Georgian heiress sues for £36m over ‘moth-infested’ London mansion

The daughter of a Georgian billionaire and her husband who are suing a property seller for £36m over a moth infestation at their Victorian seven-bedroom Notting Hill home have been accused of portraying their home as like “an insect house at a zoo.”

Iya Patarkatsishvili, the daughter of an oligarch, and her husband Dr Yevhen Hunyak, are suing the seller of their luxury London home for not telling them about the moths, which they say ruin their clothes and spoil their wine, and have forced them to install 400 traps around their house.

They want their money back on the £32.5m purchase of the home, plus damages, claiming that they would have to tear their house apart to rid it of the infestation.

But lawyers for seller, William Woodward-Fisher, are fighting the High Court claim and say the moth presence in the house has been blown out of proportion and could be just the “base level” seen in other London houses.

“It is possible when reading some of the evidence in this case to imagine being inside the property like being in an insect house at a zoo,” said his barrister Jonathan Seitler KC.

“However, any given level of moth presence can bother one person whilst not bothering, or even being noticeable to, another.”

Previously, the High Court heard that Mr Woodward-Fisher, 68, 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 Dr Hunyak, 50, and Ms Patarkatsishvili, 41, in 2019.

Dr Hunyak is a pediatric 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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Prior to purchase, 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.”

They claim moths would land on their toothbrushes, that £50,000 worth of clothes were left in tatters and that they sometimes have to throw away wine after finding dead moths floating in glasses.

They are suing, claiming Mr Woodward-Fisher was guilty of negligence or “fraudulent misrepresentation” in not revealing previous moth issues when they asked pre-purchase about any problems with “vermin.”

However, Mr Woodward-Fisher strenuously denies doing anything wrong, pointing out that he told his solicitor that the house had previously had moths, but been told they do not qualify as vermin.

He also said that despite his wife, Kerry, having been bothered by clothes moths in the past, it was not enough to concern him and had in any case been solved by pest controllers by July 2018.

And his barrister Mr Seitler told the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, that moth activity had been overstated and portrayed as like being in an “insect house in a zoo.”

Experiences of moths vary from one person to another, he said, with some people not even noticing them.

The plague of insects allegedly landed on the toothbrushes of the couple and their two children, as well as cutlery and plates of food. The couple also claimed that £50,000 worth of clothes were in tatters.

Pediatric dentist Dr Hunyak, 50, even claimed he was forced to pour away glasses of wine after discovering floating moths inside.

The couple have alleged that the moths are nesting in wool insulation behind the walls and ceilings of their property.

Dr Hunyak said he had installed 400 moth traps around the house to keep on top of the problem and still swats them daily.

They claim Mr Woodward-Fisher, 68, was either guilty of “fraudulent misrepresentation” or negligent in failing to disclose the previous moth issues when answering pre-sale inquiries about “vermin” in the house.

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

The house was extended and remodelled by Mr Woodward-Fisher to about 11,000 sq ft, before it was sold to Dr Hunyak and Ms Patarkatsishvili in 2019.

Prior to purchase, they or their staff visited the mansion on at least 11 separate occasions, the court was told.

But despite their inspection, the couple said they were dismayed when one insect specialist told them it was “an infestation of extreme proportions…amounting to millions of moths.”

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The payout they are claiming would include Mr Woodward-Fisher buying back the house and compensating them for all expenses and inconvenience caused by the infestation.

The court previously heard that the moths in the house could have been caused by thermal insulation installed in the walls and used as food by moth larvae.

An expert for the couple had estimated it would cost nearly £10million to strip the house to its “shell” and root out any lingering pieces of insulation, the court heard.

Mr Woodward-Fisher’s lawyers criticised the £10million claim, adding an expert told them it would only cost £160,000.

Dr Hunyak and Ms Patarkatsishvili want the judge to reverse the house purchase. The former Olympic rower denies misleading the couple and said buying back the house would be “impossible”.

The trial continues.