Woman’s £100k court bill after knotweed fight
AWOMAN who sued a retired neighbour claiming Japanese knotweed growing through their fence knocked £150,000 off the value of her £1.1million house faces a £100,000 legal bill after losing the court case.
Charron Ishmael said ex-NHS consultant Dr Sheila Clark knew her garden had the rampant weed for years but failed to remove it.The plant is hard to destroy and its canes can reach 7ft high.
But Mrs Ishmael had her case thrown out at Central London County
Court after Dr Clark said she did not see the knotweed before 2017 as she was “not interested in gardening”.
Recorder Grahame Aldous KC ordered Mrs Ishmael, 50, to pay lawyers’ costs estimated at more than £100,000.
She had said the first she knew of knotweed at the houses in Bunning Way, Islington, north London, was when a neighbour pointed out canes higher than the fence in Dr Clark’s endof-terrace garden. It was
“out of control” and eventually “came through my fencing”.
Dr Clark, 72, who admitted knowing of the infestation from summer 2017, had specialists treat the area and the weeds were removed the next year. But Mrs Ishmael claimed an 11-month delay let roots grow into her garden. She paid thousands of pounds to have it treated and sold her house for £150,000 less than its previous £1.1million valuation.
Dr Clark said that she did not know of the knotweed until it was pointed out and she immediately took steps to have experts try to eradicate it.
She had a very busy job and “no interest” in gardening, only twice a year pulling up weeds and spraying weedkiller between paving slabs.
Told that non-expert use of a standard weedkiller may have made knotweed even harder to treat, she replied that she was not an expert: “I was a doctor of medicine. I’m just not interested in gardening, even after such a devastating thing. I wish I had bought a flat and not a four-bedroom house.”
Recorder Aldous said that he had found Dr Clark to be a “careful witness who was trying to assist me,” while Mrs Ishmael had been “obstructive” in the witness box.
He said an independent expert concluded the knotweed had also been in Mrs Ishmael’s garden before 2017.
Dismissing the claim, he ordered Mrs Ishmael to pay Dr Clark’s lawyers’ bills estimated at £83,000, with £65,000 payable up front, plus her own costs.