Mickey Rourke has been evicted from his home in Los Angeles after failing to pay almost $60,000 in back rent.
Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled in favour of the actor’s landlord in an unlawful detainer case. People reported that landlord Eric T. Goldie was granted possession of the property on Drexel Avenue after Rourke didn’t respond to the complaint or appear to defend himself.
Per the ruling, the rental agreement is cancelled, the lease is forfeited, and Rourke cannot occupy the house legally. The claim made by Goldie was for possession of the home, rather than being awarded financial damages.
For his part, Rourke told E! News in a statement that he stopped paying rent due to his “living conditions” becoming “unacceptable”. He said, “For months there were serious problems that repeatedly went unaddressed despite my efforts to have them fixed.”
“Withholding rent was not a decision I made lightly,” he added. “I simply could not continue paying for a house that was in such poor condition after so many attempts to have these issues corrected.”
Goldie’s attorney, meanwhile, told the outlet that the landlord “waited nearly a year for unpaid rent and made multiple efforts to resolve the matter privately” before court intervention. “Only after those efforts failed did he file an unlawful detainer action to reclaim his property,” the attorney added. “With judgment now entered in our client’s favour, Mr. Goldie is looking to move on and wishes Mr. Rourke the best going forward.”
Back in December, Rourke was served a notice to pay $59,100 in back rent or vacate within three days. News then broke in January that Rourke appeared to start a GoFundMe, but he denied involvement and someone purporting to be an assistant to his manager seemed to be behind the fundraiser, which raised $100,000.
“Somebody set up some kind of foundation or fund for me to donate money, like in a charity, and that’s not me, OK? If I needed money, I wouldn’t ask for no fucking charity. I’d rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger,” the actor said in an Instagram video.
“Whoever did this, I don’t know why they did it, I don’t understand it. I wouldn’t know what a GoFund foundation is in a million years. You know, my life is very simple, I don’t go to outside sources like that. And yeah, it is embarrassing, but I’m sure I’ll get over it like anything else.”