Celebrity Justice
Joe Francis Gives Bad Jacuzzi

Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:09PM by TMZ Staff

So ... you drop $6.5 mil on a home. Since Joe Francis once owned it, it's reasonable to assume the hot tub and the wine cellar are A-OK, right? Wrong.



The not-so-proud owners of the house are suing both Joe Francis and the person who sold him the house -- famed NBA coach Rudy Tomjanovich -- claiming more than $3 million in damages.

Francis is listed as the owner/builder who "substantially remodeled the Property" from 2000 to 2003. He sold it to Rudy Tomjanovich and his wife in 2004. Rudy then sold it to the plaintiff, Steven Bardack -- the guy who founded Strata Capital and also served as a head honcho at Yahoo.

Among other things, Bardack claims the Tomjanovichs defrauded him by not disclosing problems with the decks, the paint, the caulking, the walls, the travertine, the skylight, the windows, the glass -- basically, he claims the house is a disaster.

The suit alleges Francis had a duty to make sure the remodel was up to par -- but the final product was allegedly far from it.

We're guessing we know why the Jacuzzi is on the fritz ...

Joe just gave us this statement: "After I built the house, I sold it to Rudy Tomjanovich. I never spent one single night in that house and only visited a handful of times. But, I'm sorta bummed out that it might cost me $3 million and I never got to have one naked girl in that jacuzzi. Thank God for insurance."

Filed under: Celebrity Justice


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1. RJ Johnson is also slamming Jay Leno - and not verbally...

Posted at 3:33PM on Dec 29th 2008 by What, Bitches??

2. Why did he just notice these things after he was in the home and not during the multiple walk throughs? You would think if this guy was buying a multi-million dollar home he would have had it inspected before he agreed to purchase it.

Posted at 3:37PM on Dec 29th 2008 by joe m.

3. That's ignorant. I'm assuming he didn't buy it without taking At Least a couple of walks through it. I mean, even us poor folks know not to buy a house (or anything) without checking it all over very carefully. On top of that stupidity, to blame Joe Francis, a man who has had nothing to do with the property in at least 5 years? Sounds to me like someone is looking for a little fast cash...

Posted at 3:37PM on Dec 29th 2008 by Mackenzie

4. 4. That's ignorant. I'm assuming he didn't buy it without taking At Least a couple of walks through it. I mean, even us poor folks know not to buy a house (or anything) without checking it all over very carefully. On top of that stupidity, to blame Joe Francis, a man who has had nothing to do with the property in at least 5 years? Sounds to me like someone is looking for a little fast cash...

Posted at 3:37PM on Dec 29th 2008 by Mackenzie
>
>Too right!
Even WE know enough to hire a home inspector before we buy!
CRIPES!

Posted at 3:41PM on Dec 29th 2008 by NUFF-SAID

5. He might as well sue his home appraiser he HIRED to do the inspection... LOSER!

Posted at 3:42PM on Dec 29th 2008 by ag

6. What is it with the wealthy - the more money they have the smaller the brain? Geez, I purchased my home 17 years ago and had a mortgage that probably is what two of their monthly payments amount to and even I knew to have the house totally inspected by a licensed home inspector. In fact, most mortgage company's wont' even issue a mortgage without an inspection. Was there inspector deaf, dumb and blind all at one time or what?

Posted at 4:05PM on Dec 29th 2008 by LRM216

7. That much money and it's that close to the street?

Posted at 4:32PM on Dec 29th 2008 by charliesmom

8. 6.5 mil to buy it and 3 mil worth of damage. Sounds like 1/2 the house demolished and no one noticed.Soumd "fishy" to me and it's not "The Girls Gone Wild" I smell

Posted at 4:40PM on Dec 29th 2008 by anokie

9. Deosnt matter how much money you have.... Always have a home inspected by a qualified person....This includes new and older homes..... Not familiar with real estate contracts in that state but in my state you have something called a disclosure where the seller discloses everything they know abt the house et: problems utilitiy companies ect ect... Hard to prove they didnt or did disclose anything if the seller didnt fill one of those out. Because the seller can always say I told him abt that... And if the Seller had a good realtor they would of checked the little box in the contract saying they were selling the property as is with no guarentees in which case the buyer is screwed.. But since Joe didnt sell it to these people and didnt play a party in this contract he has no liability

Posted at 4:43PM on Dec 29th 2008 by Zoya

10. TMZ Please block all posts by Lame A$$ R J Johnson. He posts the same Jay Leno crap every dy. The only time he isn't posting is when he changes his mother's diapers and gives her a bath.
If his smack was good or just funny, that would be tolerable, but to keep up the fantasy affair with Jay Leno is just a bore

Posted at 5:04PM on Dec 29th 2008 by RJ Jr.

11. Yeah, but, What color is the paint???

WHAT A BONEHEAD!!! there is no case. His responsability to insect the property by a licensed ... blah blah blah. You see where i'm going with this.

Posted at 5:18PM on Dec 29th 2008 by The Ronster

12. wouldn't want to know what's clogging the drains...ew.

Posted at 5:22PM on Dec 29th 2008 by shoulda thought about it.

13. What kind of an imbecile doesn't have an inspector go thru a house prior to purchase? Oh yea, an imbecile that tanked Yahoo stock and shut down the message boards.

Posted at 7:20PM on Dec 29th 2008 by FlBiker

14. Guess people in California don't believe in inspections before closing the deal. We here in the midwest wouldn't be stupid enough to not have an inspection done before the closing.

Posted at 8:39PM on Dec 29th 2008 by pam

15. Who ARE these people??? The only name I recognized was the one the first post mentioned, and it didn't even have anything to do with the story here. I was gonna ask #1 about it, but decided he was just off his meds.

Posted at 10:53PM on Dec 29th 2008 by Who are these people???

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