Peter Barnes and his wife had been happily living in their detached property in Brighton for a year when they started to notice green leaves growing inside their conservatory.
They assumed it was grass from their garden but as the plant started to emerge from the walls and floor the couple realised they had a bigger problem on their hands.
Their neighbours had planted bamboo and the trendy weed had blasted its roots underground, growing between the two properties.
After lifting sections of the conservatory floor and removing plaster from the walls they discovered the bamboo had been lurking under its concrete base, inside the cavity walls and extending into the brickwork of the house.
'There was a large stand of bamboo growing next door when we bought the property, but we didn't think anything of it and nothing came up on the survey,' Mr Barnes explained.
