The future of popular HGTV show Kitchen Cousins is uncertain after the show’s hosts were forced into bankruptcy following a New Jersey lawsuit.
John Colaneri (on the left in the photo above) and Anthony Carrino, the Kitchen Cousins of the title, and Brunulleschi Construction, their company, were forced to file for bankruptcy after an arbitration hearing found them guilty of breach of contract, fraud, and shoddy workmanship. The ruling, which was handed down earlier this month, stemmed from a 2013 lawsuit brought against the cousins by Robert and Peng Avery, who claimed the kitchen cousins backed out of a job partway through, after receiving partial payment in the form of $211,000.
According to the ruling, the kitchen cousins also lied about the project–a $1.3 million home that once belonged to former New York Yankee Don Mattingly–passing final inspections. The Averys were unable to move into their home until almost eighteen months had passed, by which time they had hired another contractor to finish the necessary work.
The cousins’ “botched work” included “gaps in sheetrock, improperly installed ductwork, incomplete plumbing hookups,” and “other problems,” which were not specified.
Because the job was never completed, it wasn’t featured on Kitchen Cousins–nor did it appear on Cousins on Call or Cousins Undercover, Carrino and Colinari’s Kitchen Cousins spinoffs. As of today, there is no mention of the lawsuit on the cousins’ official Facebook page.
And a New Jersey attorney further suggested that the cousins should not have been named as individual defendants in the case, as the Averys’ legal grievance was with their construction company.
Neither HGTV nor the “Kitchen Cousins” brand were named in the lawsuit, but the network’s official stance on the ruling is unclear. For now, America’s Most Desperate Kitchens, the kitchen cousins’ most recent program, airs Wednesdays at 8 PM EST.
(Photo credits: Kitchen Cousins via HGTV)
