Landslide causes significant damage to new home in the Hollywood Hills

Ashley Mackey Image
Friday, April 5, 2024
Landslide causes significant damage to new home in the Hollywood Hills
A family was getting ready to move into their new home in the Hollywood Hills, but a landslide left the property with significant damage.

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Another landslide in the Hollywood Hills is forcing the owner of a new home to push back his move-in date.

Marc Verbena got some of the worst news he could get as a homeowner. At about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, a hillside collapsed on top of his home that's still under construction. Now the house is halfway destroyed.

"We have dirt inside the kitchen, inside the bedroom," Verbena said. "The roof is about to collapse. I mean major, major damages."

Verbena said he's been building the home for more than a year and was just a week away from being done with construction.

A neighbor caught the slide on video as it was happening. No one was injured.

Verbena is looking for government assistance. He said he met with a city inspector and geologist, but he said he thinks he'll have to carry the financial burden, which could be up to $500,000.

"We won't be able to move in," Verbena said. "We have to keep staying at another place, and then rebuilding that hill is going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars which we don't have. So I really don't know at this point what's going to happen. We're in a bad spot."

Verbena said the landslide was completely unexpected. With rain in the past, there have been a few occurrences but nothing of this magnitude.

"We had a few mudslides, but nothing like this," he said. "Nothing like this. This is enormous."

Eyewitness News has reached out to the city but has not received a response yet.

In the meantime, the home remains red-tagged.

Verbena created a GoFundMe page to try to raise funds.

A family was getting ready to move into their new Hollywood Hills home, but a landslide left the property with significant damage that could cost the homeowner thousands of dollars to repair.