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L.C.'s Dad Steps Into Dispute Over Audrina's Pad

Jim Conrad to meet with L.A. building department, says guest house where Audrina's living was on the property when they moved in

By Natalie Finn, Whitney English Jul 16, 2008 10:41 PMTags
Audrina Patridge, Lauren ConradJeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com

Considering how zoning disputes tend to be so very unhip, Lauren Conrad's father is stepping in to make sure his daughter doesn't have to worry her pretty little head about one.

E! News has learned exclusively that Jim Conrad has contacted the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety to set up a meeting to talk about his little girl's new living arrangement with former housemate Audrina Patridge, which could constitute a possible code violation.

Now that Lauren Bosworth is L.C.'s roomie, Patridge has moved into what the elder Conrad says was a preexisting guest house on the property.

And apparently a little too much noise on a Sunday morning and a bit of a parking crunch—and who knows what else—have ticked off at least one Hills-side neighbor.

"We got a complaint that the garage was converted into a living quarters," City of L.A. Code Inspector Joe Paradiso told E! News Wednesday. "The owner’s father called and said he wants to get together and make an appointment to go look at the place together."

Papa Conrad told Paradiso, "That's the way we bought it," according to the inspector.

But if the city determines that Patridge has indeed fashioned a bachelorette pad out of a detached garage, it's either back to the main house or the next moving truck that rumbles up the street may not be coming to deliver furniture.

"They will have to convert it back to a garage," Paradiso said.

L.C.'s rep didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

While the struggling fashion designer and her BF(For Now) have explained away the moving-truck sightings, screaming matches and other evidence of trouble in TV land, Patridge admitted to OK! magazine recently that Conrad was "very, very, very mad" when she returned home from vacation to find an OK! photo shoot taking place in the garage, er, guest house.

"It just adds to the tension," Patridge said. "Now she thinks I'm sneaky and shady for doing this photo shoot, yet she and her team knew about it. She won't let it go."

But, at least for now, the ladies are technically still living together. The fourth season of The Hills premieres in August.

Patridge called living in her backyard abode "much harder."

"If I'm in my pajamas and it's cold outside, I don't want to run across the yard into the house. But we make it work."