Home reno nightmare: Couple claim losses of $100k from two design firms
Saturday, 27 June 2026
Rebecca and Alastair Gray of St Johns in east Auckland engaged Mark Ravening of Ravening Design and Project Management, to work on their major renovation project.
When Ravening stopped answering their calls and emails, they took him to court and won a judgment for $86,000 for goods and services not delivered.
Ravening says he had “gone off the radar” because of traumatic events in his life and is now asking for the judgment to be set aside, while making counter-claims.
Meanwhile, a man Ravening recommended, Mark Kendrick of Apollo NZ, was paid $41,000 for an outdoor louvre system, which was ordered in 2024 but still hasn’t arrived.
The Grays have demanded their money back and gone to the Disputes Tribunal; Kendrick insists the louvre system is on its way.
An Auckland couple claim they are more than $100,000 out of pocket after two home design firms - both run by men called Mark - promised big but failed to deliver. Tony Wall investigates.
Rebecca and Alastair Gray’s dream was to turn their east Auckland property into their “forever home”, with major indoor and outdoor renovations.
The project included a revised floor plan for their St Johns home, an added bathroom, renovation of the existing bathrooms and kitchen, a new deck and outdoor entertaining area and levelling and fencing an outdoor area for their two young children and dogs to play on.
Three years later, the renovation remains unfinished and the Grays claim they are out of pocket by more than $100,000 after two separate design firms failed to deliver on aspects of the project.
“It’s been so stressful and disheartening every step of the way,” said Rebecca Gray, who is a custom wardrobe and cabinetry designer.
“The whole experience has destroyed my trust in others, and in the services that are supposed to protect individuals from these circumstances.”
Rebecca said she and Alastair, an IT professional, engaged Mark Ravening, director of Ravening Design and Project Management, in 2023 to organise product and supply some design advice.
They’d worked with Ravening, a qualified architect, before; he’d been introduced by real estate agents when they were selling their previous house and had organised the installation of new flooring, tapware, vanities and tiles.
“At that time, everything went well, so we engaged him for our new renovation,” Rebecca said.
According to a District Court judgment the project proceeded relatively smoothly until the middle of 2024.
“It was at this stage Mr and Mrs Gray started having concerns about the reliability and response times of Ravening,” wrote Judge David Clark in his judgment, delivered last October.
“Emails, telephone calls and text messages went unanswered,” the judge said.
“The difficulty with the lack of response was Mr and Mrs Gray were paying Ravening significant sums for the supply of a contractor’s product.”
According to the judgment, the couple had paid Ravening $86,000 for kitchen equipment, wood staining and sanding, a fireplace, barbecue and fridge for the outdoor area and an outdoor louvre system; none of which was delivered.
Ravening failed to respond to a solicitor’s letter of demand in October 2024, the judgment said, at which point the Grays started court proceedings.
The proceedings were served on Ravening and no steps were taken to defend them.
He did not appear at the formal proof hearing.
Judge Clark said Rebecca Gray had produced copies of invoices supplied by Ravening and confirmation that all invoices were paid.
“I am satisfied, based on Mrs Gray’s evidence, the product has not been supplied to Mr and Mrs Gray, and instead, Ravening has retained all of these monies.”
He entered judgment against Ravening for the sum of $86,091 and said the Grays were entitled to claim interest and costs.
Ravening told Stuff the reason he had “gone off the radar” was a series of traumatic events in his life and he would apologise to the Grays for that.
His family home was destroyed by fire prior to the Grays engaging his services, the financial consequences placing an ongoing strain on his business, he said.
Late in 2023 he suffered a facial injury and developed an infection, requiring multiple hospital admissions and surgeries.
He said he was certified as unfit to work for a substantial period.
In addition, he said his partner left him, and his father, road maintenance sub-contractor Brian Ravening, was arrested and charged by the Serious Fraud Office.
(Brian Ravening pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court in February 2024 to one charge of obtaining by deception of approximately $631,000 and two charges of corruptly giving gifts to an agent amounting to approximately $615,000. He was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention.)
Ravening said he was living with his father at the time but knew nothing of the offending “until I was called to a family meeting”.
“Obviously when people hear of that sort of thing, it’s going to impact my own business.
“It massively affected my business turnover, my mental health, everything.”
Ravening said his business email address stopped working last year, and he claimed not to have known about the court proceedings, or the judgment against him.
“The first time I heard about this mess was in November of last year, when the debt collector rang me for the 86k and I said … ‘what the f…, I don’t understand what's going on.’”
Ravening said he was now in a position to contest the judgment and had applied to the court for it to be set aside.
A hearing was scheduled for August.
He has also made a series of counter-claims.
In an affidavit supplied to the court, Ravening claims that he was engaged to provide project management, concept and design services, procurement of bespoke products and coordination with suppliers and trades, and is owed $32,775 for work he did.
“While those services have not yet been formally invoiced due to my medical incapacity and prolonged absence from the day-to-day management of the [Grays’] affairs, the work was nevertheless completed and remains payable,” the affidavit states.
(Rebecca Gray said in all her dealings with Ravening, he never invoiced for design hours and there was no contract stating he would be charging for that.)
Ravening also claims an interior designer he engaged for the project is owed $54,596 for 316 hours of work.
(The designer has assured Rebecca Gray, in a recorded phone call obtained by Stuff, that he never invoiced for any work related to her project and no money is owing.)
Ravening also claims that about $38,000 worth of timber flooring uplifted from his property by the Grays’ builder was not accounted for in their original claim to the court.
(Rebecca acknowledges that the flooring was uplifted and may reduce the amount owing.)
“I personally believe I'm entitled to some remuneration from the Grays, because all of my design work and Ravening Design IP was taken to other manufacturers,” Ravening told Stuff.
(Rebecca said they had no other option but to go with other suppliers as Ravening had ceased all communication.)
The Grays’ dispute with Mark Ravening wasn’t the end of their troubles.
Ravening had recommended an outdoor design business called Apollo NZ, run by sole trader Mark Kendrick, to provide the outdoor louvre system for their deck.
The two Marks had worked together before, one of their projects featuring in Your Home and Garden magazine.
Stuff wrote about Kendrick and Apollo NZ earlier this month, describing how a Lower Hutt couple had paid $80,000 in deposits for a louvered pergola with retractable roof and motorised side blinds, with nothing to show for it four years on.
(Kendrick blamed suppliers in China and shipping companies and claimed he could still deliver the product.)
Kendrick received $41,000 from the Grays, in May and October of 2024, Rebecca’s records show.
Throughout 2025, he continually claimed the louvre system was on its way from China, but it never arrived.
At one point he claimed it had landed in the country, but later accepted it was still in China.
The Grays have sent Kendrick a letter demanding their money back, and have lodged a claim with the Disputes Tribunal.
Kendrick told Stuff their louvre system was “all made” and waiting release from the factory in China.
He insisted he could still deliver.
“It’s all been made, it’s not like I’ve run off with the money or anything, everything’s done, it’s not like I'm living the high life.”
He said the reason he claimed the louvre system was in New Zealand when it wasn’t was because of confusion around which products had landed.
“From what I can see they [the Chinese factory] put the wrong product number on it for a different client.”
Asked if he would refund the Grays’ money, he said that could be discussed at the Disputes Tribunal.
Stuff has been contacted by other Apollo NZ customers who say they haven’t received their product; Kendrick insists everything has been made and on its way to New Zealand.
There is no love lost between Kendrick and Ravening, who both claim they owe each other money.
“If I saw the guy in the street, I’m not sure what I’d do, I really dislike him,” Ravening said of Kendrick.
Kendrick claimed Ravening had caused him “quite a pickle, it’s taken quite a while to get out of that”.
Rebecca said she and her husband had engaged other professionals to finish most of the renovations, although without the outdoor louvre system it couldn’t be fully completed.
She accepted she was “privileged to be able to fight these battles, many people … are not in a position to”.
“Despite the personal and financial toll it has taken on me, I feel it is my moral obligation to do all I can to … prevent hurt to others.”