<\/p>\n

A wealthy couple have won their High Court battle to return a \u00a332.5million London mansion after discovering it was “infested by millions of moths”.<\/p>\n

Iya Patarkatsishvili and Dr Yevhen Hunyak sued property developer William Woodward-Fisher for failing to disclose a severe moth infestation in the luxury home in Notting Hill.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

The couple purchased the early Victorian property in May 2019, complete with pool, spa, gym, wine room, library and cinema.<\/p>\n

Justice Fancourt ruled today that Woodward-Fisher had given “false” answers about the state of Horbury Villa and failed to honestly disclose the “serious infestation” of moths.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

The ruling allows the couple to hand back the property and receive most of their money back, plus damages.<\/p>\n

Just days after moving in, Patarkatsishvili spotted the first moth, telling her partner “there’s a moth flying around here”.<\/p>\n

The situation quickly escalated, with the family forced to swat up to 100 moths daily.<\/p>\n

Hunyak told the High Court the insects landed on their toothbrushes, cutlery and plates of food.<\/p>\n

MORE LIKE THIS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
• Maxine Peake in standoff with neighbours over plans to convert \u00a31m country home into a studio<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
• Neighbour row erupts after homeowner complains that sauna \u2018ruins’ scenic view<\/a><\/li>\n
• Man smacks himself in face with police baton during ‘gun-wielding’ neighbour row<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  <\/h3>\n

  <\/p>\n

  <\/div>\n

  <\/h3>\n

  <\/p>\n

  The couple even had to tip away glasses of wine after finding moths floating in them.<\/p>\n

  The infestation was so severe that 400 traps had to be installed throughout the house.<\/p>\n

  Even after intensive sprays and expert treatment, Dr Hunyak still maintains a daily kill count of up to 35 moths.<\/p>\n

  The source of the infestation was traced to moths nesting in wool insulation behind walls and ceilings.<\/p>\n

  The judge found that while Woodward-Fisher had not deliberately tried to deceive the buyers, he “simply wanted to sell the house and move on”.<\/p>\n

  Justice Fancourt said the seller knew disclosure would likely cause the sale to “go off”, leaving him needing to move out and complete expensive works.<\/p>\n

  The court heard that pest control company Environ had warned before the sale that removing all affected insulation was “the only way properly to deal with the problem”.<\/p>\n

  This would have required a four to six-month project of works, the judge noted.<\/p>\n

  <\/h3>\n

  <\/p>\n

  <\/div>\n

  <\/h3>\n

  <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  <\/h3>\n

  <\/p>\n

  <\/div>\n

  <\/h3>\n

  <\/p>\n

  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”, Justice Fancourt concluded.<\/p>\n

  Under the ruling, Woodward-Fisher must refund the \u00a332.5m purchase price, though this will be reduced by about \u00a36m to account for the couple’s use of the property.<\/p>\n

  The couple will receive approximately \u00a34m in additional damages related to the infestation.<\/p>\n

  This includes \u00a33.7m to cover their Stamp Duty payment and \u00a315,000 for ruined clothes.<\/p>\n

  The total payout amounts to around \u00a330m.<\/p>\n

  Woodward-Fisher will now need to sell the property again to pay back the money owed to the couple.<\/p>\n

  The judge dismissed concerns that the ruling would force all sellers to disclose minor moth issues, stating this case involved “an infestation of extreme proportions…amounting to millions of moths”.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A wealthy couple have won their High Court battle to return a \u00a332.5million London mansion after discovering it was “infested<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":47368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-150x150.jpeg","medium":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-300x168.jpeg","medium_large":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-768x431.jpeg","large":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM.jpeg","1536x1536":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM.jpeg","2048x2048":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM.jpeg","colormag-highlighted-post":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-392x272.jpeg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-390x205.jpeg","colormag-featured-post-small":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-130x90.jpeg","colormag-featured-image":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-800x445.jpeg","colormag-default-news":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-150x150.jpeg","colormag-featured-image-large":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM.jpeg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-980x480.jpeg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-600x417.jpeg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-285x450.jpeg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-575x198.jpeg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":false,"avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"A wealthy couple have won their High Court battle to return a \u00a332.5million London mansion after discovering it was “infested","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Uncategorized"],"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM.jpeg",980,550,false],"medium":["http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-300x168.jpeg",300,168,true],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/neighbours-at-war-harassment-charges-dropped-against-couple-after-11-year-row-wcbrEM-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/author\/"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/europenews.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}