Japanese knotweed damages property

According to the Telegraph, house sellers have been forced to spend thousands of pounds eradicating Japanese knotweed from their land after finding their homes had become virtually unsellable because potential buyers were being turned down for mortgages.

Lenders claim Japanese knotweed, which is capable of pushing through concrete, poses a risk to the structure and fabric of the building, and so reduces the value of a property.

Mortgage lenders are now beginning to insist that they will approve an application only if the Japanese knotweed on the property is removed and the homeowner obtains a written guarantee from the environmental control company to say it has been eradicated.

Japanese knotweed first escaped into the British countryside in the mid-19th century after being brought over from Japan as an ornamental garden plant.

The plant normally grows in the poor, rocky soils and on the slopes of volcanoes in Japan. Without natural pests and diseases, however, Japanese knotweed has become highly successful in the UK and it is capable of regenerating from just a tiny fragment.

The bamboo-like stems, which grow up to 12 feet tall, can push through concrete and can damage buildings. Japanese knotweed also has an extensive underground root system, called a rhizome, which make it difficult to destroy with herbicides.

This makes Japanese knotweed extremely difficult and expensive to eradicate from an area as the roots often need to be completely dug up and the contaminated soil disposed of. Cheaper herbicide spraying can be used provided the soil is treated.

Japanese knotweed is now so prevalent in the UK that according to official records there is now not a single 6 mile square in the country where it is not present and it is only considered to be absent from the Orkney Islands.

A spokesman for Santander, the country’s biggest mortgage provider through its ownership of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, said:

“Due to the invasive and destructive nature of Japanese Knotweed, if the weed is found in close proximity to the property we would need to assess whether or not a mortgage could be accepted.”

While most people are endeavouring to rid themselves of Japanese knotweed, some beauty product manufacturers are recommending that those of us of a certain age should put it on our faces to control the signs of ageing!  It seems a slight contradiction that Japanese knotweed, which has a reputation as being unpleasant and a financial nuisance, is now being used as a beauty product by Aveda called Inner Light Concealer. Now, it appears, that the plant that causes fractures to the foundations of buildings can also repair the fractures in your face if used as a foundation! Japanese knotweed, claim Aveda, contains resveratrol, which is a phytoalexin, produced naturally by several plants when under attack by pathogens, such as bacteria or fungi.  Several experiments suggest that it triggers mechanisms that counteract ageing-related effects in animals.

We can neither confirm nor deny this; at least until tests among Phlorum staff (who, on hearing this news, have been eagerly smothering themselves with Japanese knotweed rhizome paste) have been completed…