BBC House Invaders star who is pals with Katie Price in furious row with model Daisy Lowe over revamp of her £1.5m home
A BBC House Invaders star is embroiled in a furious row with Playboy model Daisy Lowe after he revamped her home.
Celeb builder Phil Turner, who is pals with Katie Price, carried out a £115,000 renovation on Daisy's £1.5 million London pile.
But the model, 33, has refused to cough up an eye watering £45,000 - accusing Mr Turner's work as not being up to standard.
The TV DIY star has now accused her of using the threat of a whopping £37,000 lawyers' bill to stop his claim going forward.
Last week, he claimed before a County Court judge that her demand that he prove his company can pay her lawyers' bills if he loses the case is a tactic designed to try to "stifle" his claim.
The model dismisses this claim.
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Mr Turner also claimed he had agreed a verbal contract with Daisy through his company TWP Interiors Ltd to carry out work on the three-bed terrace.
It included digging foundations, building an extension, installing a £30,000 kitchen and a high-end refurbishment of the Victorian-era house, sold for £1.8m earlier this year.
Daisy - daughter of Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale and designer Pearl Lowe - was friends with Mr Turner before the ferocious row erupted.
But Mr Turner claimed how despite almost all the work being completed, she refused to pay all her invoices, leaving him with bills owed to suppliers and contractors.
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He claimed: "Basically, she hasn't paid for anything from the ground up.
"I realised she couldn't afford the projects she wanted."
In court last week Daisy pushed forward on a bid for "security for costs," meaning Phil's firm would have to pay £37,000 into court to cover her lawyers' bills if she wins.
A judge hearing an application in the case in May last year had refused her application, but her barrister Alexander Hill-Smith argued in an appeal last week that had been wrong.
He added that Daisy could end up having to pay out over £60,000 to defend the builder's claim.
But Mr Turner told Judge Stephen Hellman that there is no way his company could pay her costs for security and her claims were designed to "stifle my original claim".
If a court decides TWP should provide security for costs - which are not usually paid if a person can't afford them - and he then fails to do so, Mr Turner's claim can be struck out without even going to trial.
Giving judgment, Judge Hellman ruled the previous judge had been wrong to refuse Daisy's application without hearing evidence about the financial situation of the builder and his company.
He ordered Mr Turner to produce evidence showing what funding he and his company have available to continue the claim against Daisy.
The next application is due to be heard in January.
A spokesperson for Ms Lowe told The Sun: "Daisy Lowe refused to pay Phil Turner's invoices when it became clear that he was running grossly over budget, with substantial and costly items still outstanding.
"She subsequently had Mr Turner's work inspected by both an architect and a structural engineer, who both concluded that the works undertaken were defective and needed remedying.
"Ms Lowe and her legal team consider that she has a good defence to the claim brought against her by Mr Turner, but Ms Lowe does not believe that Mr Turner would be able to pay for her legal costs in the event that she wins and he is ordered to do so.
"She is not prepared to pay to remedy Mr Turner's defective building work and also have unmet legal costs.
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"Ms Lowe's appeal last week was based on the argument that Deputy District Judge Cartwright contained significant errors of law.
"And that it is not in the interests of justice that Mr Turner should be able to litigate with impunity, with no prospect of Ms Lowe recovering her costs if she succeeds. "
