Celebrity designer court battle over £1.6m Chelsea mews houses

Tamara Surguladze (left) and Natasha Surguladze (right)

Tamara Surguladze (left) and Natasha Surguladze (right)

A celebrity designer and her father have won a court battle with architects over substandard work on their £1.6million home renovation.

Natasha Surguladze - one half of identical twin design duo Tata Naka - has been locked in a court fight over unpaid fees with architects Donald Insall Associates.

Natasha and her father, businessman Michael Surguladze, commissioned the firm to draw up designs for a 'large scale and unusual project' in Chelsea.

The plans involved two adjoining houses being 'effectively demolished' and replaced with a single four-storey double-fronted brick townhouse.

The new property was to be home to both Natasha and her father, as well as her twin sister and design partner Tamara, Central London County Court heard.

However, the architects and the Surguladzes fell out when design drawings failed to pass building regulations, due to issues with a fire escape and disabled access.

The family subsequently obtained the consents they needed and completed the 'large and complicated project' after changing architects.

But they were then pursued for £40,000 in unpaid fees by Donald Insall Associates.

Now Judge David Saunders has ruled the Surguladzes were right to refuse to pay the architects' bill, as the work had 'not met the required standard'.

The Tata-Naka label is the imprint of London-based Georgian identical twins, Tamara and Natasha Surguladze, 40.

Fans of the the Central St Martin's graduates' fashion creations include Cameron Diaz, Mena Suvari and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Over a decade ago, the twins, who lived together with 'family patriarch' Michael in a mews

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