A Georgian heiress and her husband can hand back to the seller a £32 million London mansion that was riddled with moths.
A High Court judge ruled that the elite property developer had given “false” answers about the state of the house and failed “honestly to disclose” the “serious infestation”.
Iya Patarkatsishvili — the daughter of a Georgian multibillionaire who fell out with Russia’s President Putin — bought Horbury Villa in Notting Hill with her husband in 2019.
She and Yevhen Hunyak, a dentist, were said to have paid £32.5 million for the early Victorian property, which included a pool and spa, gym, wine room, library and cinema.
The house included a “snoring room” — a space marketed as guaranteeing a peaceful night’s sleep.
But Patarkatsishvili told a judge that a few days after they moved in she saw a moth.
The sighting ultimately led to the couple’s multimillion-pound claim against the developer and seller, William Woodward-Fisher, as they sued in an attempt to reverse the sale.
Hunyak told the High Court in London that the infestation became so bad that moths were landing on their children’s toothbrushes, cutlery and meals. He said he was forced to tip out glasses of wine after discovering floating moths.
Lawyers for the couple argued that Woodward-Fisher, 68, a former champion rower, had failed to disclose previous moth issues when answering pre-sale inquiries on the possibility of “vermin” and hidden defects in the house.
• I won the battle against clothes moths — you’ll be shocked how
In a ruling on Monday, Mr Justice Fancourt said that the couple had been led into the purchase by Woodward-Fisher’s “false” answers about the state of the property.
The property developer had failed “honestly to disclose” the “serious infestation” and reports concerning work required on the insulation where the moths had nested, the judge said.
While Fancourt accepted that Woodward-Fisher had not deliberately tried to deceive the purchasers, he said that the developer had “simply wanted to sell the house and move on” and knew disclosure would cause the sale to “go off”.
The judge has now ordered that the sale be rescinded, which means that Woodward-Fisher must reimburse the purchase price, less about £6 million to recognise the couple’s use of the property since the purchase.
The developer was also ordered to pay the couple an additional £4 million in damages for the infestation, including £15,000 for ruined clothes and the £3.7 million paid in stamp duty.
Hunyak is a paediatric dentist who practises in Chelsea, while his wife is the daughter of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a Georgian businessman who fell out with the Russian president before coming to the UK in 2000. He died of heart failure eight years later.
Before buying the property, the couple and their staff visited the house at least 11 times.
However, despite careful inspection the couple suffered what one specialist called “an infestation of extreme proportions … amounting to millions of moths”.
John McGhee KC, representing the couple in court, said that at the peak of the infestation Hunyak was swatting about 100 moths a day.
The couple claimed that the source was a nest in the wool insulation behind walls and ceilings in the house.
Appearing for the developer, Jonathan Seitler KC insisted that Woodward-Fisher had been honest when dealing with the inquiry about possible previous “vermin infestation”, having told his solicitor that the property had experienced problems with moths only to be assured that “moths were not vermin and therefore not relevant to this inquiry”.
But the judge said in his ruling that the case turned on the point that the seller knew that he had “or may have an infestation of moths”. And that therefore, “the only honest answer [on the questionnaire” would be ‘yes’ or ‘no, but the property was identified on [date] as having a clothes moth infestation’.”
Chris Webber, of Squire Patton Boggs, the firm that represented the couple, said: “[The couple] hope the case will serve as a warning to unscrupulous property developers who might seek to take advantage of buyer beware to sell properties by concealing known defects.”
