Japanese Knotweed in neighbours garden

CitizenX

Apologies for a long post .
A neighbouring property has been empty and neglected since we moved in 13 years ago. We have a 200ft long garden and the garden of this property runs parallel to ours for around 150ft ( the first 50ft we border with another neighbour). The garden is around 40ft wide and overgrown with trees , brambles , ivy ( which has destroyed a significant number of fence panels) and worst of all, Japanese knotweed which is close to 10ft in places and overhangs our garden.
We finally lost patience two years ago and reported the issue to the council who served a notice on the owner. The owner then managed to renegotiate the deadlines for clearance 3 times before finally cutting down 1 laylandii which had grown taller than the houses ( three storey houses that is). Since then he has done nothing, even though the notice required him cut all trees to 12ft, remove debris and maintain the garden and control the knotweed.

The owner then stopped acknowledging mail from the council and they took him to court, last September. He didn’t show up, they fined him. Still nothing was done.
And yet, I received an email from the council this week stating that they had made a site visit and the owner ‘ had clearly done the required work and the case was closed.’
I disputed this, but it is clearly a case of the council deciding the case was more hassle than it was worth and dumping it.
Anyway, the main problem is that we would like to sell our house but the issue of the neglect, unmanaged trees and uncontrolled knotweed in this garden is a huge problem. As it is private land it doesn’t fall under the legislation that compels the owner to clear it of knotweed, and yet the presence of knotweed in a neglected garden is having an adverse affect on neighbouring properties.
[FONT=&quot]So what can we do? Our house has been rendered potentially un-saleable due to a neighbours failure to maintain their property, the council have failed to enforce the notice they served on the owner – What can we do ? Who do we turn to for help?[/FONT]

hazyjo

Go 'higher up' at the Council?

The 'neighbour dispute' won't help sell your house either, so I suggest you really do need some sort of resolution. (Which is basically what you know already, sorry!) An ongoing dispute is potentially enough in itself to lose a buyer.

Maybe have a play on google - see what actual laws/legislations are in place for it now (I think there are some) and start quoting things at the Council.

It desperately needs sorting. Most on here would advise anyone against buying a house next to one with it - can take years to clear. How utterly frustrating for you. I really do sympathise...

Jx

missile

If it were me, I would get his garden cleared and his property tidied at my own cost.

It may seem unfair that you bear the cost for his neglect, but I would suggest that it will be less hassle than trying to get owner to take action. Maybe cheaper than taking legal action or suffering the hit on the sale of your own property.

Alternatively employ a solicitor, maybe you have legal cover as part of your house insurance?

RAS

Hi

JK is quite easy to sort out if you leave it to grow over the summer and then hit it with glysophate in August, injected into the cut remains of the stems.

Can you get in the garden?

CitizenX

Thank you all for your responses. I was starting to think that I was being unreasonable in expecting my neighbour to maintain his property.

We can get in the garden but the area covered by the knotweed is extensive. We have thought of cutting the very tall trees down ourselves but it is a lot of work. We have also thought of just pouring roundup over the fence, but this would be still be quite expensive ( 150ft boundary) - and not solve the problem as the knotweed is so extensive. It really is a quite large garden and needs a specialist contractor in to clear it, which is why, I believe, the council are closing the file ( too expensive for them to do), and if I complain again , it means starting the whole process from the begining again.

I suppose, what i really want to know is, can I sue the owner for the detrimental affect his neglect has had on my property?

I intend to have a valuation in the spring because we really need to know where we stand. I just can't belive the owner of this property is getting away this. It's so unfair.

Mojisola

CitizenX wrote: »

I suppose, what i really want to know is, can I sue the owner for the detrimental affect his neglect has had on my property?

Probably - but it's likely to be cheaper and quicker (although grossly unfair) to pay to get it done yourself.

Blackpool_Saver

Seek permission to do it first

The_big1

CitizenX wrote: »

Apologies for a long post .
A neighbouring property has been empty and neglected since we moved in 13 years ago. We have a 200ft long garden and the garden of this property runs parallel to ours for around 150ft ( the first 50ft we border with another neighbour). The garden is around 40ft wide and overgrown with trees , brambles , ivy ( which has destroyed a significant number of fence panels) and worst of all, Japanese knotweed which is close to 10ft in places and overhangs our garden.
We finally lost patience two years ago and reported the issue to the council who served a notice on the owner. The owner then managed to renegotiate the deadlines for clearance 3 times before finally cutting down 1 laylandii which had grown taller than the houses ( three storey houses that is). Since then he has done nothing, even though the notice required him cut all trees to 12ft, remove debris and maintain the garden and control the knotweed.

The owner then stopped acknowledging mail from the council and they took him to court, last September. He didn’t show up, they fined him. Still nothing was done.
And yet, I received an email from the council this week stating that they had made a site visit and the owner ‘ had clearly done the required work and the case was closed.’
I disputed this, but it is clearly a case of the council deciding the case was more hassle than it was worth and dumping it.
Anyway, the main problem is that we would like to sell our house but the issue of the neglect, unmanaged trees and uncontrolled knotweed in this garden is a huge problem. As it is private land it doesn’t fall under the legislation that compels the owner to clear it of knotweed, and yet the presence of knotweed in a neglected garden is having an adverse affect on neighbouring properties.
[FONT=&quot]So what can we do? Our house has been rendered potentially un-saleable due to a neighbours failure to maintain their property, the council have failed to enforce the notice they served on the owner – What can we do ? Who do we turn to for help?[/FONT]

Is it not worth you jumping over the wall and clearing it yourself?

BigAunty

Contact your MP about your local council's failure to tackle the issue and premature closing of the case.

moneyistooshorttomention

I hope you manage to solve this.

It may be a cheaper route for you to pay his bill to deal with his problem - as in you employing his contractors for him.

Of course, only you know how reasonable (or otherwise) he is and someone who lets their garden go like that is, by definition, highly unreasonable and more than a little stupid. This being the case, he may refuse you permission to undertake his work for him and you may start wondering about leaping over the fence.

As far as I can make out, if he roused himself out of his torpor enough to have a go at you for doing that I think it counts as "criminal damage" and carries a maximum fine of £5,000 and, of course, none of us on here could possibly advocate such a course of action.

It would be as well to check all your options out thoroughly all round as to what to do.

I would imagine your first port of call would be the legal insurance add-on you have on your house, as to whether you could bring a legal claim against him for damaging your house saleability. Errrrm....you DO have legal insurance do you?

EDIT: just had a thought....isnt there a Local Government Ombudsman that its possible to go to if a local Council isnt doing their job properly? My memory may be deceiving me on that, but I've got an idea there is such a thing ...

CitizenX

RE; doing it ourselves.

It's quite a big garden 150ft x 40ft ( wider in places) . It would be quite a job for us to do, personally. We would have to hire contractors to do it - which is what he was supposed to do but hasn't.

If it was a small patch I would do it, but the stuff is actually pushing the boundary fence over in places.

It seems morally wrong to me that the owner can just be so wilfully neglectful and get away with it, while we take a financial hit.