Botched attempts at treatment or removal make it considerably more difficult for professionals to completely remove the Japanese Knotweed for you. Trying to find and remove every piece of viable rhizome is very difficult and time consuming, albeit with a difference, to finding and removing all fragments of asbestos that may or may not be in the ground. The big difference being that asbestos does not grow, so usually stays buried out of sight, whereas viable Japanese Knotweed rhizomes are living and will grow to the surface, pretty much irrespective of what is put in its way. Imagine it growing through your asphalt driveways/roads just as you are nearing completion of the build – it would have dire consequences on the salability of the property and in many cases financing.

Where Japanese Knotweed exists, either within the curtilage of a property or on adjoining land, virtually all UK banks and building societies will refuse lending until it is removed and Insurance Backed Guarantees (IBGs) “from a reputable company” are in place.

We know because we receive calls from distressed owners of properties who have usually just lost a buyer due to funding being refused. Please don’t think that funding will never be granted – once an effective and recognized treatment plan is in place and an insurance backed guarantee is in place, the lending should be granted.