Nuisance, knotweed and diminution in value claims

Davies v Bridgend County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 80

In Davies v Bridgend County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 80, the Court of Appeal held that the claimant was entitled in a nuisance action to recover damages in respect of the diminution in value to his property. This was not a case in which the claimant was seeking to recover pure economic loss. Rather the claim was one to recover in respect of the diminution in the amenity value of his land as a result of the physical encroachment of knotweed from the defendant's land and such loss was held to be recoverable in a nuisance action. The Court of Appeal also dismissed the defendant's submission that the loss was not caused by the nuisance because the claimant had bought the house prior to any breach of duty it had committed. The tort committed by the defendant was held to be a continuing one so that it could not be said that the loss suffered by the claimant had predated the breach of duty and therefore not been caused by the breach.