The Colony Estate property just outside of Camarillo is for sale, and it may have hosted its last wedding.
On Aug. 20, a federal judge appointed a receiver to take control of the property and sell it, to pay off the owner's debt to the United States government. The property, which operated until recently as an unpermitted wedding and event venue, is listed for sale for $8.25 million.
The property’s owner, Jeffrey Tinsley, is the founder and former CEO of Mylife.com, a people-finder and background search website. In July 2020, Mylife.com and Tinsley were sued by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission for alleged violations of consumer protection laws, including falsely implying that people listed on the site had criminal records
and charging customers for subscription renewals that were difficult or impossible to cancel.
The lawsuit was settled in December 2021 with an agreement that called for Mylife.com to pay $16 million in penalties and Tinsley himself to pay $5 million. Tinsley did not admit to wrongdoing in the settlement. His home near Camarillo was listed as collateral in the agreement.
The settlement called for Tinsley to make quarterly payments to the government of a little under $300,000 for four years. He paid them on schedule for the first three years, but has not made any payments since a partial payment in December 2024, according to an Aug. 17 court filing by the U.S. Department of Justice, asking the court to appoint a receiver to sell the property.
That court filing states that Tinsley still owed $1.4 million when he stopped making payments. With interest, the debt has grown to a little over $1.5 million.
Tinsley said in court papers in 2024 that "changed financial circumstances have rendered it impracticable" to make the payments. Those circumstances included a bankruptcy filed by Mylife.com in 2022. In 2024, a bankruptcy court converted the reorganization to a liquidation, and the trustee overseeing Mylife.com removed Tinsley as the company's CEO.
"They found a way to shut the business down, leaving me without a job," Tinsley told The Star.
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Tinsley said that once he was removed from Mylife.com, running The Colony Estate as an event venue was his only source of income, and his only way to pay off the settlement. Without the ability to host events, he has no choice but to sell the property.
According to the real estate information website Zillow, the home was put up for sale four separate times between September 2024 and December 2025 and taken off the market each time, with asking prices of anywhere from $4.25 million to $12 million.
The prices at the lower end of that range, Tinsley said, were for partial shares in the property, when he was seeking a co-owner so he could pay his debt from the settlement. He said he got offers last year for as high as $9.8 million for the entire property but decided not to sell it.
"We started doing weddings and it was going extremely well, and we decided it actually doesn't make sense to sell the property," Tinsley said.
This time, U.S. District Judge John Walter has ordered Tinsley to move out by Sept. 19 and turn the home over to the receiver so the property can be sold. Decisions about the price and whether to accept purchase offers will be made by the receiver, with any final sale subject to approval by the court, the Aug. 20 court order states.
Tinsley said he's still living in the house. He said he's been in touch with the receiver and hopes to work with him to find a buyer who would continue Tinsley's efforts to obtain county permits to use the property as an event venue or who might invest with Tinsley in partial ownership of the property.
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A perfect wedding venue or a nuisance?
The home known as The Colony Estate sits on 3.4 acres and includes a 9,290-square foot main house with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms, and a 900-square foot guest house. It is on Crestview Avenue at the north end of Camarillo, just outside the city limits.
Tinsley bought the property in 2020 for $3.3 million.
"I think I got the deal of the century," he said. "We've done quite a bit of work, but the bones were here. It's a gorgeous architectural space, and we've put a lot of money into it."
Tinsley has been renting the property out for weddings and other events since at least 2023, which is when the Ventura County Sheriff's Office got its first complaints about large parties there, from people who said the noise, traffic and crowds were a nuisance.
The frequency of events ramped up in 2025 and 2026. This spring, the county issued Tinsley a notice of violation, saying he would have to stop using the property for commercial events or face civil penalties. Tinsley appealed to the Ventura County Planning Commission, which denied his appeal at a hearing in June.
Any enforcement was paused, however, when Tinsley appealed to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. On Aug. 4, the supervisors ruled against him in a unanimous vote.
During that hearing, county officials said if it were in a different location, The Colony Estate might be the perfect outdoor event venue. But the property is surrounded by homes, they said, and the county's zoning rules do not allow commercial events there.
Residents organized a group that opposed the events and urged officials to take action. Tinsley, however, said most of his neighbors had no problem with the events, and he feels singled out because there are plenty of other wedding venues operating without permits.
Tinsley applied for a permit in July. But according to the county, even if it could be granted, the permit would not fix the zoning issue.
County Counsel Tiffany North, the county's chief attorney, said the federal judge's decision to appoint a receiver does not change the property's status. If the property is sold, the new owner will have to comply with all applicable county ordinances, including the zoning ordinance, North said in an email.
Dispute over cancellations and refunds
On the same day supervisors voted against Tinsley's appeal, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office issued its own notice, ordering the property owners to address the ongoing public nuisance or potentially face criminal or civil enforcement. Prosecutors said they released the notice publicly to also alert anyone planning or operating events of the issue.
Tinsley's neighbors say the events at The Colony Estate appear to have stopped in the last few weeks, and Tinsley said he does not plan to host any more events "until we get properly permitted." The Colony Estate's website says it is "currently not accepting bookings."
Tinsley said many of his customers have canceled their events, and he's issued refunds to people who have canceled. But three people who have paid him for events in the future have sued, saying he's refused to refund their money.
There are two lawsuits pending against Tinsley in small claims court from disgruntled customers and one in Ventura County Superior Court. In small claims court, the parties don't have lawyers to represent them and the most that can be awarded is $12,500.
Aja Tamai is suing Tinsley in small claims court. She plans to get married next year, and in March, she visited The Colony Estate with her fiancé. She got a tour, and a glass of champagne.
"We loved the place," Tamai said. "It was very well maintained. Inside the house they had perfect places for a bride and groom to get ready separately. They had a whole floor as a lounge area for an after party, so we wouldn't have to go anywhere else. It was perfect."
Tamai and her fiancé paid Tinsley $14,400 in April to reserve The Colony Estate for a date in September 2027. The full price was $16,000, and Tinsley gave them a 10% discount for paying the full amount up front, Tamai said.
Tamai learned of The Colony Estate's permitting issues a few months later from a wedding planner in the area. Tamai didn't want her wedding canceled at the last minute or shut down by sheriff's deputies. She said she emailed Tinsley twice to ask for a refund and got no response. She had a lawyer send a demand letter, and when she didn't get a response to that either, she filed her small claims lawsuit.
Now Tamai is back at square one, looking for a venue that will fit within her total budget of $40,000 for a 120-guest wedding.
"It sucks because it's supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life and you don’t want to stress about it, but that adds one more thing you have to deal with," she said. "At least I still have time to look. It could always be worse. I felt so bad for the brides that had upcoming weddings, and it's too late to find someplace else."
Tinsley wouldn't comment on any pending lawsuits. He said he has issued full refunds to people who have canceled their events, in accordance with a cancellation agreement that included a promise not to sue.
Though his property is for sale, Tinsley said he still holds out hope that he or a future owner can use it as a permitted event venue.
"I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to one day have events here," Tinsley said. "This happens to be the most perfect place for a wedding. The weddings we have had here, the guests have told us they’ve never been to a more elegant wedding."
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Controversial Camarillo wedding venue on market for $8.25M. Here's why
