Former HGTV star Nicole Curtis is pushing back against a City of Detroit lawsuit alleging her company left a property in dangerous disrepair, years after a city order demanded repairs.
Curtis, 49, took to Facebook this week to address the civil nuisance abatement case filed by the City of Detroit against her and her business, Detroit Renovations LLC. The suit claims the property has remained a danger to the surrounding community despite a 2021 order mandating renovations. City officials say the owners never made the necessary repairs, and code violations, including structural decay and accumulated garbage, persist at the site.
Detroit wants the home fixed and all violation fines paid in full. Curtis, a Lake Orion, Michigan, native who built her brand on restoring old houses, fired back with a lengthy post to her roughly one million Facebook followers. She did not dispute the lawsuit's core allegations directly but framed herself as someone under constant legal and personal attack.
In her Facebook post, Curtis cast herself as a target rather than a code violator. She acknowledged years of legal trouble but attributed it to outside forces.
As the Daily Mail reported, Curtis wrote:
"I've been sued, blackmailed, extorted, betrayed, you name it and not just by the usual suspects, but by 'friends' and loved ones that I trusted with my soul."
She also insisted her motives in Detroit are pure:
"Not out to make a buck, not out to make a name for myself, not out to rob and pillage (as some say about me), just out to save historic homes from being demolished and/or ruined by flippers."
Curtis told followers she had two full crews starting work at 7 a.m. the next morning in Detroit. Whether that satisfies the city's demands remains unclear. The lawsuit's filing date, case number, and the specific fines Detroit is seeking have not been publicly disclosed in available reporting.
Detroit Renovations LLC has owned the property since 2021, the same year the city issued its order mandating renovations. The fact that the city resorted to a lawsuit suggests years passed without compliance. Curtis's Facebook post did not address why the property sat untouched long enough for the city to take legal action.
Instead, Curtis leaned into her personal brand. She wrote that her "stamina and determination" had built "a hit show, global recognition and enough money to breathe and then some," but also "a list of enemies." She thanked supporters for standing by her and described herself as "just continuing being me unapologetically Nicole Curtis, the mom that prefers under the radar, hiding in plain sight, working on an old house."
That framing sidesteps the central issue. A city does not file a nuisance abatement lawsuit because someone has enemies. It files one because a property is falling apart and the owner has not fixed it.
The lawsuit lands on top of an already collapsed public profile. Curtis's HGTV show, Rehab Addict, was canceled after Radar Online published a clip showing her using a racial slur during filming. The exact dates of the clip's release and the show's cancellation have not been specified.
Curtis addressed the slur earlier this year during an appearance on The Breakfast Club radio show with hosts Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy, and Jess Hilarious. She blamed the incident on a slip of the tongue, claiming she frequently uses similar-sounding made-up words like "fart digger" and "fart knocker," which she said led to the on-camera mistake.
That explanation did not save her show. And now, the woman who made her name rescuing neglected houses faces a city government alleging she neglected one of her own.
Curtis wrote on Facebook that saving old homes "is one of my passions" and that her real legacy is "being a great mom that loved." She described her grief over personal betrayals and said the adversity only made her stronger:
"It's a grief that is hard to explain if you haven't gone through it, but also one that does the opposite of what your enemies' intentions were... it builds you right back up."
Passion is not a permit. Detroit's neighbors living next to a decaying, garbage-strewn property did not sign up to wait years while Curtis found her footing. A 2021 order is not a suggestion. It is a legal obligation, and the city says Curtis and her company failed to meet it.
Curtis has not filed a formal court response to the lawsuit, as far as public records show. Whether her announced crews represent a genuine fix or a public-relations gesture will become clear soon enough. The city's code inspectors, not Facebook followers, will make that call.
If your whole brand is restoring houses other people gave up on, you had better not be the one letting a house rot.
