Heavy/HGTV/YouTube HGTV's Dave Marrs is heading to court
Time has run out for HGTV star Dave Marrs and the Arkansas couple who sued his companies, Marrs Construction and Jupiter Rentals, in early 2023. Because court-ordered mediation sessions went nowhere, the dispute will head to a jury trial in September, per KNWA.
On May 26, 2024, FOX16 reported that a pretrial hearing is scheduled for the morning of September 5 and a five-day jury trial will begin on September 23 at the Benton County Courthouse.
According to new civil court documents reviewed by Heavy, Marrs was due to start giving his sworn testimony in a deposition on May 30. Meanwhile, a motion for sanctions reveals he’s been ordered by Judge Christine Horwartto to provide specific documentation by June 5 that defendants Matthew and Sarah McGrath claim they’ve tried to get for over a year.
Marrs, who co-stars with his wife Jenny Marrs on “Fixer to Fabulous,” has long denied the McGraths’ breach-of-contract claims and accusations that the home the McGraths bought in 2022 had serious structural issues and that his team never made expected repairs or upgrades.
Arkansas Couple Believes Dave Marrs Owes Them Over $85,000 in Necessary Repairs to New Home
Marrs and his team of contractors have built approximately 30 homes a year since 2004 in Northwest Arkansas, per the website for Marrs Developing. In the McGraths’ lawsuit, filed in February 2023 and reviewed by Heavy, the couple said they purchased one of those newly constructed homes in May 2022 for $559,000, with an an initial down-payment of $15,000.
The McGraths’ lawsuit states that they worked directly with Marrs to purchase their new home but claims he “refused” to conduct any upgrades or repairs on the house as promised. After a home inspection conducted in July 2022, the lawsuit said that Jupiter agreed to fix “several items” within 30 days, and that replacement windows would be installed “within 90 days from closing.”
The McGraths’ suit said they went ahead and closed on the house, paid over $10,000 extra for upgrades, and that 30 days after closing, “not a single item” on the list of repairs had been completed and that later, “several of the attempts to repair have caused more damage to the house.”
In a recently-released letter to Marrs from the McGraths’ lawyers, per FOX16, the couple’s counsel outlined findings from a structural investigation an Arkansas-based contractor performed at the house later in the year. The inspection, they said, turned up all kinds of issues including improper roof framing, main floor framing, wall framing and wind bracing, deck foundations, deck floor modifications and attachment to the home, grading, and drainage issues.
According to FOX16, the McGraths’ attorneys outlined in their letter that the cost for “repair and proper construction of drive and walkways” would be $38,740 and that “landscaping and grading, including installation of French drain” would cost the McGraths $47,862.
Since the lawsuit was filed, according to KNWA, the plaintiffs have struggled to get documentation and responses from Marrs’s team, stating that mediation sessions “failed utterly.”
A response filed in October 2023 by Marrs’s attorneys, said they “disagree to the Plaintiffs’ characterization of events and communications,” asserting that in an attempt to settle the lawsuit, an “informal inspection” took place at the McGraths’ home on May 30, 2023, with lawyers present, and that counsel for Marrs had offered a settlement days later. The court documents also say they continued to try to reach an agreement through September, which was the judge’s deadline for mediation and, at that point, a trial was scheduled.
In Judge Horwartto’s motion for sanctions, she ordered that on some points of the lawsuit, Marrs and his lawyers can’t submit any more evidence, but that they have until June 5 to provide documentation on why they weren’t able to obtain the replacement windows within 90 days as well as information on the subcontractors who they claim performed repairs or supplied materials.
Marrs has not spoken publicly about the lawsuit. On the day he was due to begin his deposition, May 30, he posted a video about the importance of replacing old windows to be more energy efficient.
Dave and Jenny Marrs Have Settled 2 Other Lawsuits Over Past 3 Years
Though the Marrs have been heralded for their show, even earning a 2024 Emmy nomination, this is not the first time they have been sued over issues at homes they’ve built or remodeled before.
According to CBS42, another Arkansas couple, Dana and Tyler Craddock, sued Marrs’s companies in 2021 for $75,000 after they participated in a renovation for “Fixer to Fabulous.”
The Craddocks claimed the team led by Marrs “did not maintain an Arkansas Contractor’s License” and that neither company “obtained the required construction-related permits from Benton County, Arkansas” for certain parts of the home remodel to occur. The case was dismissed in March 2022, according to KNWA, after the Marrs reached a settlement agreement with the couple.
Meanwhile, in January 2024, Marrs Construction was fined $35,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not following the EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule during two 2018 home renovations that were featured on the first season of their show, according to a release from the EPA.
The agency’s release stated that “Specifically, Marrs failed to: (1) obtain recertification before beginning renovations, (2) assign a certified renovator to each renovation, (3) maintain records showing their compliance with RRP measures, and (4) perform work in accordance with the work practice standards.”
As part of their settlement, the Marrs also agreed to educate viewers on future episodes about the dangers of lead paint.