House-hunters issued 'do not buy' warning over problem garden plant that could cost £6500 to remove

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Bamboo might be a nice plant to look at, and may even give your Scottish garden a faintly exotic vibe, but potential property purchasers are being warned against buying houses with a bamboo "infestation".Invasive plant experts at Environet have issued a warning on the potential impact of bamboo on properties, Todays Conveyancer reports.

Bamboo roots are so strong and powerful that they can undermine house foundations and dislodge fencing - but the presence of bamboo doesn't currently have to be declared on a TA6 Property Information Form, unlike Japanese knotweed, a similarly invasive species.Environet say it's had a 50 percent annual increase in enquiries for bamboo removal relating to property transactions in the last six months compared to the same period in 2023 - a huge spike.

The specialists go on to explain that their own own data indicates that around eight percent of homes in the UK are currently directly affected by bamboo - around two million.YouGov research commissioned this year by the firm indicates that nearly a quarter of people (24 percent) would walk away from a property altogether if they knew that bamboo was present, while a third (32 percent) would insist the seller had it removed before the sale went ahead.

A further 26 percent would opt to negotiate a discount on the property price to reflect the cost of having the plant professionally removed themselves, after they move in.New homeowners will definitely want to try and do that negotiation, as the cost of removing a bamboo infestation is seriously eye-watering.