However, with only one week left to complete, a lender rejected the mortgage application after Japanese knotweed was discovered at the rear of the property.
If left untreated, Japanese knotweed can cause physical damage to buildings which may affect the valuation of a property.
Once the plant was professionally treated and the property was certified as being clear, HFBS was approached to close the deal.
The bridging lender gave an advance of £123,000, all within the five-day deadline.
Ian Broadbent, Director at HFBS, said the client had taken a “huge risk” and faced losing the deposit as well as the whole deal.
“Of course, the unnoticed evidence of Japanese knotweed would have always been a deal breaker without the necessary works and insurance to ensure the weed would not reappear,” Ian said.
“However we did advance the higher LTV (loan-to-value) we would normally consider due to the fact the relevant insurance was in place and plans for completed refurbishment to let would take just a few short weeks.
“We had the confidence to fund and we're happy to save the deal within a very tight deadline.”
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, funders normally require evidence of treatment as a condition of lending.
While the removal of Japanese knotweed is not compulsory, the government has warned that homeowners could be prosecuted or slapped with a community protection notice for causing a nuisance by allowing it to grow on anyone else’s property.
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