Kad Merad and Julia Vignali: its lost! The colossal sum that the couple will not touch

Kad Merad and Julia Vignali accused their architect and a craftsman of fraud after work that blew their budget.

• The criminal court of Marseille eventually acquitted the accused due to insufficient evidence.
• The couple will not receive the requested 1.7 million euros and must bear the extra costs of the construction site.
• This summary generated by AI has been validated by the journalists of the editorial team.

If Kad Merad and Julia Vignali are part of the discreet celebrity couples, their private life is at the heart of the news, as they have been in a legal dispute in Marseille for some time.

Kad Merad and Julia Vignali facing justice

Like many celebrity couples, Kad Merad and Julia Vignali chose to have a countryside retreat. In 2022, they bought a wonderful house in Burgundy, specifically in Saône-et-Loire. Its purchase price: around 770,000 euros. However, the budget quickly skyrocketed due to numerous renovations. Consequently, on March 10, 2026, the couple appeared in person before the criminal court of Marseille to defend their case.

The couple had initiated a direct summons, a procedure that allows them to approach the court without a prior investigation by the public prosecutor, to accuse their former architect, Elisa Q., and the craftsman Robert G.L., director of the company Dr House, of fraud in the renovation of their property. They claimed to have suffered a financial prejudice of over 1.7 million euros. “They accepted a budget of 770,000 euros including land acquisition and work, contracted a loan to finance it. It will ultimately cost 1.9 million euros, representing a 200% increase,” explained their lawyer, Silvio Rossi-Arnaud. But not everything went as planned for the actor and the presenter.

What is Kad Merad doing in his house in Burgundy?

Indeed, as reported by La Provence, Kad Merad and Julia Vignali lost their legal battle. The criminal court acquitted the architect and the craftsman, deeming no fraud legally established. The judges considered that the initial budget presented was only an estimate and not contractual, and that the extra costs could be explained by the evolution of the construction site and certain requests from the couple.

If the real estate project cost more than expected, Kad Merad seems very content in his farm, which combines the charm of the old and the comfort of the modern. During his appearance on 50 min Inside, he had explained: “Down there, I invite my lifelong friends, and I meet people, I have lovely and extraordinary neighbors.” Down there, the actor leads a life completely different from the one on film sets: “What interests me is both maintaining my livestock and at the same time allowing the animals to live their lives,” he also revealed.