Residents win Japanese knotweed payout

Four homeowners have won tens of thousands of pounds in a claim over Japanese knotweed, which had been growing on their properties for almost a decade.

The residents, who all live on the same road in Ammanford, Camarthenshire, settled for a combined £42,500 in damages from Network Rail.

Japanese knotweed is toxic, fastspreading and notoriously difficult and expensive to kill. The presence of the plant on a property can take off 10pc from the price and has wiped an estimated £20bn from the value of British houses, according to invasive plant specialist Environet. It can also make a property unsellable, as many lenders are unwilling to offer mortgages on affected homes.

It can often be found close to railways because of its historic and widespread use to support tracks and embankments. In the successful claim against Network Rail, the four properties backed onto the railway line and had infestations growing as high as 2.5m (8.2ft).

Property owners are entitled to make a claim if the plant grows up to a metre onto a piece of land, according to High Street Solicitors, which represented the homeowners. It added that there needs to be visible encroachment onto the homeowner’s land to lodge a claim, and the property itself needs to be within around 7m of the plant to have a strong case. The invasive pest is expected to have a bumper year and “come back even stronger” this summer after a frosty April.