hopeful they would be treated differently regarding their situation.

Letmon told Vulture new ownership sounded great at first: “I will take a new owner over the current owner, who is in prison for trying to kill me.”

On June 28, the first day of Aslanian’s federal trial, the remaining residents received notices ordering them to leave the premises in 120 days, Letmon said. Tarek and the other members of the development partnership — TEM Capital, HEM Capital, WJK Development Co., and Pyramid Development Group — said the Ellis Act relocation papers were issued by the previous owner.

“While we are aware that the previous owner of the property has been involved with several serious legal matters, the partners of NoHo 138 previously and currently do not have any involvement, connection or relationship with the seller, nor will they have any relationship in the future following the property transfer,” said a statement posted on the proposed project’s website. “Once acquired, TEM Capital, HEM Capital, WJK Development Co., and Pyramid Development Group will sensitively navigate the situation and follow all city guidelines for new developments. The goal is to work closely and respectfully with the current tenants by providing proper move-out compensation and constructing a safe and pristine new apartment complex that will also include fourteen low-income units.”

Letmon said the residents initially had some communication from Tarek and tried to get him to come to the property, without cameras, and listen to the tenants explain what they had been through and what the building meant to them. He offered a Zoom meeting instead but later cut off communication, Letmon said.

“We reached out and said, ‘Hey, maybe you don’t wanna be involved in this,’” Letmon said. “‘We still live here. How are you gonna build this project in September if we’re still legally living here?’ You know, ‘Talk to us. We’re organized tenants; we’re not just people who want to see a celebrity. We’re serious.’”

She said that she and the other residents of the complex, including a 77-year-old woman who moved into the building in 1982 and shares her $824-a-month rental apartment with her 56-year-old disabled son, were appalled when Tarek posted his video jubilantly talking about tearing down their homes.

“Hey, when you film promos in front of the arson damage, you know, this crime that represents years of trauma and abuse, and you’re talking about it being this opportunity of a lifetime for you that’s really triggering,” Letmon said. “The biggest flip ever for you is the result of violence against seniors and tenants. Can you not do that?”

Tarek then blocked the Hartsook Tenant Association and its members on social media, Letmon said.

On August 4, Tarek deleted the post about the new building project being a great opportunity. The Los Angeles Times had posted a story early that morning about the dispute, and in a new post, Tarek insisted that he was “not evicting anyone.”

“The partners of NoHo 138 have attempted to get in touch with the remaining tenants to have an amicable discussion regarding final move out agreements,” Tarek said. “The partners of NoHo 138 have also reached out to the attorney representing the Hartsook tenants to request assistance in facilitating a meeting between both parties. Our intentions are to work with the tenants to offer a great opportunity for them while helping to improve the neighborhood.”

Tarek’s rep, Eda Kalkay, told Vulture that “NoHo 138 plans to offer generous proposals to the remaining tenants for relocation and the opportunity to move back into a newly constructed apartment, after completion of the NoHo 138 project.” Kalkay said there are also no plans to shoot this development for Tarek’s HGTV show.

Letmon said she hasn’t received a “generous proposal” for relocation but, at this point, only the bare minimum required by law. She added that she also had no interest in living in the new “crowded” building that lacks the charm of her current home.

On Monday, August 7, Tarek’s rep shared the news that the tenants’ attorney has responded to the NoHo 138 partners and that a meeting was being organized as soon as possible, which will include Tarek representing his company TEM Capital . Letmon maintains that the tenants have not received a response to multiple requests for a meeting or Zoom with Tarek or TEM Capital.

“Hartsook Tenants are organizing for a truly just outcome after years of trauma and abuse in solidarity with tenants across Los Angeles who are engaged in a literal life-or-death struggle to stay housed in this City,” Letmon said in a statement.

According to the Hartsook tenants’ attorney, Lydia Nicholson, “The tenants are organized and know their rights and will not be intimidated by celebrity. LACCLA and the Hartsook Tenant Association intend to fight any evictions brought against the Hartsook Tenants.”

Ahead of a meeting, Tarek seemed to show a lack of sensitivity around tenants being evicted. In email correspondence shared with Vulture, Tarek appeared to ask a sender, “So what are you doing about the housing shortage?” In another, a person said he was not offering affordable-housing options — instead, he was only out to get tax credits and that he should leave the current tenants alone and stop gentrifying a neighborhood full of blue-collar workers. El Moussa appeared to write back, “Why don’t you buy it and let everyone stay for free forever?”