Interior designer says her ex-Morgan Stanley vice president neighbour's basement extension to his £10m Kensington home has caused her floor to sink and ruined her £100,000 kitchen

  • Reiko Stewart and husband Hugh live in £8.5m home in Kensington, west London
  • Neighbour Bis Subramanian began works to extend his basement back in 2014
  • Both hired surveyors, who initially agreed Subramanians should pay £85,950
  • They employed new surveyor who disagreed, and took case to the High Court
  • High Court judge dismissed claim for cost of damage to handmade kitchen units 

An interior designer is locked in a furious row with her neighbours over a basement extension that allegedly caused her floor to sink and ruined her £100,000 kitchen.

Reiko Stewart, 65, and her husband Hugh are in a legal battle with former Morgan Stanley vice president Bis Subramanian, 53, over excavation works at his home. 

He and his partner Laura Vidal-Oregui Subramanian, 55, started works under their £10million home in Kensington, west London, in 2014. 

The Stewarts initially refused to consent to the underground works, but the digging was eventually allowed to proceed on condition it 'must not cause unnecessary inconvenience to adjoining owners'.

But the basement excavation has made their kitchen floor 'sink' and 'become tilted', they claim.

The designer and her husband - who themselves live in a house estimated to be worth around £8.5million - say the damage means they will have to completely replace their handcrafted Smallbone kitchen, at a cost of more than £100,000.

Reiko Stewart, 65, and her husband Hugh, pictured together, are locked in a furious row with their neighbours over a basement extension that allegedly caused the floor at their home in Kensington, west London, to sink

Reiko Stewart, 65, and her husband Hugh, pictured together, are locked in a furious row with their neighbours over a basement extension that allegedly caused the floor at their home in Kensington, west London, to sink

Former Morgan Stanley vice president Bis Subramanian, pictured, and his partner Laura Vidal-Oregui Subramanian, 55, started works under their £10million home in 2014

Former Morgan Stanley vice president Bis Subramanian, pictured, and his partner Laura Vidal-Oregui Subramanian, 55, started works under their £10million home in 2014

The couple also say that the excavations have given rise to 'structural movement' at their house, which has caused damage in a number of other areas, and are demanding a compensation payout.

Mr and Mrs Subramanian deny they are liable to give their neighbours a penny and claim the slope in their kitchen was 'not caused by their work at all', but was already there before they began.

The case has since been heard by High Court Judge Rowena Collins Rice, who overturned a previous ruling that the Subramanians must pay out nearly £90,000.

Mr Subramanian - a former private equity fund boss - and his partner had carried out excavation works under their six-bedroom home in one of London's most exclusive postcodes.

Kensington and Chelsea council planning records show that, by 2014, the Subramanians had 'a basement extension under construction under the existing building and most of the rear garden'.

In February 2014, the couple reapplied to the council asking for 'extension of basement depth and provision of sash window and bi-folding door to rear lower ground floor'.

The dispute between the neighbours is focused on a party wall award made to the Stewarts by a specially appointed surveyor after the Stewarts complained that the digging had caused damage in several areas of their home.

In 2017, each couple appointed a surveyor, with both agreeing that the alleged damage had been caused in the manner the Stewarts claimed.

A third neutral surveyor appointed by the first two then ruled the Subramanians had to pay the Stewarts £85,950 for the damage to their kitchen cabinetwork.

He made the award after concluding their top-end Smallbone kitchen units, which are handmade in Wiltshire, could not be taken out then reinstalled to allow the floor to be levelled, but instead had to be replaced.

However, the Subramanians' surveyor withdrew before the award process could be completed and the new surveyor who replaced him took a very different view of the situation.

He claimed that the slope in the designer and her husband's kitchen floor had nothing to do with the basement extension next door and, in his view, 'it predated that work altogether'.

On the basis of the new expert advice, the Subramanians refused to pay over the £85,950 and the Stewarts then took them to court to enforce the award.

In July last year, City of London magistrates ruled that the money was payable and could be enforced by the Stewarts as a civil debt against their neighbours.

But the Subramanians then challenged the decision in the High Court and Judge Rice has now found in their favour.

Judge Rice said that, given the new expert evidence which emerged, the issue of whether the Subramanians are liable to pay compensation for the slope in their neighbours' kitchen floor has not yet been resolved.

A High Court judge overturned a previous ruling that would have made the Subramanians pay out nearly £90,000 for the Stewarts' Smallbone kitchen units, which are handmade in Wiltshire, and needed replacing after the works. Pictured: The Stewarts' £8.5million home

A High Court judge overturned a previous ruling that would have made the Subramanians pay out nearly £90,000 for the Stewarts' Smallbone kitchen units, which are handmade in Wiltshire, and needed replacing after the works. Pictured: The Stewarts' £8.5million home

'In this case...on the professional advice given at the time, everyone accepted that the Subramanians' work had caused the Stewarts' floor to sink,' she said.

'The reality appears to be that, until the new surveyor's arrival, the Subramanians and the Stewarts were mutually going along with the idea that the excavation works had caused the kitchen floor to sink.

'That is what their surveyors had told them and they had no reason to doubt it. But going along with an idea based on professional advice is not the same thing as being legally bound by it.'

Because the new surveyor disagreed that the work caused the kitchen damage, the issue of whether those works were to blame had not yet been considered, she continued.

'Whether any remedial works on the floor should be undertaken and, if so, which and how had yet to be finalised,' she added.

While the surveyor's award of £85,950 had to stand as the value of any award in relation to the kitchen units, whether it would have to be paid at all was still in issue, she continued.

'The 2017 award was part of a picture which has itself become less rather than more clear as time has gone on,' the judge commented.

'It is a binding determination of the issue of cabinetwork quantum, for whatever purpose that may continue to serve.

'It cannot properly and fairly be read as having created an immediately enforceable civil debt,' she concluded, setting aside the magistrates' order that the Subramanians are obliged to pay.

The dispute over whether the Subramanians must pay their neighbours anything - and if so how much - will now go back to be determined again by the neutral surveyor.

Mrs Stewart is the owner and boss of her own business, Argyll Design.

Mr Subramanian was formerly a vice president at Morgan Stanley and managing director at private equity fund Providence Equity Partners. 

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