‘Squatters’ who have overrun a $4.3million mansion two doors down from LeBron James’s new pad are throwing near-nightly raucous rave parties – and police are powerless to shut them down.
The parties often don’t start until 2 am, run on for hours, and have resulted in assaults, fires and arrests since they began in celeb-packed Beverly Hills in October.
The ‘squatters’ are even advertising rooms in the four-bed, 5,857 sq ft home on Booking.com for $300 per night and charge hundreds of party guests $75 entry fees at the gate.
They claim that they are valid tenants, though the homeowner and property agent deny any rental agreements exist.
A vacant $4.3million Beverly Hills mansion has become a neighborhood nuisance after being taken over by ‘squatters’ who have been hosting raucous raves into the morning on an almost nightly basis. Pictured: A group of partygoers arriving at the home
Investigator Mark Ebner staked otut the property and witnessed dozens of partygoers arriving and leaving
The gated home was owned by Dr. Munir Uwaydah, who fled the US in 2013 amid an investigation into the murder of his girlfriend. The property was eventually repossessed, and has been in the hands of Uwaydah’s mortgage lender since
Among the residents of the affluent Beverly Crest neighborhood are singer John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, and Entourage and Ballers producer Steve Levinson – while LA Lakers star James is currently building his dream home a stone’s throw from the squat house.
Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Steve Wynn and Ron Burkle all live within half a mile of the home.
James’s house manager, who asked not to be named, said that he had to keep security guards at the NBA star’s building site 24/7 in part because of the squatters’ parties.
‘I’ve heard from my security team up there about all the crazy cars, crazy parties at night, how we’re not able to get into our property sometimes because they’re blocking the street with their cars, and just the nuisance at night with the loud music and people floating out to the streets,’ he said.
‘It’s one of the reasons we have security 24/7. Otherwise there’s no need for me to have security there 24/7 because it’s just a construction site.’
Last week there were parties every night from Wednesday to Saturday, leaving detritus on the cul-de-sac including nitrous oxide canisters inhaled by partygoers from balloons to get high, crushed Solo cups, pools of vomit, and condom packets.
One neighbor, Rick Rankin, told DailyMail.com that police were unable to evict the residents because they had obtained drivers licenses with the property address, and even produced a rental agreement, which the property’s current listing agent insists is fake.
Outraged neighbors told DailyMail.com the parties begin as late as midnight and go on until as late as 9am. Pictured: Guests hanging outside the property during a party
Last week alone saw the squatters throw parties on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night, leaving detritus on the cul-de-sac street outside including nitrous oxide canisters – also known as ‘whippets’ – crushed Solo cups, pools of vomit, and condom packets
According to neighbors, a party attendee’s Porsche was towed last week after investigator Mark Ebner photographed a bag of pill capsules in the back. The pills and other evidence of drug use around the squat house has prompted LAPD to refer the case to its Narcotics division
‘The officers told me the house was trashed,’ Rankin, a 65-year-old technology consultant, said. ‘It’s like they’re hoarders. The garage is full of s**t.
‘Young women have been seen coming and going in and out of the house at all hours.
‘When people leave they’re stumbling. You know when someone’s high. It’s not a drunken thing. They’re jittery, nervous, eyes spinning.
‘One night they had a party I went around and there were at least 50 cars. These are one-way, narrow streets, but they just plop their cars down and get out.’
Parties at the house are even being advertised on events website get-in.com, showing start times as late as midnight and a $75 cover charge, which the organizers claim was ‘for the nova festival victims from the massacre on October 7’, a reference to the Hamas attacks on Israel.
The ‘squatters’ appear to have also listed the home they are occupying on Booking.com as a vacation rental.
Photos from the four-bed, six-bath home show it has a pool and bar – as well as an LED-lit disco room, according to neighbors.
The Booking.com listing for the house calls it the ‘Beverly Hills Lodge’, and offers a room for four people for $300 per night, including a ’60-min massage’.
‘At the lodge guests are welcome to use a spa center,’ the listing said. ‘A casino and a children’s playground, are available for guests at Beverly Hills Lodge.’
The homeowners and their realtor said they have not authorized any rentals or residents, who have hired journalist and crime writer Mark Ebner as a private investigator to probe the squatters.
Ebner said he has spent several nights outside the mansion watching the raucous antics from the street.
Parties at the house are even being advertised on events website get-in.com, where start times are listed as late as midnight and tickets for entry go for $75
Organizers give detailed descriptions of how to arrive at the parties, one of which supposedly raised money for victims of the Hamas attack on Israel
Nearby residents said they had seen ‘hundreds’ of people attend the late-night bashes
‘If you stake out at 8am after a party night, it’s like Night of the Living Dead up there. These people are zombies. They’re just completely whacked out by the binge they’ve been on,’ he said.
‘There are nitrous canisters that litter the street, broken glass, things like that.’
He said cops towed a party attendee’s Porsche 911 last week, after he photographed a bag of pill capsules in the back.
The pills and other potential evidence of drug use around the house has prompted LAPD to refer the case to its Narcotics division.
Ebner said he has also handed over all his files on the accused squatters and their parties to the department’s Major Crimes unit.
Recent police callouts to the home recorded on the app Citizen include a report of a man in a bucket hat assaulting someone with a metal box on January 13, a battery incident on December 2, and a reported burglary on November 23.
An aide for councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky told neighbors in an email that ‘LAPD is working with the City Attorney’s office to file a Trespass Authorization Form so they have the authority to remove squatters from the site.’
LAPD Senior Lead Officer James Allen told DailyMail.com he had been handling the police investigation.
He said the controversial residents claimed to cops that they were friends of the former owner, and had been invited by him to live in the home.
But he added that the current ownership of the home is uncertain, has been the subject of a bankruptcy court case, and that the home is entering foreclosure.
‘I guess he left his friends in the house. I guess we can say they’re squatters. But they’re squatters to the owner that’s in foreclosure to the bank,’ Allen said.
Just a few yards away from the party house is the site of NBA star LeBron James’s new dream home that is currently under construction
The land where LeBron James is building his house was home to a huge mansion (pictured) in which Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn used to live
NBA star LeBron James – pictured left with his wife Savannah in June – began building his dream Beverly Hills home, after demolishing the lavish $36.8million mansion he bought in September 2020
‘We’re working on a plan with the bank to evict the individuals because there’s no one at this point to evict them and say they’re there illegally.
‘I’ve submitted it to the City Attorney. I’m citing the home every time we get a radio call for a party.
‘They’re using the home outside of its original purpose, illegally.’
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto did not respond to a request for comment.
Allen said that because the squatters got their drivers licenses registered at the home, the case had to go through a court eviction process.
‘If you were able to grab a house illegally, and I didn’t catch you during that process, but now you have an ID because you went to DMV and you got mail to that house, then it has to go through the eviction process,’ he said. ‘I’m no longer able to just take you out of that home,’ he said.
The mansion itself has a colorful ownership history.
A title report on the property reveals that it was previously owned by hip-hop mogul Damon Dash from 2003 to 2007.
The gated home on Beverly Grove Place was also owned by Dr. Munir Uwaydah, who fled the US in 2013 amid an investigation into the murder of his mistress, Maxim model Juliana Redding, and indictments for a multi-million-dollar health insurance fraud.
Jeff Scapa, a private mortgage lender, told DailyMail.com he loaned $3.8million to the current owner, a company called MDRCA Properties LLC.
A recent New Years Eve bash at the property was advertised on Instagram ‘from 10pm – 10am’ at a ‘secret Beverly Hills mansion location’
Listing agent John Woodward told DailyMail.com he first discovered there were squatters at the home when he went to show the property to prospective buyers in October and found the locks and gate code had been changed
Photos from the four-bed, six-bath home show it has a pool and bar – as well as an LED-lit disco room, according to neighbors
A notice of violation is seen at the property for ‘loud unruly gathering’ on New Year’s Day
Scapa said a court ruled he could foreclose on the home, but that process was frozen when MDRCA filed for bankruptcy last month.
Scapa said he discovered squatters had taken over the home in October last year, and shared videos with DailyMail.com he took of one man admitting he started moving his belongings into the house ‘the first week of October’.
He said that he and MDRCA offered the alleged squatters $25,000 cash to leave, but they declined.
Scapa said he was frustrated with police and the LA courts for not evicting the alleged unlawful residents already.
‘Everybody knows this guy is not supposed to be there, and they do nothing,’ he said.
Fran Solomon, 61, owns the home next door to the squat house and rents it to long-term tenants.
‘Less than a month after we had a tenant in there, we were informed there were squatters next door,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘In our neighborhood, it’s a very high net worth area in the hills, you wouldn’t expect squatters.
‘These seem to be more than just people taking over a home. They appear to be doing very nefarious things out of the home. They’re trashing the neighborhood.
‘Our tenants have hired security. They’re not only kept awake late at night because of the parties going on, but because they’re right next to the squatters, their guests late at night are ringing our doorbell, and their vehicles are intruding on our security sensors.
‘There appears to be a pit bull that wanders the street. My tenants have children. Let alone being afraid for themselves, they’re terrified for their children.
‘I want to see the law being enforced and the squatters getting out, and being put in jail. They are there illegally. We’re legal citizens paying exorbitant taxes and nothing is being done,’ she said.