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NLJ this week: Court of Appeal decision increases knotweed terrors

28 April 2023
Issue: 8022 / Categories: Legal News , Property , Conveyancing
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Japanese knotweed is a plant on the rampage, scuppering property deals large and small and striking terror into the hearts of conveyancing professionals on a level akin to John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids

In this week’s NLJ, barrister and journalist Veronica Cowan looks at a recent case on the insidious plant, Davies v Bridgend County Borough Council, a claim for diminution of value.

The case is a warning to landowners they could be liable for losses previously considered irrecoverable, where there is a residual diminution in value, treatment has already occurred and there has been encroachment. Cowan writes that the decision ‘has raised the knotweed stakes’. 

Read more on the knotweed nightmare here.

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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