'Modern Family' Star Facing $1.7 Million Lawsuit

Sofia Vergara is facing a seven-figure lawsuit with a home contractor over renovations on her Beverly Hills mansion. Reside Custom Homes, the company the Modern Family alum hired to perform construction work on the $26 million mansion back in April 2022, alleged in a new lawsuit that the Modern Family alum failed to pay a massive bill totaling more than $1.7 million.

In the lawsuit, first reported by TMZ, RCH that after completing the work to the home by December 2022, Vergara "asked for significant extra work beyond the scope of the agreement." The additional renovations took another three months to complete, with RCH in the suit claiming the company fronted the money for the additional work with Vergara agreeing to pay them back, something she never did. The suit claims Vergara told the company she approved a $900,000 invoice and had "already" given directions to her money manager to pay the bill, but Vergara never followed through, leaving an unpaid bill totaling $1,700,492.64.

However, Vergara and her team indicated that they had trouble with RCH even before the company filed its lawsuit. In a statement to TMZ, the actress' lawyer, Marty Singer, said that on Oct. 4, before RCH's lawsuit was filed, the actress sent a demand letter to the company "claiming the company was responsible for $5 million in damages for overcharging Sofia, doing substandard work and delaying the project." Singer claimed that RCH never disputed the claims, but has now filed a lawsuit of their own, adding that he is "confident Sofia will prevail and receive significant payment."

Addressing Singer's claims, Stephen E. Foster, an attorney for RCH, said in a statement to the Daily Mail that RCH "was forced to sue Ms. Vergara for money that she has owed to RCH since March 2023 and that she promised RCH she would pay." Foster added that for seven months, Vergara "never formally complained about the quality of RCH's work nor disputed any specific charge," and that "aware that RCH only had until November to file suit, in October Ms. Vergara had her long-time entertainment attorney write to RCH seeking to bully RCH into walking away from the money it and its hard-working subcontractors are owed."

The statement concluded: "RCH is not, and will not be, deterred by baseless threats, and emphatically rejects Ms. Vergara's conjured-up, belated and convenient accusations. Unlike Ms. Vergara and her counsel, RCH will not litigate its claims against Ms. Vergara in letters, emails, or the media. Instead, RCH looks forward to having its dispute adjudicated by an impartial tribunal applying the law to the true facts, and RCH is confident it will prevail on the merits."