Beverly Hills woman is slapped with secret $100M bill for new home —before dark conspiracy emerges
A Beverly Hills homeowner says she was blindsided by more than $100 million in mechanics liens filed against her property by a consulting company she says she has never worked with.
Marjorie Josaphat said Ortiz Consulting LLC recorded multiple liens on her Benedict Canyon Drive home, claiming payment for work allegedly performed over the past decade. Josaphat bought the three-bedroom, 1,400-square-foot house last year in poor condition and completed a full renovation before preparing to sell it three weeks ago.
While moving forward with the sale, she discovered two liens totaling $48 million for supposed “cleaning services” and “business consulting,” followed by another lien for $98 million referencing “10 contracts” and “80 agreements,” according to legal filings.
“I don’t know who Rita Ortiz is,” Josaphat told ABC7. “This place was abandoned. There’s nothing to clean. If she did a $24 million job, then she owes me money because this place was really a mess.”
Neighbors on the same street say they were also targeted. Mary Tosky reported receiving two liens from Ortiz totaling more than $24 million for alleged cleaning-related work. She said she has never hired Ortiz and called the claims “a joke,” noting she had previously encountered Ortiz only during a small-claims lawsuit.
Another neighbor, Andrea Knowles, said she was similarly named in a $24 million lien for alleged cleaning services and equipment. “I know how much I pay someone to clean my house, and it’s not $25 million,” she said.
Ortiz Consulting LLC, run by self-described life coach Rita Ortiz, has filed 35 mechanics liens across Los Angeles since 2023 totaling about $570 million. On Benedict Canyon Drive alone, filings against six homes add up to roughly $317 million in alleged unpaid labor costs.
The dispute appears to trace back to 2020, when Ortiz sued Tosky and Knowles, alleging they misled police about her claim to own the property now owned by Josaphat. That lawsuit was dismissed, but Tosky and Knowles believe the recent liens are retaliatory.
In a statement to ABC7, Ortiz claimed she had long-standing agreements related to the property and had worked there for about 10 years. She alleged neighbors damaged what she described as her property and committed fraud against her. She also said she had business arrangements with various owners who, she claimed, failed to pay her after years of work.
Under California law, mechanics liens can be filed with the county recorder’s office and can block a property sale for at least 90 days unless released by the filer or invalidated by a court. Even if a lien contains errors, it generally remains in place until reviewed by a judge.
Attorney Bruce Rudman said the scale of the filings was unprecedented in his experience: “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Another lawyer, David Beitchman, who has represented a homeowner in a dispute with Ortiz, said state law should be tightened to prevent abusive lien filings.
The Los Angeles Police Department and Beverly Hills Police Department confirmed they are reviewing complaints related to Ortiz. The California Post has requested additional comment from her.
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