Sonaar Luthra and Sarah Szalavitz left Los Angeles for a rental in La Quinta, California, last March. The couple found a rental home online for $4,000 a month in La Quinta, California, a palm-tree-dotted hamlet about 2½ hours away, nestled between the resort-haven Palm Springs and festival-famous Coachella. They were relieved, they told Insider, because they believed someone in the public eye would be a reliable landlord. Luthra and Szalavitz thought moving to La Quinta would afford them the time and space to begin personal projects, including planning a wedding. The couple detailed how the celebrity-owned house in a desert paradise became a rental from hell.

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