Last week Mortgage Solutions reported on how the aggressive weed was forcing many mortgage offers to be delayed or withdrawn. Many brokers were critical of lenders who did not have a defined policy for properties affected by knotweed.
To examine the scale of the problem, the latest Mortgage Solutions People’s Poll asked brokers if the emergence of Japanese knotweed had affected cases.
The poll found that more than a quarter of brokers (28%) had worked on a case affected by the weed and had resulted in a lender withdrawing a mortgage offer.
A further 39% of respondents said that they had arranged mortgages for homes affected by Japanese knotweed but that the lender proceeded with the case after a short delay.
A third of brokers said they had yet to see the weed affect any cases.
Coreco’s Andrew Montlake said that Japanese knotweed was something all brokers should be aware of. “The problem is it is often not identified until the valuer comes around,” he said.
“If it comes up at a valuation then it is quite difficult to do anything. It is a question of finding out if the owner is aware of it and has started treatment.”
