Elon Musk has started foreclosure proceedings on a home once owned by Gene Wilder over missed payments on a loan the billionaire gave to Wilder’s nephew to purchase the home, according to a report.
The Tesla tycoon agreed to sell one of his Los Angeles homes to Jordan Walker-Pearlman and his wife, Elizabeth Hunter, in 2020 for $7 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. Musk also agreed to loan them most of the cash they’d need to buy the Bel-Air home, where Walker-Pearlman had spent much of his childhood when it was the residence of his Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory star uncle.
In July, an entity linked to Musk filed a notice of default after Walker-Pearlman and Hunter fell behind on payments for the $6.7 million loan, according to property records cited by the Journal. The notice said the lender can force a sale 90 days from the date of the filing.
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The couple have listed the property for $12.95 million and Walker-Pearlman says they’re cooperating with Musk. The X boss isn’t being “adversarial or mean,” Walker-Pearlman told the Journal, saying he was at peace with Musk’s foreclosure move.
“There’s no tragedy here,” he told the newspaper. “Elon gave us a magical opportunity. I have no complaints.” The filmmaker added that the 2023 Hollywood strikes had figured in their falling behind on payments and Hunter—in whose name the house is held—became uncomfortable about not keeping up with the repayments.
“She did not want to continue morally owing Elon anymore,” Walker-Pearlman told the Journal. “We already owe him such a spiritual debt.” He added that Musk’s representatives had been clear that they don’t intend to force a sale.
The house, which boasts a swimming pool and guest cottage, is around 2,800 square feet on a 0.78-acre lot. Wilder bought it for around $300,000 in 1976, and Walker-Pearlman split his childhood days between the house and his grandmother’s home in Harlem, according to the Journal.
Wilder then sold it for $2.725 million in 2007, nine years before his death at the age of 83 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
The Journal reports that a trust linked to Musk snapped up the house—which was across the street from his main place at the time—for $6.75 million in 2013. The Tesla boss then put it up for sale in 2020, writing in a Twitter thread that he intended to sell “almost all” of his own physical possessions such that he would “own no house.”
“Just one stipulation on sale: I own Gene Wilder’s old house,” Musk wrote at the time. “It cannot be torn down or lose any its soul.” A listing for the property specified that it would only be sold on the condition that it would be preserved.
