The owners of Marilyn Monroe’s former Brentwood home have sued Los Angeles, saying the city effectively froze their plans to demolish the aging property and rebuild on the site after designating it a historic-cultural monument. Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank bought the house for $8 million in 2023 and say the decision left them stuck with a deteriorating property they can neither develop nor easily sell.
The couple say the dispute has already cost them roughly $30,000 in permits, hundreds of thousands of dollars in added security and millions more in attorneys’ fees, while they continue paying more than $100,000 a year in property taxes, insurance and utilities. In its complaint, Pacific Legal Foundation said the city had effectively turned private property into a public monument without compensation, arguing, “They couldn’t demolish, couldn’t repair, couldn’t build, and couldn’t sell to someone who could. The City had effectively turned their private property into a public monument without paying for it.”
Los Angeles issued demolition and grading permits for the site on Sept. 7, 2023, one day before the City Council moved to begin the process of declaring the property a Historic-Cultural Monument. The council voted in June 2024 to formally designate the home, stopping the owners’ demolition plans, according to the complaint. Monroe lived in the 2,300-square-foot Spanish bungalow for about six months before her death in 1962, and the property was later altered by 14 previous owners.
The lawsuit says those changes matter because the house is now in declining condition and no longer reflects a protected landmark worthy of the designation. It also says the walled-off property cannot be viewed from the street, has become a tourist trap and has suffered multiple break-ins, underscoring the security problem the owners say the city created by preserving a site they intended to clear and redevelop.
The complaint argues the landmark designation lacked a public purpose, saying, “The City took no action regarding the house’s now-alleged 'historic' or 'cultural' status, essentially admitting it was neither and that no public good would be served by so designating the house or the Property.” For Milstein and Bank, the fight is no longer about Monroe’s old home alone; it is about whether Los Angeles can place the burden of a public monument on private owners and leave them to pay the bill.
