“The Hills” stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, along with other Pacific Palisades property owners, have sued the city of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power over damage caused by the Palisades fire.
The suit, reviewed by Variety, was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It alleges that the city’s water supply system failed because it was not designed to combat severe wildfires.
The plaintiffs, which number more than 20, are seeking an undetermined amount of compensation for property damage in a claim for “inverse condemnation.” To prevail, they will have to show that the city’s operation of the water system caused the damage to their property.
Pratt previously shared that his own house and his parents’ house burned down in the Palisades fire. The complaint cites reports that the local Santa Ynez Reservoir was emptied and offline for repairs in the weeks leading up to the fire.
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The status of the Santa Ynez Reservoir has drawn both public and political interest in the aftermath of the Palisades fire, with Governor Gavin Newsom launching an investigation into the loss of water pressure in fire hydrants. Several officials have stated that hydrants would have proven more operable had the reservoir held water, though it remains unclear how much, if any, property damage could have been mitigated.
This new case represents the latest inverse condemnation lawsuit emerging from those impacted by wildfires in the Los Angeles area, which experts project to be the costliest in U.S. history.
Several cases have been filed by victims of the Eaton fire, which broke out east of L.A. shortly after the Palisades fire and continues to burn. The lawsuits allege that poorly maintained transmission towers owned by the power company, Southern California Edison, were the origin of the fire. The cause of both fires remains under investigation.
Pratt and Montag, who married in 2008, have been very public about how the fires have impacted them since evacuating in early January. In an interview with Variety, Pratt shared how he is encouraging the public to stream Montag’s music as a means of fostering supplementary income. He also revealed discussions for a reality TV series that would chronicle the community’s rebuilding process.
“I know people are like, ‘You’re rich, you will be fine.’ Yeah, I wish. Everything in our house was paid for by Heidi and I hustling any way we could,” he wrote on TikTok at the time. “Everything we have worked for was in this house… We are starting at zero now.”