Japanese Knotweed Ruins Dream Home

A young couples dreams of owning a new home have been dashed by Japanese Knotweed. The brand new house in Hertfordshire which they bought for the tidy sum of £300,000, is now valued at just £80,000 after only 17 months. It seems hard to believe but this a prime example of why mortgage companies are now applying ridiculous covenants on any property where Japanese Knotweed is present.

The problem started just three months after the couple moved in, when strange plants started popping through the newly laid lawn. On closer inspection the shoots turned out to be JK and alarm bells began to ring. They decided to do some research and the aerial surveys showed that the site had been infested with the weed for at least fifteen years. They went back to the builder, but were told that there had been no Knotweed recorded on the site, even though it had started to make it’s way through the floor boards! They now face years of legal wranglings after issuing a claim against they conveyancing solicitor, who left the new build without an NHBC warranty.

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