Getting a mortgage on homes where invasive weeds such as Japanese knotweed are present could be a problem if the weeds are not properly treated. So why does this pretty plant cause so much trouble and what can you do about it?
It takes ages to find the home of your dreams, and sometimes even longer to get a mortgage for it. All sorts of issues stand in the way, not least your finance and credit histories, but what if your chances of getting a mortgage were scuppered because of a plant, and one that’s not even native to British shores?
Welcome to the weird world of Japanese knotweed. It’s a highly invasive species that can easily cause mortgage providers to turn down an application until this entrenched beast is eradicated from the property — a task that’s almost impossible to do on your own.
It’s the nightmare scenario being experienced up and down the UK, as people can’t get their hands on the property they want and owners can’t sell their properties, even seeing a drastic fall in their value at times.
Many people naturally wonder how it’s possible that a property can be ravaged by a mere weed. ‘Just spray it with weed-killer or dig it right out of the ground’, they might think. But Japanese knotweed is one plant that doesn’t give up easily, putting up an almighty fight before the battle is won. Along the way, it can cause all sorts of structural and legal issues that can create enormous headaches for buyers and sellers alike.
How did we get into this creepy Japanese knotweed situation?
To find out how we ended up with the enormous problem of Japanese knotweed, we have to cast our minds back to Victorian England. Way back then, in the early 1800s, a plant was brought in from the Orient – from Japan, to be precise – and botanical gardens and those in high society went wild for it. They adored its dainty, heart-shaped leaves and pretty, off-white flowers. Until, that is, the plant went wild on them and started growing out of control.
Japanese knotweed is, in fact, one of the fastest growers in the plant world. It can shoot up by as much as 20cm a day and, if left untamed, can overrun entire gardens and properties. The Victorians cast their plants onto the rubbish heaps and they went on to grow unchecked all over the UK, resulting in the massive problem we have today.
Such is the scale of the problem (get a visual idea at the PlantTracker site) that it can be almost impossible to sell a property, even if Japanese knotweed is not growing on it but is nearby – as one woman in Wales recently discovered. The sale fell through when the buyer’s mortgage provider would not approve the application because of the weed nearby.
A growing concern
“Mortgage lenders will normally require evidence of treatment that will eradicate the plant as a condition of lending if knotweed is present on or near the site of a property,” says the Council of Mortgage Lenders (now part of UK Finance, the financial services trade body).
So just what are the Japanese knotweed solutions to mortgage dilemmas? Many people try and get rid of it on their own, only to discover much later, after spending lots of cash, that the problem persists.
Japanese knotweed is dormant during the winter, then all over Britain as we enter spring and the growing season begins, it starts to wake up. The difficulty for homeowners attempting to kill it off is the root system. It’s deep and extensive, so simply cutting down what’s above ground won’t do much, as the roots will keep sending up new shoots.
Many people have found to their exasperation that even digging the weed out of the ground won’t work. This is because if even a small part of the roots remains in the ground, it will start growing once more.
Faced with the prospect of an imminent house sale or application for a mortgage, there’s only one thing for it: call in the pros. Professional Japanese knotweed eradication firms have access to powerful herbicides not available to the public, and they can also carry out specialised dig-outs of the infested area.
Equally importantly, the top Japanese knotweed removal firms in the UK today will provide a solid, insurance-backed guarantee for their work. It’s the kind of peace of mind homeowners and potential new-home buyers need.
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