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'Windy City Rehab' Season 3: Alison rehabs houses outside Chicago, fans say 'change' show's name

Alison's plan to rehab houses outside of Chicago has sparked speculation among fans regarding her intentions to take up projects

Alison Victoria is most recognized for her work on HGTV's 'Windy City Rehab,' a show notorious for having more than its fair share of controversy. For years, Victoria and her former business partner and co-star, Donovan Eckhardt, have been embroiled in lawsuits concerning several issues, including defective repairs, permit violations, fraud, and more. Despite this, 'Windy City Rehab' has returned for Season 3 — with Victoria refurbishing homes in Chicago and beyond on her own. In the most recent episode of 'Windy City Rehab,' the designer collaborated with her brother to refurbish a condo outside of Chicago.

In the fourth episode of this season, Alison finds a potential co-investor in her older brother for a property development project in Atlanta that she is interested in. She gets to work fully converting an outmoded penthouse in one of the city's oldest buildings into a very luxurious getaway.

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In Atlanta, the HGTV star refurbished a two-story loft in a repurposed 1880s textile mill. She saw the loft for the first time while in Atlanta for a guest appearance on Ty Pennington's remodeling show, 'Ty Breaker.' By the end of shooting, Victoria had made an offer for the space, and while she expected to flip it, she fell in love with it throughout the refurbishment process. She became engrossed in the project and decided she wanted to live in this house for the rest of her life.

While things may have improved for Victoria, many assume that she chose to flip residences outside of Chicago for other reasons. Old viewers of the show assume that the cause is her lawsuits involving her former business associate and co-host Donovan, which unfolded a few seasons ago. With Victoria creating the residences and Eckhardt bringing those concepts to life, both stars amassed a sizable fan base after Season 1. However, as lawsuits for poor contractual work began to emerge, things began to go awry for the stars.

Clients from prior episodes were suing the crew for defective work in Season 2, with one even claiming that a few days after closing, their upstairs bathroom leaked into their kitchen. Victoria accused Eckhardt of these blunders, as we saw at the start of the second season. By mid-season, Eckhardt had departed the show and filed a case. In July 2019, one of Windy City Rehab's projects obtained many penalties for breaching city rules, including some pertaining to when construction activity is meant to begin and conclude each day. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the project received two stop-work orders after regulators discovered various infractions, and the show was also cited for construction tasks that were conducted without first obtaining the proper building permits.

Fans of the show believe that because of her shaky history with the city, Victoria is forced to look for projects outside of Chicago. One of the show's viewers took to Twitter and wrote: "So #WindyCityRehab is no longer in the Windy City? Must be all those lawsuits, stop work orders, bad taste, and financial shenanigans."

With two consecutive episodes focusing on houses outside the Windy City (last week, Alison assisted a Los Angeles realtor in rehabbing a 1920s Hollywood Hills mansion), fans are upset and questioning the show's integrity. One of them wrote on Twitter: "#WindyCityRehab isn't about Chicago this season. It's about Los Angeles & Atlanta, so far, just a few minutes about Chicago in the first episode. Change the name if it's about Victoria Gramenos."

However, one thoughtful fan understands the cause for her decision and wrote: "I can see her moving. I’m sure there’s a lot of bad feeling about her in Chicago. #WindyCityRehab"

HGTV's 'Windy City Rehab' Season 3 airs every Thursday at 9/8c.