After watching those home makeover shows, I find myself wondering about the reality of having such a thing happen — if these people were having so much trouble maintaining their small homes, what happens when they are presented with 5,000 square feet of state-of-the-art home? How can they afford the maintenance, the taxes, the utilities?
Now there’s this story about a madeover family from Fox’s knockoff show:
The parents of a disabled Lemont-area teen basked in the television spotlight when they starred on a Fox network reality show. But they now say their 15 minutes of fame has put them in a hopeless, half-million dollar financial hole.
“They came in, they made a (show), and that was it. They got out of here,” Gary Rosier said of the producers of “Renovate My Family.”
The family says the reality show producers ruined their finances when they tore down their home, built a flawed new structure in its place and then stuck them with a 1099 tax form crediting them with $529,148 in “additional income.”
… The worst part of the situation is they now have to pay taxes for the items they received. On top of that, they face a possible $7 million penalty for breaking the confidentiality agreement in the contract they signed.
The company will have a tough time collecting that, Gary Rosier said.
“We don’t even have the money to pay the mortgage this month,” he said. “They completely destroyed us.”
