This practical guide covers all the key points for any claims arising from Japanese knotweed and other invasive plants. It explores nuisance claims against all types of defendants, professional negligence claims against surveyors and conveyancers and misrepresentation claims against sellers.

The guide gives a comprehensive approach on all key issues including breach of duty, causation and damages, including diminution in value. The guide considers the legal framework as well as what evidence is required and how to approach expert evidence.

All in all, it is an efficient start-to-finish guide for anyone dealing with Japanese knotweed claims and any other invasive plants claims.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Carter is a barrister at Ropewalk Chambers. He has been consistently ranked as a leading barrister for property law. In the 2021 edition of the Legal 500, he was described as "a particular figure within the team for his specialism in cases relating to Japanese knotweed, having recently appeared in several agenda-setting nuisance, misrepresentation and professional negligence cases around infestations of the invasive species.

Tom acted as sole counsel for the claimant, Mr Williams, in the case of Williams v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd [2019] QB 601, [2018] EWCA Civ 1514. That case established that encroachment of knotweed rhizomes without physical damage is sufficient to establish a nuisance.

Tom acted as sole counsel for the claimant, Mr Davies, in Davies v Bridgend County Borough Council, at trial all the way up to the Supreme Court. In the Court of Appeal's decision in that case, it was held that damages for diminution in value of a property due to the presence of knotweed are not irrecoverable pure economic loss [2023] EWCA Civ 80.

In the Supreme Court's decision in that case, the issue was causation. Something which was said in the judgment of Lord Burrows "has rarely been the focus of attention in cases of the tort of private nuisance" [2024] UKSC 15.

Tom also appeared in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416 which was a knotweed case but had a much wider reaching effect on all civil cases. In that case, the longstanding view from the famous case of Halsey that parties could not be compelled to mediate was held to be obiter and thus no longer applied.