Spring watch – why catching knotweed early will avoid a nasty surprise!
As part of our ‘spring-watch’ campaign this blog demonstrates real-world consequences of ignoring invasive weeds such as Japanese knotweed, including legal action, mortgage rejections, and property damage – all of which come with a price tag.
A spring survivor
Knotweed is notorious for its vigorous growth, especially in springtime when it awakens from its winter dormancy as tiny easily missed shoots growing among the ground foliage or grass. Suddenly these shoots become tall stems with a mass of leaves. It’s worth remembering that knotweed can grow up to 10cm a day in optimum growing conditions. The image above shows knotweed recovering from a spring frost that would have killed off many other plants – but here we see how robust a plant knotweed is.
The perils of ignoring knotweed
As knotweed experts we always recommend catching it early on so that a treatment plan can be put in place for the rest of the year, or it can be more easily removed through excavation. So let’s look at why this is so important and 4 real life consequences of ignoring knotweed at this time of year for homeowners and commercial businesses alike.
1. Allowing knotweed to spread: While having knotweed on your property isn’t illegal, causing it to spread onto other properties or into the wild is an offense under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Consequences: Neighbours can pursue a claim for the reduction in their property’s value caused by knotweed spreading from your property. This can be a time consuming and costly event that could have been avoided. In the image above we can see how easily knotweed can grow through gaps and weak areas of buildings to invade what’s on the other side. Bet the neighbour’s didn’t see this coming!
2. Ignoring knotweed on your property: It may be tempting to think that if knotweed is not near a property boundary it can just be left alone.
Consequences: You could face legal action in the civil courts if knotweed spreads from your property and causes damage or a nuisance to another, and you could be fined up to £5,000 and even face imprisonment for up to 2 years for causing knotweed to spread. Excavation can be carried out on even the smallest of gardens, and the costs are lower if the knotweed is caught early.
3. Ignoring knotweed on development sites: Often a knotweed survey is not planned in as part of a pre-purchase or pre-development build.
Consequences: If works start and knotweed is later found the project goes on immediate hold, causing project delays and financial stress. Not only that but if it’s not caught in time knotweed can grow through asphalt, concrete, and other hard surfaces, potentially damaging houses and buildings, paths, roads, infrastructure and foundations. As the image above shows knotweed will find a way – in this case it’s growing up through the drainage system on a new build.
4. Knowing where knotweed can grow: Believing that places such as network highways and railways are not desirable environments for knotweed.
Consequences: Knotweed will grow anywhere – it knows no boundaries. So being complacent could have serious consequences, when networks grind to a halt whilst the plant is removed. In the image above our teams are navigating the issues of working next to a major motorway to remove knotweed that was growing underneath it.
Conclusion
So there we have it – in a nutshell, ignoring knotweed can lead to costly legal fees, fines (or imprisonment) and put significant financial stress on projects.
Now for the good news!
As the case studies show, controlling or completely getting rid of knotweed is not as daunting as you may think when you have the right team of experts to guide you through the process. Whether it’s a single stand of knotweed at the bottom your garden, or a dense canopy covering a railway siding, knotweed can be controlled and removed.
Get in touch if you have any questions for our knotweed experts, or you’re starting a spring development project.
