A couple who bought a London mansion for £32,500,000 ($40,200,000) have been told by a court that they can hand the property back and recoup most of their costs after the house was found to have a huge moth infestation.
Situated on one of the quiet leafy streets just outside Notting Hill, Horbury Villa seemed like the perfect northwest London home. But behind its grand Victorian façade, a colony of moths living in the insulation wreaked havoc across the house, which contains a pool, spa, gym, cinema and wine room.
Iya Patarkatsishvili, the daughter of a Georgian billionaire, and her husband Yevhen Hunyak bought the house in May 2019 from William Woodward-Fisher, a surveyor and residential real estate developer, according to the judgment published Monday.
However, the couple said that once they moved in they found moths on their toothbrushes, towels and wine glasses. The insects also caused damage to their clothes, some of which were thrown away.
At one point, Hunyak said he would kill between 10 and 35 moths every day, while his family and cleaners did the same.
A judge has found in the couple’s favor, ruling that Woodward-Fisher made “fraudulent misrepresentations” and “concealed a serious clothes moth infestation of the insulation in the house” before the sale, according to a press summary of the judgment, published Monday.
Mr Justice Fancourt ruled that Woodward-Fisher had falsely answered three queries before selling the house, including by saying that he didn’t know of any vermin infestation or of any hidden defect in the property.
According to the judgment, Woodward-Fisher’s wife had noticed a problem with clothes moths (Tineola Bisselliella) in early 2018 after new insulation was installed as part of major building works. The help of extermination specialists was enlisted to deal with the problem. She then forwarded some of these emails about the infestation to her husband Woodward-Fisher, the judgment said.
Fancourt noted in his judgment that he didn’t think Woodward-Fisher was “consciously trying to deceive the Claimants. He simply wanted to sell the house and move on.”
As well as granting Patarkatsishvili and Hunyak most of their money back, minus an amount to take into account the period they lived there, Fancourt also awarded them “substantial damages” and all the costs they incurred trying to get rid of the moths.