Chris Webber, from Squire Patton Boggs, the firm that represented the couple, said they “hope the case will serve as a warning to unscrupulous property developers who might seek to take advantage of buyer beware to sell properties by concealing known defects.”.
But days after the couple moved in, they noticed a problem with clothes moths, which had “caused damage to expensive clothing,” the High Court was told.
The couple had visited the property at least 11 times, with Dr Hunyak telling the court that moths were landing in their children’s toothbrushes.
He was also told the pay the couple £4m in damages for works carried out to deal with the moths, reimbursed stamp duty and around £15,000 for damaged clothes.
He said the seller had not tried to deliberately mislead the couple, but that he had “simply wanted to sell the house and move on”, and hoped the “problem had gone away” because he did not want the sale to fall through.
