A reader asked us, “What happened to The Family Wash?”, so we took a look at why the Nashville staple of more than 15 years likely closed it’s doors.
On the morning of January 26, 2018, The Family Wash posted a quick update to their social media that simply stated:
“Good Morning Nashville. We are closed temporarily for upgrades. Please stay tuned for more updates!”.
Nashville natives & transplants stayed tuned, and kept checking back and asking questions, but the doors to The Family Wash would never re-open, despite many assurances by owners, partners, and backers that the closure was only temporary. What was going on behind the scenes was over a decade of lawsuits, court battles, eviction notices, none of which were ever brought into the public eye.
The most recent of the lawsuits, which was filed in September of 2017, had a payment start date that closely coincided with the closure of The Family Wash in January of 2018. The lawsuit, filed by Freeman Protective Services (a local Nashville Company), alleged that The Family Wash had not paid them for over 14 months of invoices, totaling $24,911.75 for security services they provided. In October of 2017, a judge agreed, and ordered The Family Wash to make good on what was decided to be a $20,000.00 debt, issuing a judgment against The Family Wash. Judge Walker agreed to not execute the full judgement amount on The Family Wash, as long as they paid $1,500.00 per month on the judgment, starting January 5th, 2018. The Family Wash closed their doors 10 days before the 2nd payment was due.
This wasn’t the first time The Family Wash had been sued, or even late on it’s bills – a sign that things were much tighter financially than they appeared.
In May of 2014 they were just over $4,000 behind in rent and an eviction detainer warrant for possession and rent through the date of trial was filed against them, they were able to get current after one court continuance, and the detainer warrant was withdrawn – however just 6 months later they would announce they were leaving this location to move to Main St.
In 2013, a case appears to have been settled out of court, after someone was shot on the property:
Even as far back as 2010, the company was having issues staying current on their music licensing agreement with BMI, and it took them 5 years to pay a $1500 bill that turned into a judgment against them, for which their back account was finally garnished in 2105.
The Family Wash survived everything well, up until the $20,000 judgement against them, which they had to start repaying in January of 2018, the same month in which they abruptly closed the doors. This almost guarantees, while the investors and management may eventually create something similar, it certainly won’t be ‘The Family Wash’.
