Viewers of Grand Designs Revisited, broadcast on Channel 4 last week, heard how police sergeant Richard Curtis and his wife Anne went over budget. But 黑洞社区 can reveal that the project was the subject of a legal bust-up.
The programme was about the Curtis family's conversion of a disused electricity substation in East Boldon, Newcastle upon Tyne, into a Moroccan-style home in 2000.
The project resulted in a legal battle between the family and Imperial Waterproofing Systems, the contractor that installed the roof. This ended with the Essex-based firm being awarded about 拢12,000.
Jonathan Forbes Brown, the managing director of Imperial, put a claim into Newcastle County Court to receive full payment for the work he had carried out.
A source close to the case said that the amount that Imperial was awarded was less than the sum originally claimed.
Forbes Brown said he received about 拢3000 in payment for works completed on the project, as well as costs, giving a total award of about 拢12,000.
The judge ruled against Imperial on one point, relating to the "unit price quotation" for the cost of the roof.
The source said the judge had dismissed a counterclaim from Richard Curtis that the work Imperial carried out was unsatisfactory.
Forbes Brown's witness statement to the court said he had been introduced to Richard Curtis at a trade fair held at Alexandra Palace in north London.
It said that Curtis told him he owned an electricity substation in Newcastle and was interested in having a Firestone EPDM roofing system installed.
The statement said that Curtis had told him that the project was going to be featured by Channel 4 and asked whether he would provide a quotation to install the system.
Richard Curtis could not be contacted this week. Talkback Thames, the company that produces Grand Designs, refused to comment.
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