Rocker Slash has been cleared by a Los Angeles County judge to proceed with a lawsuit against the brokers who sold him his former 5,539-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that an L.A. judge has given the go-ahead to Slash and his wife Perla to sue Sotheby's International Realty and agent Gregory Holcomb, who had sold him the Spanish-style mansion on the 1.76-acre, L-shaped property at 1924 Wattles Drive in the Hollywood Hills in December 2005 for $6,250,000.
Slash and Perla allege that they were misled in their purchase of the house, which they had wanted to be a great place to hold parties. Instead, they charge that Sotheby's and Holcomb deceived them about the house's true size and also about whether it was on a private street (it turns out that the house actually is on a public street with parking restrictions). The couple then took a big loss on the house when they sold it to major-league baseball pitcher Randy Wolf in December 2007 for $5,725,000, as we exclusively had reported in December 2007.
The AP reported that while the judge will allow the case to go to trial, he also will permit Sotheby's to dispute punitive damages. The defendants' attorney told the AP what defendants' attorneys always say -- that he thinks that Sotheby's and Holcomb will prevail when the case goes to trial. Stay tuned.
Slash and Perla now own two other properties in Los Angeles, according to public records, neither of which strikes us as especially party-worthy:
--An 1,136-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Mount Washington area that they purchased in late 2004 for $300,000, according to public records.
--A 964-square-foot condominium unit in Los Angeles' West Los Angeles neighborhood that they purchased in mid-2007 for $560,000, according to public records.