The Risks of offering expert help to friends

Basia Lejonvarn was engaged by recruitment tycoon Peter Burgess and his wife Lynn to supervise a redesign of their back garden after Mrs Lejonvarn told them a £150,000 quote was excessive.

She agreed to supervise the work for her friends and former neighbours in Highgate, bringing in a team of Polish builders to carry out the work.

However, the relationship went sour when Mrs Lejonvarn was unable to realise the Burgesses’s dream designs. There were delays, costs overran, and as an acrimonious email war ensued, Mr Burgess accused Mrs Lejonvar of ‘just muddling through”.

Eventually she and her team were ordered off the job, and the contractor who put in the original quote was brought in.

The Burgesses claim the cost of correcting the work came to £265,000, and took Mrs Lejonvarn, who had no indemnity cover, to court.

Judge Alexander Nissen QC found there had been no contract between the parties, and accepted Mrs Lejonvar’s assertion that she was merely acting as project manager.

But Judge Nissen did say she owed the Burgesses a duty of care under tort.

He said the architect had not just been giving informal, ad hoc advice. Although not registered as an architect in the UK, she had qualified and practised in the US.

The judge referred the case for mediation.