Developer who sold moth-infested mansion to couple must pay them £36,000,000

A property developer has been ordered to pay £36.5million to a heiress after selling her a mansion ‘infested with millions of moths’.

Iya Patarkatsishvili – the daughter of a Georgian multi-billionaire – and her husband Dr Yevhen Hunyak took William Woodward-Fisher to court for miss-selling them Horbury Villa in Notting Hill.

The couple, who paid £32.5 million for the Victorian house, claimed that within days of moving in they started noticing moths flying around inside.

According to their lawyer, John McGhee KC, it wasn’t long before Dr Hunyak was having to swat around 100 moths a day to stay on top of the problem.

One insect specialist called it ‘an infestation of extreme proportions amounting to millions of moths’.

The couple said the insects were nesting in the wool insulation behind walls and ceilings of the property.

They believe Mr Woodward-Fisher had known about the moths before he decided to sell up, but in pre-contract enquiries with solicitors said he was unaware of any ‘vermin infestations’ or ‘defects’ in the house that weren’t visible.

In their claim, the couple asked the judge to reverse the house sale on the basis of alleged ‘fraudulent misrepresentation’ so that they get their £32.5m purchase money back, plus compensation for other losses.

Mr Woodward-Fisher denied all claims, insisting that he gave honest and full replies on the pre-sale enquiries form, and that as far as he knew any previous moth problems had been eliminated by the time of the move.

His KC, Jonathan Seitler, insisted Mr Woodward-Fisher had been honest when dealing with the enquiry about possible previous ‘vermin infestation,’ having told his solicitor they had experienced problems with moths, only to be assured that ‘moths were not vermin and therefore not relevant to this enquiry’.

Giving judgment earlier this month, Mr Justice Fancourt said Dr Hunyak had at times ‘exaggerated’ the extent of ongoing problems, but found that Mr Woodward-Fisher had given ‘false’ answers in the pre-contract questions.

‘I do not find that he was consciously trying to deceive the claimants,’ he said.

‘He simply wanted to sell the house and move on. As he admitted in cross-examination, disclosure of the infestation would likely have caused the sale to go off, and he would have been left needing to move out of the house and do expensive works to remove all the woollen insulation.

‘In my judgment, Mr Woodward-Fisher was hoping that the problem might have gone away and he was willing to take the risk that he was wrong about that.

‘He stated that he was unaware of any defect in the property that was not apparent on inspection…that was false, because the infested condition of the insulation in the floor voids and internal walls of the house was such a defect.’

The judge found in favour of the couple and ordered that Mr Woodward-Fisher be paid the £32.5m purchase price, less about £6.4m for their five years in the house, but with interest and further compensation making Mr Woodward-Fisher’s total bill much higher.

Awarding the couple about £4.7m in interest on the £26m they are due on the purchase price, Mr Justice Fancourt said: ‘The monies returned should be of the same value that they had in May 2019.’

The judge said as well as the refund and about £5.1m damages, Mr Woodward-Fisher would also have to pay the couple’s lawyers’ bills, with £750,000 up front towards a total which could reach £2.9m after assessment.

During the trial of the claim last year, the judge heard that Mr Woodward-Fisher, who formerly competed for Great Britain as a rower, bought the site in 2011 and lived there with interior designer wife Kerry, 64.

The house was extended and radically remodelled by Mr Woodward-Fisher to about 11,000 sq ft, before it was sold on to Ms Patarkatsishvili and During the trial of the claim last year, the judge heard that Mr Woodward-Fisher, who formerly competed for Great Britain as a rower, bought the site in 2011 and lived there with interior designer wife Kerry, 64.

The house was extended and radically remodelled by Mr Woodward-Fisher to about 11,000 sq ft, before it was sold on to Ms Patarkatsishvili and Dr Hunyak.

The couple will now have to vacate the house in the next few months to allow Mr Woodward-Fisher to sell it in order to pay them what he now owes.

Dr Hunyak is a paediatric dentist who practices in Chelsea, while his wife is daughter of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a Georgian businessman who fell out with Vladimir Putin and set up home in the UK in 2000 before dying of heart failure in 2008.

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