Bravo Photo: Kelsey McNeal, ABC/ANDREW ECCLES Forget fences—it's good legal settlements that really make good neighbors.
Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis and his Los Feliz neighbor, Ugly Betty's Ashley Jensen, have reached a deal in their months-long legal battle, finally drawing a (property) line in the sand over allegations that one of the reality star's construction projects had intentionally encroached on Jensen's property.
"I'm happy Ms. Jensen has returned to Earth, removed the restraining order, and insisted we settle our boundary dispute for my original offer of $30,000," Lewis said in a statement. "Clearly, she has milked this publicity opportunity for all it's worth."
The dispute, which came to an acrimonious head back in December, resulted in Jensen and her husband Terence Beesley filing a lawsuit against Lewis and being granted a restraining order against him.
At issue between the neighbors was a deck Lewis had constructed in his yard that, unintentionally, he claims, crossed several feet over his property line onto Jensen's land.
While Jensen and her hubby had originally sought $100,000 from Lewis for the real estate violation, a figure 10 times what he first offered them and which they reached after consulting with an expert, the settlement sees the reality star shelling out a comparably paltry $30,000—the same amount, ironically, Lewis had counter-offered the couple last year.
Lewis, as expected, responded to news of the settlement in his trademark measured and nonreactionary way.
"She reported she's done this in an effort to be 'neighborly.' Unfortunately, that ship set sail six months before the three ring circus and the $50,000 in combined attorneys' fees," he said. "I look forward to the next neighborhood barbecue."