A celebrity architect has been rapped by a professional body over a botched renovation project.
Danny Campbell, who judges on Scotland’s Home of the Year, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct after mishandling the project in Giffnock, Renfrewshire, in 2021.
The Architect Registration Board have reprimanded the 34-year-old for mistakes they said had a ‘significant’ impact.
His Hoko Design firm was appointed contract administrator for a family’s home renovation project, while his other company Hoko Build was made contractor for the works with no compensation cover for delays.
The Architect Registration Board have probed the matter, and this month ruled Mr Campbell failed to appropriately manage a conflict of interest, and he did not supervise staff adequately.
In November 2020 Jonathan Rennie, known as the referrer, wanted to develop a property and following an online search contacted Hoko Design.
Then search for a contractor began, and the board’s finding said: ‘The referrer was advised … that Hoko Design worked well with building contractors Hoko Build Ltd as they were “in-house”.
‘The referrer did not have a contractor in mind for the project and states that he did not understand the concept of a conflict of interest arising between Hoko Design and Hoko Build if they both were involved in the project.
‘[Mr Campbell] is the majority shareholder and a director of both companies.’
Concerns had been raised about the liquidated damages clause in the building contract was set at zero, but a worker provided them with ‘assurances’ that ‘these arrangements were usual’ and the contracts were signed ‘notwithstanding having some reservations’.
At this point the start time had already slipped from September to October 2021, the board said, and Mr Rennie felt under pressure to start as soon as possible so work could be completed by November.
It said: ‘The referrer had expected to be in alternative accommodation for approximately four weeks and needed to move back into the property at the start of November 2021.’
But, once the project started, it ‘soon fell behind schedule and the end date moved back several weeks causing the Referrer and his family to seek further alternative accommodation with friends and family’.
At meeting with Mr Campbell in January 2022 at the property, the family realised he ‘could not be acting in his best interests whilst also acting for Hoko Build’.
In March that year the relationship broke down, and the contract was terminated.
The board found: ‘The impact of the referrer and his family was significant.’
Mr Campbell is a judge on the BBC’s Scotland’s Home of the Year, which sees property experts travel across the country and rate homes based on their design.
Becoming a host of the programme last year, he judges alongside Banjo Beale and Anna Campbell Jones.
Mr Campbell has since closed Hoko Build.
The board found the blunder ‘arose through a mixture of naivety, inexperience and an absence of more experienced figures that might have curtailed [Mr Campbell’s] obvious enthusiasm’.
They said he ‘misunderstood his regulatory obligations and, by own admission, failed to identify the risk of a potential conflict of interest’ arising by virtue of the two firms’ relationship.
But the board said it was ‘satisfied that this case is at a lower level of seriousness as compared to a range of cases that amount to’ unacceptable professional conduct, there was ‘no finding of a lack of integrity’ and it was ‘not a wilful disregard of regulatory obligations but was an error from an architect at the start of his career’.
Mr Campbell told the Sunday Mail: ‘While it was not a project I was involved in directly, I take full responsibility as the owner of the company.
‘It is important to understand the oversight came within a growing organisation of 37 staff members managing multiple projects with numerous employed architects, during a period marked by the pandemic’s significant project backlog and challenges in securing tradespeople.
‘Hoko Build ceased trading some years ago. We have scaled back our operations and Hoko Design is now the sole entity of the business.
‘We now fully outsource building on every project.’