Dreaded Japanese Knotweed

drkippy

Apologies, I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post on - may cross post elsewhere.

I have bought a house recently, we completed on the 11th May. We first viewed the house at the end of Feb, and I reckon we will have been to see it 4 times between those dates. We haven't moved in yet as we are having building & roofing work done.

The house used to be rented out, but think the last tenants left mid Jan ? so the garden has just been left since then. (apologies - hope you are still with me).

The garden was a bit patchy / wastelandy when we first saw it, but when we picked up the keys on the 11th May - I noticed some odd looking weeds (bit like asparagus spears) about the same height as large dandelions, but been round again at the weekend, the weeds are now 4 - 5ft high - 99% sure it's Japanese Knotweed.

I would be amazed if it was a complete coincidence that this weed took root between our survey (23rd March and completeion 11th May), should our surveyor picked up on this (we had a full structural survey) and if so, is there any come back? A figure of £2k ish has been mentioned to get rid of this problem and will take 2 years! I don;t have that sort of money.

I don't want it to spread to neighbours property, but have to wait until next week for someone to come and identify and do a survey - is there anything I can do in the meantime?

Thank you for reading - any advice would be welcomed.

vax2002

Strim the garden would be a start

sammyroser

Where about is the JK?

drkippy

In my back garden - Its a smallish but tall patch - I reckon 2 square meters across?

RAS

Hi

This is pretty easy to get rid of actually.

The important thing is that you must not dig, strim or cut it until August.

Will be back with a link to a previous thread.

RAS

here is a thread where I explain how we cleared a plot of JK - it is now growing veggies and fruit.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3389896

drkippy

Thank you RAS - much appreciated

Davesnave

drkippy wrote: »

In my back garden - Its a smallish but tall patch - I reckon 2 square meters across?

As the garden size & location of the patch aren't disclosed, the person to whom you're responding probably wanted to know how close to the house the JK is.

A good surveyor should be able to recognise JK, even in March, if it's near the house, but not at the opposite end of half an acre!

If the house is under immediate threat, you might well have a claim, but otherwise, since it's not huge, I would keep a low profile and deal with it DIY as RAS suggests. Mortgage companies are not too fond of knotweed!;)

Invalidation

I think youll find your vendor had an obligation to inform you of it.
You could possibly get the sale cancelled or at least have them pay for the clearance. Seek legal advice.
For those that say its easy to get rif of? you need to contact every weedkiller company in the UK as you could be millionaires.
Its a pig to get rid of.

Davesnave

Invalidation wrote: »

For those that say its easy to get rif of? you need to contact every weedkiller company in the UK as you could be millionaires.
Its a pig to get rid of.

Those of us with experience of dealing with persistent weeds know that there's a regime to be followed. We also realise that many people lose patience, or are inconsistent etc, sometimes for very understandable reasons. It's not surprising that the failure rate is high.

So, it might be hard for you, but not necessarily for everyone.

Good point about the vendor's obligations, though. Worth looking into.:)

RAS

Agreed Dave. The National Trust spent ages doing trials in the West Country and Lakes before working out the optimum way to clear it. We have just been following their guidance.

Twit next door keeps pulling it up. So no decent shoot to treat! As a result, there is still some JK there when other areas are clear.

If he just left it alone, it could be massacred in August.

Just to add, it was actually growing in my rhubarb patch and that is now clear because we treated the stems as explained.