In 1988, Justin Sullivan started his professional career as a quantity surveyor in south London. His career progressed and, four years later, he moved to Wimpey (now Taylor Wimpey) to work on large global construction projects across a range of sectors. Two years after that, he founded his own firm that, amongst other things, specialises in super-prime residential London properties and dispute resolution for construction disputes. Mr Sullivan has a high profile in the surveying profession. He has been a delegate to and subsequently a member of the The European Council of Construction Economists since 2008 and has been actively involved with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) since 2004. He has worked himself up through the ranks of the RICS from being a Surrey local association committee member, a member of the RICS south east regional board, a board member of the RICS quantity surveying and construction professional group, and a member of the RICS international governing council. In 2023, he was senior vice president of the RICS and was president elect in 2024. He was elected RICS president in January 2025. He undertakes expert witness work and has been an RICS accredited expert witness since 2013.
In 2011, William Woodward-Fisher (WWF) purchased Horbury Villa, Ladbroke Road, London W11 for £10,400,000. WWF was by training a general practice surveyor, but has made a very successful living by carrying out individual residential property developments and making other investments in real property. One part of his business model was to buy upmarket houses with scope for significant expansion and improvement, carry out the works, and then live in the house for a few years before selling at a large profit and moving on to another such opportunity. He had an office in West London and employed a personal assistant there. Mrs Woodward-Fisher worked for the business too and was closely involved in designing and fitting out the interiors of the properties that WWF redeveloped.
Between 2012 and 2013, WWF and his wife substantially extended and renovated Horbury Villa at a cost of around £10,000,000. The house was more than doubled in size and obtaining planning permission was not easy. In order to gain some environmental points with the planning authority, WWF decided to use types of insultation that contained a large proportion of natural wool. There were two types of insulation used: Thermafleece Ecoroll (“Thermafleece”), which by and large was used in the internal (but not external) walls, and Soundblocker, which was mainly used in the floor voids. Thermafleece contained 75% and Soundblocker about 30% wool content.
In early 2018, Mrs Woodward-Fisher noticed a problem with clothes moths (Tineola bisselliella) in the house, which had caused damage to expensive clothing. As a result, the Woodward-Fishers obtained two quotations from pest control companies, Rentokil and Environ, to deal with the problem. Both visited the house before quoting. Rentokil said in their quotation of 30 January 2018 that it had been confirmed to them “via the builders/architect” that there was lamb’s wool insulation in most ceiling voids, which may have been partially infected prior to installation, with the moths multiplying in the voids since then, and that the only way completely to solve the issue was to remove all the lamb’s wool.
WWF appointed Environ to undertake the necessary work. Environ visited a number of times, starting on 5 March 2018, and did various treatments, including spray treatment of the internal surfaces and space, and heat pod treatment of susceptible clothing. However, the problem did not go away at the end of the initial treatment plan and Environ came back to do more spray treatments. They produced and emailed to Mrs Woodward-Fisher a report on each of their visits, recording what they had done and what they saw, and advising what else should be done.
In May 2018, Environ produced a report in which they opined that the cause of the moth problem was an infestation of moths in the natural insulation in the house. They recommended further treatment but said that the problem with clothes moths would not go away unless all the insulation was removed and replaced with synthetic insulation. A further report dated 25 June 2018 confirmed their conclusion. This was sent to WWF by email on 3 July 2018, if not before. The Woodward-Fishers arranged for a further spray treatment to be done, but did not remove the insulation.
By 2018, Horbury Villa was discreetly on the market with estate agents, Knight Frank and had caught the eye of Iya Patarkatsishvili (the daughter of a Georgian billionaire) and her husband, Dr Yevhen Hunyak. They viewed the property six or seven times between the Spring of 2018 and November 2018. They instructed solicitors Farrer & Co to make an offer to buy the property for £31,500,000. The price was not what WWF had been hoping to achieve, but in February 2019 a sale of the house for £32,500,000 was agreed, subject to contract.
The pre-contract enquiries included the following questions and replies:
Q: 2.1 Has the property ever been affected by woodworm, dry rot or other timber infestation or decay; defects in drainage, water pipes, gas pipes or electrical wiring; damp; Subsidence, landslip or heave; any structural building or drainage defect; vermin infestation; asbestos.
R: The Seller is not aware of any such matters affecting the property since the renovation and extension works were undertaken and completed but has not had the property surveyed for such matters so no warranty can be given in this regard and the buyer must rely on the results of its own survey, inspection and professional advice.
Q: 2.2 Please supply a copy of any report concerning any matter referred to in 2.1 above or otherwise concerning the fabric of the property
R: Save as may have been disclosed in the documentation provided, there are none
Q: 2.3 Is the seller aware of any defects in the property which are not apparent on inspection (due to the presence of furniture, carpets, cupboards etc?)
R: The seller is not aware of any such defects but has not had the property surveyed for any so no warranty can be given in this regard and the buyer must rely on the results of its own survey, inspection and professional advice.
The sale and purchase completed on 2 May 2019. Within days of moving in, the new owners discovered moths in the house and called in various pest control companies to investigate, all of whom discovered a severe moth infestation linked with the woollen insulation. In April 2020, one of the contractors reported that the infestation was an “extremely severe situation” that had “been a problem over years rather than months”. Their report attached photographs showing a severe infestation of moths, moth workings, pupa cases and frass (moth excreta) in samples of insultation.
In September 2020, as a result of enquiries made of local pest control companies, the new owners discovered that Environ had carried out moth treatment work for WWF in 2018. Environ provided them with copies of the reports they had made to Mrs Woodward-Fisher, including the May and June 2018 reports that identified the source of the problem as an infestation of the insulation of the house.
In May 2021, the new owners’ solicitors wrote a letter of claim to WWF, alleging fraudulent misrepresentation. In that letter, they said that they sought rescission of the contract and return of the purchase price, and claimed damages including £3,715,728 in stamp duty, £383,828.89 for the costs of remedial works to the house, £2,350 for damage to clothes, and £891,000 for loss of enjoyment of the house for a period of 6 months and 1 week, while the works were being done. The claim form was issued in December 2021 and the case went to the High Court where it was heard by Mr Justice Fancourt.
The expert witnesses who gave evidence at the trial included an entomologist to assist the court on the subject of moths and two quantity surveyors to assist the court in assessing the cost of the remedial works required to deal with the moth infestation. Iya Patarkatsishvili and Dr Hunyak instructed David Daly BSc, LLM, MRICS, MCIArb, MAE as their surveyor expert and WWF instructed Justin Sullivan BSc QS FRICS FEWI MAE as his surveyor expert. Mr Daly said that the cost of removing and replacing all the wool containing insulation to eradicate the moths was £8,407,919 exclusive of VAT and Mr Sullivan said the cost was £163,652.41 plus £2,500 for fumigation exclusive of VAT. After adjustments during discussions the price of Mr Daly’s scheme was reduced to £7,446,039.54 excluding VAT and Mr Sullivan increased his figure to £204,730.26 excluding VAT.
In a judgment dated 10 February 2025 (shortly after Mr Sullivan became president of the RICS) that made all the regular papers and the wider press, the judge found the case of fraudulent misrepresentation proved and rescinded the contract but, in case it became relevant at a later date – i.e. if his decision is successfully appealed – he went on to consider the cost of undertaking the remedial work. In doing so, he took a pragmatic view as to what remedial works a prudent owner would actually undertake if they were unable to rescind the contract and had to retain the house. In doing so, he criticised Mr Daly for adopting a wholly unrealistic scheme of works and Mr Sullivan for not going far enough with his scheme of works. In paragraph 305 of his judgment, he made some further remarks that have had a profound impact on Mr Sullivan and the wider RICS profession and are a reminder to all those who undertake expert witness work:
“I have no difficulty in preferring the opinions of Mr Daly on the right approach to assessing costs issues to those of Mr Sullivan, though for reasons already given I do not accept his evidence about the appropriate scheme of works. I was unimpressed by Mr Sullivan’s grasp of the matters in issue, which to a considerable degree, I consider, was work that had been done for him by his team, and with the detail of which he was insufficiently familiar. I was unimpressed by his exercise of judgement, which seemed to me to be flawed in many instances, and by his approach to answering questions that were put to him. With one exception (which he later partly withdrew) he was unwilling to make sensible concessions and consider in an open way whether his opinion should be qualified or corrected, and instead he argued with many questions of Mr McCreath and did not answer them or, in some cases, try to answer them. On costs matters, I found Mr Daly to be a sensible and helpful witness, who made appropriate concessions when he realised that he was in error or where there was scope for a range of views. His approach to rates and other costing issues was more persuasive and reliable than Mr Sullivan’s.”
As a result of this paragraph Mr Sullivan referred himself to the RICS Standards and Regulations Board (SRB) to ensure that he had followed all RICS standards and has been replaced by an acting president pending the outcome of the review.
It is not uncommon for surveyors and other professionals to be criticised by judges, but it is difficult to recall such a high profile case that has put both Mr Sullivan and the RICS in the media spotlight. Due process is, of course, essential, but it is clearly in the interests of both, and of the profession as a whole, for the SRB to complete its review as quickly as reasonably possible.
In the meantime, the RICS is currently consulting on an update of its Surveyors acting as expert witnesses Profession Standard. Our Mark Sanders is an experienced expert witness and regularly provides pre-litigation advice and takes expert witness instructions in connection with a range of property and business related disputes and has provided a detailed response to the consultation.
