A leading property lawyer and his wife are locked in a High Court battle with a multi-millionaire over the purchase of a £3.6m home riddled with damp.
In 2010 William Griffiths QC and his wife Angela exchanged contracts on Laughton Manor, which had been on the market for £4.5m. Two years later the Griffiths commissioned a surveyors report which showed that the house was riddled with “rising damp and wet and dry rot” which would cost £600,000 to remedy. They then refused to go through with the sale prompting the vendors, brick tycoon Alan Hardy and his wife Juliet, to sue for breach of contract.
The Griffiths claim that they are protected by a clause in the contract, whereby the QC and his wife promised to pay for the property based on its condition at the time of signing.
Daily Telegraph, 5
