Japanese knotweed is a plant on the rampage, scuppering property deals large and small and striking terror into the hearts of conveyancing professionals on a level akin to John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.
In this week’s NLJ, barrister and journalist Veronica Cowan looks at a recent case on the insidious plant, Davies v Bridgend County Borough Council, a claim for diminution of value.
The case is a warning to landowners they could be liable for losses previously considered irrecoverable, where there is a residual diminution in value, treatment has already occurred and there has been encroachment. Cowan writes that the decision ‘has raised the knotweed stakes’.
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