If you regularly deal with nuisance claims, the above heading tells you all that you need to know.
A short reminder is that in Davies v Bridgend County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 80 the Court of Appeal held that (1) residual diminution in property value after treatment of Japanese knotweed is potentially recoverable, rather than pure economic loss (i.e. Williams & Waistell v Network Rail [2019] QB 601 was clarified); and also (2) it does not matter that knotweed rhizomes had spread to a claimant’s land before the defendant was in breach of duty: loss (i.e. residual diminution in value following treatment) at the end of a period of continuing nuisance is treated as caused by the nuisance regardless of any similar loss that pre-dated the nuisance.
Matthew White represented the defendant in the Court of Appeal.
You can view the full case summary here on the Court of Appeal decision.
The second of the above points, concerning whether a defendant is properly held responsible for residual diminution in value when a claimant’s property had already been affected by (value diminished by) Japanese knotweed before breach, will be considered by the Supreme Court.
It will be the third decision by the Court concerning nuisance in recent times, after Fearn v Board & Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4 (visual intrusion into the claimants’ flats opposite the Tate Modern viewing platform held to constitute a nuisance) and Jalla v Shell [2023] UKSC 16 (oil spill was a one-off event rather than a nuisance that continued until the claimants’ land had been cleaned up).
Matthew advises and deals with claims relating to the spread of Japanese knotweed for defendants, particularly local authorities, housing associations, and bodies with large land holdings. Other members of St John’s Chambers deal with claims relating to the spread of Japanese knotweed for claimants and defendants. Our Real Estate team is pre-eminent in the area of real estate litigation on the Western Circuit and in Wales, and deals with all areas of real estate law. Visit here for more details.
If you would like to instruct Matthew on any related matter, please contact his clerks here.