What started as a £50,000 job to refurbish a hotel in Sandown and a longer-term working relationship, has ended up as a possible total bill of £500,000 and the collapse of that friendship.
Work started in June 2012, shortly after 76 year old Elizabeth Fui Kin Lowe bought the hotel business formally known as Seagrove, now Esplanade Hotel. The initial work was completed and nearly all paid for.
Lowe: Work not wanted
Mrs Lowe claimed that after that, the building company Brynwell (Southern) Ltd had “started on a major campaign of work which she did not want done”.
Her company had been invoiced a totaled £488,246, and had paid £152,080 of those invoices.
Under cross-examination she said it was not easy to tell them to stop, “I felt physically unable to ask them to stop”.
Judge’s findings
The Judge, hearing the case in the High Court in London, ordered her to pay more than £280,000 toward the outstanding money, plus £33,000 interest.
On top of that £90,000 of the money has to be paid by 5 June, to partially cover the estimated £105,000 legal bill of the construction company.
It’s estimated that Mrs Lowe’s legal bill would be a similar amount of money, bringing the total money due to over £500,000.
