Daughter of Georgian multi-billionaire sues for over £36million after dream London mansion was infested with millions of moths who ate her expensive clothes and wine
A Georgian billionaires daughter is suing for more than £36million over complaints her mansion was infested by moths devouring her expensive clothes and wine.
A Georgian billionaires daughter is suing for more than £36million over complaints her mansion was infested by moths devouring her expensive clothes and wine.
Iya Patarkatsishvili bought the property in Notting Hill, west London, with her husband in May 2019 - spending £32.5million on the early Victorian pile.
The home boasts a pool and spa, gym, wine room, library and cinema, as well as a snoring room specially kitted out to guarantee a peaceful nights sleep.
But a few days after she and her dentist husband Dr Yevhen Hunyak moved in, Ms Patarkatsishvili spotted the first signs of what she described as an infestation.
That has now sparked a multi-million-pound claim against the homes seller, William Woodward-Fisher, which has reached Londons High Court.
Iya Patarkatsishvili bought a home in Notting Hill, west London, with her husband Dr Yevhen Hunyak in May 2019 - they are now suing over a moth infestation
The couple bought the property from William Woodward-Fisher, pictured here outside the High Court in London
The property in Londons Notting Hill district boasts a pool and spa, gym, wine room, library and cinema, as well as a snoring room kitted out to guarantee a peaceful nights sleep
Dr Hunyak told the court that the moth plague hit a point where insects were landing on the couple and their two childrens toothbrushes, cutlery and plates of food.
He also says he had to tip away glasses of wine after finding moths floating in them.
The couples barrister John McGhee KC said Dr Hunyak ended up having to swat away about 100 moths a day to stay on top of the problem.
Even now, after intensive sprays and expert treatment, he still maintains a daily kill count of up to 35, Mr McGhee told the court.
The couple say the source of the moth scourge is the destructive insects nesting in the wool insulation behind walls and ceilings.
They are suing Mr Woodward-Fisher, 68, a high-end property developer and former champion rower.
They say he was either guilty of fraudulent misrepresention or negligent in failing to disclose previous moth issues when answering pre-sale enquiries about the possiblity of vermin in the house.
The payout claimed would include Mr Woodward-Fisher buying back the property and compensating them for all expenses and inconvenience caused by the moth menace, a total of more than £36million.
But Mr Woodward-Fisher denies 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.
He also says the wealthy couples valuation of how much it would cost to remedy the problem is hugely overblown.
His KC, Jonathan Seitler, said he had been honest when dealing with the enquiry about possible previous vermin infestation, having told his solicitor they had experienced problems with moths but were assured that moths were not vermin and therefore not relevant to this enquiry.
Iya Patarkatsishvili is the 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
Part of the legal debate in the case turns on a question of wide importance around whether moths really are vermin and therefore have to be included in the enquiry form answer.
The court heard that Mr Woodward-Fisher, who formerly competed for Great Britain as a rower, bought the site in 2011 and lived there with his 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 Dr Hunyak, 50, and 41-year-old Ms Patarkatsishvili in 2019.
Dr Hunyak is a paediatric dentist who practices in Chelsea, while his wife is the 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.
Prior to buying, they or their staff visited the mansion - which has seven bathrooms, a swimming pool, spa, cinema and gym in a newly formed double basement - on at least 11 separate occasions, the court was told.
But despite their careful inspection, the couple say they were dismayed when they were hit with what one insect specialist called an infestation of extreme proportions*amounting to millions of moths in their deluxe house.
Mr McGhee said: This was far more extreme than an ordinary domestic experience of moths.
Moths were flying around at night whenever someone was using a screen, clothes had to be packed in hermetic bags, carpets and furniture were damaged, numerous items of clothes were eaten, moths got in wine and food, and on cutlery and toothbrushes.
Dr Hunyak and his wife say the insects destroyed their clothes, causing £50,000 worth of damage, and claim it would cost almost £10million to get rid of the moths by replacing all the woollen insulation in the building.
Outling his case, Mr McGhee told Mr Justice Fancourt: The presence and cause of the infestation was well known to Mr Woodward-Fisher.
Dr Yevhen Hunyak, pictured here outside Londons High Court, is a paediatric dentist who practices in Chelsea, west London
He is an experienced property developer and had extensively redeveloped the property in 2012-13 before living in it as his family home.
During those works he and his wife had installed woollen insulation in the walls, that insulation was a food source for moth larvae and became infested with them, and by 2018 they were suffering serious problems with moths, which required frequent treatments.
The swarming insects caused major upheavals for Mr Woodward-Fisher and his family, the KC said - at one point forcing the family to check into a hotel and leave their dog elsewhere to clear the way for a major spray.
The lawyer added: The fact that he was willing to tolerate this level of disruption further puts the lie to Mr Woodward-Fishers claims that the level of moth activity had not troubled him.
By May 2018, the Woodward-Fishers had decided to sell up, the court heard, and Mr McGhee suggested their move - coming after four highly disruptive sprays of the property - was prompted by the apparent intractability of the moth infestation and the impact dealing with it was having on their use of the property as a home.
Despite this knowledge, when asked by the claimants solicitors in pre-contract enquiries whether the property had ever been affected by a vermin infestation, Mr Woodward-Fisher answered negatively, he said.
In their claim, Dr Hunyak and his wife are asking the judge to reverse the house sale on the basis of alleged fraudulent misrepresention so that they get their £32.5million purchase money back.
They are also claiming compensation for other losses, including £50,000 for moth-shredded clothes and more than £3.7million they paid in stamp duty.
The couple have also presented alternative cases, seeking more than £16million to mark their losses and the diminished value of Horbury Villa, or alternatively about £13million to cover losses and the cost of further works.
Lawyers for the couple accept that a moth-busting project carried out in 2020 has improved the position, but say Dr Hunyak still has to keep busy killing off the pests.
They insist the only sure way to cleanse the property is to rip out all the embedded wool insulation, which could cost about £9.6million.
In their claim, Dr Yevhan Hunyak and Iya Patarkatsishvili are asking a judge to reverse the sale of the property in Notting Hill, west London
However, Mr Woodward-Fisher says that estimate is fantastically high, arguing that the true repair bill would be £162,652.
Challenging the compensation claim, Mr Seitler noted that his client now simply cant afford to re-purchase the property.
He also said that the claimants, while fastidious about moths, have neglected the house which Mr Woodward-Fisher had spent so long restoring.
He said that for long periods the moths were a small-scale Amazon-level problem for Dr Hunyak and his family, with them simply resorting to traps and sprays from the online retailer to zap the marauding insects.
He also claimed the only hard evidence of the claimed £50,000 damage to clothing related to five items, including a pair of tracksuit trousers, a shirt and a suit with a moth-eaten arm.
In the witness box, Dr Hunyak was quizzed by the defence barrister about the scale of the moth scourge.
Mr Seitler said to him: You said that by September 2019 you routinely had moths and found them on toothbrushes, plates, forks and on food - but do you have any photos of these moths?
The millionaire dentist replied: Theyre quite agile. When I see them, I just try and catch them, so I cant take photos.
Mr Seitler said his clients wife Kerry had been bothered by clothes moths in 2018, enlisted pest controllers to snuff out the problem and appeared to have succeeded in their task by July 2018.
The barrister said: At the time of the replies seven months later, there was no visible moth problem,
William Woodward-Fisher, pictured outside Londons High Court with his wife Kerry, has disputed the repair claim put before a judge - calling it fantastically high
Dr Hunyak, seen here outside Londons High Court, has said the moth plague hit a point where insects were landing on the couple, their childrens toothbrushes, cutlery and plates of food
He told the court how Mr Woodward-Fisher insisted that, had he lived alone, he would never have been sufficiently bothered about moths to have sought external help to begin with.
From July 2018 until the Woodward-Fishers moved out in May 2019, the moths ceased to be a problem, said Mr Seitler.
He added: The claimants had around 11 viewings of the property between April 2018 and May 2019 and, despite being fastidious about other matters, such as foul drainage pumps and noise, did not once see a moth.
Nor did the numerous experts they sent in to survey the property for many hours on 21 February 2019.
Dr Hunyak and family associates had taken great pains to test out the property before going through with the purchase, the court heard, although much of their concern focused on possible noise disturbance from a nearby pub and a London Underground line.
In March 2019, staff employed by the family visited Horbury Villa for three hours to assess whether noise from the Central Line was too intrusive, said Mr Seitler.
And they returned four days later for several hours when they insisted on total silence, even requiring that the dishwasher be turned off, before popping back another day with a sound engineer.
He said: The claimants - or individuals on their behalf - viewed the property on eleven or twelve occasions and spent well in excess of fifteen hours in the property before the sale completed, both during the day and at night. At no point did they see any moths.
In March 2019, staff employed by Dr Hunyaks family visited Horbury Villa for three hours to assess whether noise from the Central Line was too intrusive, the High Court heard
Dr Hunyak (pictured outside the High Court) and family associates had taken great pains to test out the property before going through with the purchase, a judge has been told
Criticising the valuation of the compensation bid, Mr Seitler told the judge: Something must have gone wrong with the claimants calculation of its alleged losses.
They say that the remediation works to remove woollen insulation will cost £9,696,290 - approximately the same price as it cost to build the property in the first place, a build which involved demolishing much of the previous site, digging twobasements, and extending the former property by 200 per cent.
He described it as a cost which is 64 times what Mr Hunyak understood it would cost to remove all of the insulation in 2020, a figure of £150,000.
The trial continues, with the judge expected to reserve his decision until a later date.
