A lien has been filed on Kanye West’s Malibu home nearly one month after the property went up for sale.
Attorney Ron Zambrano filed the lien against the rapper, 46, in an effort to ensure his client Tony Saxon gets the payment that West owes.
“It’s no secret that Kanye is having financial problems so we just want to make sure he has enough money to pay the more than $1 million he still owes our client before he goes completely broke,” Zambrano said in a statement on Wednesday, January 10. “If anyone does work on someone’s house in California and that person doesn’t get paid, under the law, we can put a lien on the property and if there’s still no effort to pay the bill, a judge could force the person to sell the house to pay off the laborer.”
Saxon filed a lawsuit against West in September 2023 accusing the musician of disability discrimination, multiple labor code violations, unpaid wages and wrongful termination.
“So in this case, if someone wants to buy Kanye’s Malibu home, they’ll have to deal with us first,” the statement continued. “That sale cannot happen without Tony being paid.”
Saxon worked as a contractor and live-in caretaker for West’s home. In the lawsuit, he claimed that he was forced to work 16 hours a day and sleep on the floor near open insulation. He alleged that West owed him more than $1 million in unpaid wages. Saxon also claimed he was terminated after he refused to rip out the house’s electrical system and replace it with large generators, which he believed would be a fire hazard.
“Plaintiff was terminated for not complying with Defendants’ dangerous requests,” the court docs read. “Specifically, when Plaintiff refused to engage in unlawful conduct or to engage in activity that would further cause him physical injury, Mr. Ye responded, ‘If you don’t do what I say, you’re not going to work for me, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore and you’ll just see me on TV.’ Plaintiff replied, ‘I don’t watch TV.’ Mr. Ye ended the exchange with ‘leave.’”
West has denied the allegations by asking the court to throw out the claims according to docs obtained by Radar Online in November 2023.
Four months after the lawsuit was filed, West called on Selling Sunset star Jason Oppenheim to list his 4,000-square-foot Malibu beach house. In December 2023, the property was listed for $53 million, nearly four million below how much West paid for it in 2021. However, the estate currently has no doors, windows, plumbing, architectural finishes or HVAC system. It also isn’t wired for electricity.
“It will take several million dollars for the house to be finished,” Oppenheim, 46, told The Wall Street Journal at the time. “Much of the architectural integrity and the architectural value of the house exists.”
At the time, Oppenheim did not reveal the reason why West decided to sell.
