5 Times HGTV's Tarek El Moussa Landed In Legal Hot Water

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Tarek El Moussa has had his fair share of controversial moments over the years. However, out of all of El Moussa's shady HGTV blunders, one stands out as the worst: His doomed NoHo 138 project. In a July 2023 Instagram video, the "Flip Or Flop" star announced his ambitious plans for building a luxurious building in Los Angeles' North Hollywood area, which he couldn't believe was actually available for flipping. However, in the following month, five tenants who lived in smaller houses in the area pointed out to the Los Angeles Times that they would be evicted from their rented units to clear up space for El Moussa's luxury project. 

Although the tenants were willing to move, they expected better compensation, especially since the property that would replace their homes could potentially make its future owners millions of dollars richer. As the chatter around the controversial flip grew, El Moussa took to Instagram again to share his side of the story, clarifying, "Notices to the tenants were served by the current owner, not by me or the partners of NoHo 138. I am not evicting anyone," (via Deadline). 

The HGTV star also elaborated that his legal team had been in talks with the tenants to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Further, he insisted that he was trying to foster a good relationship with them by including low-income units in the new property that they could buy in the future. Although the Daily Mail reported that he ultimately pulled out of the controversial project, it damaged his reputation all the same. Still, at least it didn't result in a lawsuit.

HGTV's Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa were once involved with a shady company. The former co-stars and spouses collaborated with Zurixx LLC to create "Success, Path, Education," a seminar program through which the reality stars could impart their wisdom from their years in real estate. The "Flip or Flop" hosts even appeared in advertisements for their project. In 2016, a seminar attendee who paid a whopping $3,000 revealed to ABC News that Haack and El Moussa were nowhere to be found at the event, which he claimed was primarily a means to sell more courses. 

Haack proudly defended their seminar, noting, "This is our program. We meet each and every coach, we do training with them one-on-one. Tarek does tons of training via webinar." The "Christina On The Coast" star also stated, "I stand by our product. It's our tools, it's our system. It's what Tarek and I do." In a statement, Zurixx LLC asserted that its advertisements never promised Haack and El Moussa's presence at the seminars. But, in 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection (DCP) sued Zurixx for misleading claims. 

According to Utah News Dispatch, attendees at a free sneak peek event were sold the idea that they could make large profits with minimal efforts in short periods of time and receive "100% funding for their real estate investments." Once they paid $1,997 for the 3-day workshop, they were informed they had to purchase a premium package (which started at $21,297!) to learn how to make the big bucks through real estate investment. Ultimately, over $12 million in refunds were ordered to be distributed among 25,500 attendees.

As the Daily Mail reported at the time, Jeffery Revoy, a former employee of Tarek El Moussa's company, Digital Foundation Group (DFG), filed several lawsuits against the HGTV star in 2023 and 2024. Revoy had a wide variety of complaints against El Moussa, ranging from wrongful termination and breach of contract to defamation and assault, among many others. The ex-staffer detailed how El Moussa had allegedly terminated his employment as payback for lodging a formal complaint against his co-founder, Peter de Best. In addition to not receiving severance pay for his termination, Revoy also supposedly didn't get the money from his unused Paid Time Off either. 

Later, the "Flipping El Moussas" star posited that although Revoy was a candidate for the CEO position at DFG, he was never officially hired and thus "unilaterally inserted himself into DFG's business and attempted to secure an equity position for himself in DFG (as well as other businesses owned by El Moussa)." Revoy also didn't paint the best picture of his former boss, alleging, "'El Moussa lost his temper and threw a sandwich at one of his assistants, complaining that it did not have mustard." Someone formally reported the incident to HGTV HR, but supposedly nothing came of it. 

On the same day that the alleged outburst occurred, another staffer resigned due to El Moussa's "inexcusable behaviors, including 'screaming, yelling, cussing and calling names.'" In June 2024, he and DFG pushed back against the filings with a cross-complaint in which they accused Devos of a variety of things, including tort. Revoy and El Moussa are set to battle it out in court in Summer 2025.

In June 2025, TMZ reported that Las Vegas police had cited Tarek El Moussa for battery after he allegedly got into a physical fight with another man at The Palazzo at the Venetian Resort. Onlookers confirmed that the altercation was short but brutal. They recalled how the HGTV star had hit the other man on the head with his knee, causing him to lose consciousness. Despite everything, the man El Moussa allegedly fought with claimed that he didn't need medical treatment. Later, a Page Six source argued that the HGTV star was "protecting his elderly father" after the man had behaved inappropriately towards him. According to court documents obtained by 8 News Now, the real estate investor "approached [his opponent] aggressively and hit him" to defend his father. 

The report also revealed that El Moussa's opponent walked away from the fight with only small facial injuries. Meanwhile, body cam footage from the fateful night shared by Entertainment Tonight showed that El Moussa's shirt had been ripped during the fight. The reality star also claimed that his opponent had hit his father and he had stepped in to defend him, recalling, "I put my chest to his chest, and I said, 'Is there a f****ing problem?'" El Moussa and his dad also noted that the man had challenged him to a fight. Despite everything, the real estate mogul freely admitted that he would have done things differently if he had a second chance. According to 8 News Now, he was scheduled to attend court in September 2025 after being cited for a misdemeanor charge of battery.

Tarek El Moussa has had a troubled past, to say the least. In his 2024 book, "Flip Your Life," the real estate investor recalled how he got into an ugly gang fight during his sophomore year of high school. At one point during the skirmish, an opposing team member hit El Moussa with a bat and broke his ribs. Then, the future HGTV star's defense mechanisms kicked in and he snatched the bat from him and hit him in the head, knocking him out cold. After police de-escalated the situation, they charged El Moussa with assault and battery, aggravated assault, and attempted murder, and placed him in a juvenile detention center. The reality TV star reflected on his complicated feelings from the time in the book, writing, "I'll never forget. I was terrified when I was there, because the charges I had were really bad charges, and I didn't know if I was going to be there for days or years." 

However, the charges were ultimately dropped because prosecutors believed that he had acted in self-defense. Although El Moussa changed his ways after the scary incident, he had another run-in with police decades later. According to TMZ, in 2016, somebody called the cops on the "Flip Off" star after noticing that he was holding a gun while leaving his home with then-wife Christina Haack, who looked visibly shaken. However, when police found him, El Moussa explained that he had gone on a hike to "blow off some steam" and took the gun to protect himself from wild animals. Ultimately, no charges were pressed.

In May 2017, Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa joined the list of HGTV stars who were sued after a renovation. At the time, TMZ reported that North Carolina native Jonathan Schmier was suing the reality stars for failing to pay him $37,800 in wages. In the filings, Schmier detailed how the HGTV stalwarts' company, Next Level Property Investments, hired him and instructed him to scout homes in North Carolina that they could later flip. In exchange for his services, he would supposedly receive minimum hourly wages and an additional $5,000 for every flippable property Schmier discovered. 

Additional court documents shared by E! News revealed that he had ultimately found five properties for El Moussa and Haack across 1,280 hours of research. Further, Schmier's work was supposed to be a part of the couple's attempt to conquer the North Carolina real estate market after primarily sticking to California. However, an insider denied the lawsuit's assertions, insisting, "It's an absurd claim, and has no merit. Tarek and Christina have never met him." The source continued, "They've never even done a house in the Carolinas. They've only done houses in California." 

Meanwhile, court documents shared by Radar Online revealed that Schmier claimed he was unable to contact El Moussa, Haack, or their business partner Pete DeBest because they had all blocked him from any means of doing so. It's unclear what became of the lawsuit due to a lack of updates. At the end of the day, though, this is just one of the many scandals that erupted behind the scenes of HGTV's "Flip or Flop."