A Las Vegas couple is seeking justice from the company behind the popular HGTV reality show “Property Brothers.”
Paul and Mindy King of northwest Las Vegas bought their home shortly after getting married in 2018. Ready to start the next chapter in their lives, they tell Nexstar’s KLAS they paid the “Property Brothers” nearly $200,000 that year in the hopes that they would get to live in their dream home.
The Kings told KLAS they thought it would be cool to have Jonathan and Drew Scott, hosts of the “Property Brothers,” renovate their house.
“We didn’t have a honeymoon. I didn’t get a wedding band. We took our savings because we trusted Jonathan and Drew,” Mindy King previously told KLAS, recounting their experience on the show. Their episode first aired in July 2019.
However, the Kings have spent the last several years locked in a lawsuit they describe as a “David versus Goliath” fight, exposing the limits homeowners have for recourse.
According to a lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court, the Kings accused Cineflix, the production company the Scotts were working for at the time, and several contractors and subcontractors that the company hired, of doing shoddy work.
“Our lives are on hold. We’re living in hell. We can’t use the kitchen. We can’t use like anything. We are in constant fear [of our] safety,” Mindy King said.
In their lawsuit, the Kings allege that Cineflix wasn’t licensed in Nevada and that the contractors and subcontractors it hired did poor work.
“Prior to the ‘Property Brothers’ coming here and renovating the house, the house passed multiple levels of inspections, and nothing was wrong,” said Mindy.
After the work was done for the HGTV show, the Kings said the problems began to appear.
According to Mindy, that included “sludge and sewer … leaking out,” causing cabinets to disintegrate; the sink in their island bar falling in; a range they’re unable to use because the pipe is the wrong size; the garbage disposal backflowing into the dishwasher; and mold and bacteria forming in the dishwasher. The latter was “deemed a biohazard and removed by a hazmat company over the summer,” Mindy said.
However, despite the long list of problems in the King’s lawsuit, the house passed city inspection after its renovation, records from the City of Las Vegas show.
“There are serious, expensive issues to be fixed in this house,” Paul King said.
The couple said Chapter 40 was placed in their house, meaning they can’t sell it until all the deficiencies have been corrected. But they can’t even correct them because of the lawsuit, which has been spoken in the courts.
The contractual agreement with Cineflix states that the Kings are entitled to $5,000 per day if their deficiencies aren’t corrected by the agreed-upon completion date, which was May 2019.
The Kings shared several emails with KLAS detailing their efforts to get some recourse from the Nevada State Contractors Board. In August 2020, an investigator with the board told the Kings, “I am recommending your case be settled in civil court.”
The investigators told the Kings they’d have to contact the Clark County District Attorney’s office if they were looking to pursue criminal charges, according to the email.
“We’re trying to determine exactly what they did in this house. “We already know we’ve had all this exposure to all these harmful things like mold, yeast, fungus, bacteria,” King said.
In October 2020, Mindy King notified the contractor’s board, stating they could’ve moved into their house on February 25, 2019, but chose for April of that year to allow the contractor Villa Construction time to complete the deficiency list.
Cineflix hired Villa Construction and, in November 2020, sent the following email to the Kings:
“I was informed that we’re considering recommending taking no action as I was hired by an out of state company that acquired releases and permission to conduct a renovation for TV purposes, and not by a property owner in the state of Nevada.”
That argument is why the Nevada State Contractors Board states the Kings aren’t eligible for its residential recovery fund. The Nevada State Contractors Board declined to comment on the King’s case since the agency didn’t file any charges.
Cineflix also declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
The “Property Brothers,” Jonathan and Drew Scott, did not respond to KLAS’s request for comment. Both brothers are no longer with Cineflix, as they have since started their own production company.
The Kings have not listed Jonathan and Drew Scott as defendants, but the couple tells KLAS they are considering adding them to the lawsuit.
In a statement to KLAS, King’s attorney said, “The King’s case serves as a stark reminder that the televised world of construction often masks the unfiltered reality. It underscores the critical lesson that in the realm of home improvement, what’s presented on screen can paint a deceptive picture of what truly transpires behind the scenes.”
A jury trial is scheduled for October 2024.