After failing to pay more than a year of mortgage payments, Grammy winner and "R&B king" R. Kelly now faces a $2.9-million foreclosure lawsuit on his 11,140-square-foot Olympia Fields mansion, Crain's Chicago reported Tuesday.
Kelly's home, which sits on a 3.7-acre lot, was constructed in the far southern suburb 11 years ago and its value has plummeted in recent years -- falling 26 percent in its most recent appraisal to $3.8 million, as compared to its $5.2 million 2009 value, according to Crain's. Therefore, Kelly, who has not lived in the home for more than a year, faces debts on the property that likely exceed its current value.
A person reportedly close to Kelly told Crain's the singer had stopped making payments on the mortgage in order to force the bank to renegotiate the loan.
As Curbed pointed out, the foreclosure suit is not the first time Kelly has run into trouble with his Olympia Fields home. In 2006, the village reportedly sued him for keeping tour buses and dogs at the property and they forced him to demolish a guardhouse that he'd had built on the property without first obtaining the proper permits to do so.
And, of course, Kelly is no stranger to legal problems, particularly as of late. Last month, he was sued by his former manager, Jeff Kwatinetz, for breach of oral contract and fraud related to unpaid commissions, as MSN reported.
Kelly's former mansion in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, was sold in 2010 for $1 million. That home is where prosecutors in the singer's 2008 child pornography trial argued that Kelly filmed himself having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. A jury ultimately found the singer not guilty on all 14 charges mounted against him in that trial.