Dust-up over an unpaid £250 cleaning bill... at Jamie Oliver’s £10m mansion
JAMIE OLIVER is at the centre of an increasingly bitter row over just £250 involving his lavish £10million mansion.
The spat revolves around an unpaid cleaning bill at the property – and appeared last night to be heading to court.
It began when specialist commercial cleaner Elena Stiglits was hired at short notice to clean up after builders at the celebrity chef’s stunning 17th Century Grade II listed townhouse before Christmas.
Oliver – who, along with his wife Jools, is said to be worth £160million – bought the eightbedroom home near Hampstead Heath in North-West London in 2015. Since then, builders have been renovating it.
But several weeks after Ms Stiglits sent her £600 invoice for 30 hours’ work on a Sunday, which included the cost of two extra cleaners, materials and transport time, a payment arrived for only £350. The 43-year-old said a job at the house in September had paid the same rate. Ms Stiglits, who owns Zest Cleaning Services in St Albans, Hertfordshire, contacted Allan Young, the builder who had employed her, but he passed her to the design firm, Cool Luxury Designs.
It claimed her invoice was too high and that, because the work had not been up to scratch, a second cleaning company had had to be called in.
Ms Stiglits said: ‘I’m sure Jamie Oliver wouldn’t like the idea of someone being paid less than the proper rate for a hard day’s work before Christmas.
‘I left my house at 6am and arrived home at 5pm. We worked non-stop without lunch. I included travelling time for the 40-mile round trip in my hours and this was understood.
‘I have never had a complaint before. After the job, I went round with Allan, room by room, and he was delighted with the standard of cleaning.’
She now plans to take the case to a small claims court. A spokesman for Cool Luxury Designs claimed Ms Stiglits had charged more because it was Mr Oliver’s house. ‘She didn’t charge the same rate as other jobs,’ she added. ‘The fact is she knew it was Jamie Oliver’s house – we didn’t tell her.’
Mr Young said he told Ms Stiglits the following week he thought the price ‘inflated’.
A spokesman for Mr Oliver declined to comment.