The new president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors was two months into the job when he stepped aside. His stepping aside came as the result of his involvement in a legal battle over a £32m moth-infested mansion.
An independent regulatory review into the High Court judgment handed down last month has been requested by Justin Sullivan from the RICS' Standards and Regulation Board. He has referred himself to the Board.
Sullivan referred himslef after he took the stand as an expert witness for the sellers of a luxury Notting Hill mansion. Iya Patarkatsishvili and Yevhen Hunyak, the buyers of the Notting Hill mansion, found it to be infested. An insect specialist had described the infestation as one with an "extreme proportion" of moths.
In February, a judge at the High Court decided that the purchasers were owed a complete repayment because the vendor, William Woodward-Fisher, had not revealed the presence of the infestation. Mr. Woodward-Fisher has now been served with a final court bill totaling £36.5 million.
The judge, Mr. Justice Fancourt, criticized Sullivan for providing evidence that was "flawed" and said that Sullivan was "unwilling to make sensible concessions."
The judge said: "I was unimpressed by Mr Sullivan's grip on the matters in issue, which I consider to a considerable degree to be work done for him by his team, and with the detail of which he was insufficiently familiar. His exercise of judgment did not impress me; it seemed to be flawed in many instances. And his approach to answering the questions that were put to him also seemed to me to be not quite righ't.
The judgment will be rendered by the RICS when it has completed its review and consists of looking at some stuff. Some stuff that is looked at is already out in public, and the remainder is relevant evidence the RICS has ginned up in the process of conducting ongoing inquiries. More or less. This is what the RICS said.
If there is sufficient evidence to suggest that further action is required, a proper investigation will be opened. The investigation will follow the regulatory framework of the RICS and will work to determine exactly what went wrong, if anything did go wrong.
An individual representing the RICS stated: "Nick Maclean has assumed the role of acting president of RICS, but only on a temporary basis. His predecessor, Justin Sullivan, became embroiled in High Court proceedings as an expert witness in the case of Iya Patarkatsishvili & Anor v William Woodward-Fisher. Sullivan's expert testimony created a situation that called into question the impartiality of RICS. Both cases are serious enough and have gone on long enough that RICS had to tell the public something about them.
In 2012, Woodward Fisher bought the building for £10.4m. They then put in an additional £10m to refurbish it, making the rooms much more habitable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Institution_of_Chartered_Surveyors
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