valuation under offer price by a lot!

cleofish

Hi everyone as the title suggests we have had a valuation back on a house that we offered 110,000 on. The valuation came back as 102,000!

We also had a survey carried out on the property and its brought up roof needs recovering, damp in front room, cavity wall needs doing and also a possible future problem of japanese knotweed, its ok now and within tolerance now but might be a problem in the future.

I understand that surveys bring up a lot of stuff and a lot of advisory things


Whatever happens its looking like our lender wont offer us more than the 102, 000 anyway and if we want it we will need to negotiate down to 102, 000, but in terms of the results from the survey are they normally overly cautious or is this really a bad survey?
Still waiting on written survey to come through but spoke to surveyor this morning on the phone.

Any advice greatly received!

monty-doggy

Japanese knotweed can be horrendous, I'd run a mile and think you had a lucky escape!
However if your hearts still in it, you need to find out where it is, what's being done to control it, who's responsibility it is etc.

You are not allowed to remove it yourself there is very strict laws on it.

Read the below articles.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/japanese_knotweed.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052337/Hertfordshire-couple-demolish-300k-home-rid-Japanese-knotweed.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/sep/08/japanese-knotweed-house-sale

Ivana_Tinkle

monty-doggy wrote: »

You are not allowed to remove it yourself there is very strict laws on it.

Of course you can treat it yourself. JK is a pain, but there aren't "strict rules" about it and it's not difficult to treat, just time-consuming and has to be done over several years.

Richard_Watters

If the valuation has come back at £102,000 then why would you want to pay more than this? It's easy enough to justify to the vendor why your offer is now £102,000 (maximum).

They would be daft not to accept this. There's a good chance that if they agree another sale at a higher price the same will happen again (it might be the same surveyor, or another surveyor will pick up the same defects, and surveyors share information).

If you really want the house and are prepared (and can afford) to spend money putting these defects right, offer £102,000.

If you value your time and don't want to have to stick several £000's into the property, offer less than £102,000.

monty-doggy

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

Of course you can treat it yourself. JK is a pain, but there aren't "strict rules" about it and it's not difficult to treat, just time-consuming and has to be done over several years.

There certainly are strict rules, like how you can treat it and where it can be disposed of.

JK & The Law


In the UK there are two main pieces of legislation that cover Japanese Knotweed. These are shown below:
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981


Schedule 9, Section 14 of the Act, it is an offence to plant or otherwise cause the species to grow in the wild.

Section 14(2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 states that “if any person plants or otherwise causes to grow in the wild any plant which is included in Part 2 of Schedule 9, he shall be guilty of an offence”. (Japanese knotweed is a Schedule 9 listed plant).

Environmental Protection Act 1990


Japanese Knotweed is classed as ‘controlled waste’ and as such must be disposed of safely at a licensed landfill site according to the Environmental Protection Act (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991. Soil containing rhizome material can be regarded as contaminated and, if taken off a site, must be disposed of at a suitably licensed landfill site and buried to a depth of at least 5 metres.

According to the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 controlled waste, must be disposed of at appropriately licensed landfills. Japanese knotweed plant material and/or any knotweed contaminated soil which you discard, intend to discard or are required to discharge is likely to be classified as controlled waste.

Section 34 of the EPA imposes a duty of care on persons who produce, import, dispose of, or treat controlled wastes. The movement off site of controlled waste must be covered by a waste transfer notes. The transfer notes must be completed and signed, giving a written description of the waste and a waste code. This description must be comprehensive enough to allow the receiver of the waste to handle it in accordance with their own duty of care. These provisions are set up in the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991.

Section 33 of the EPA states that it is an offence to deposit, treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste with out a licence. There are exemptions to waste management licence's stated in the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994. The Environment Agency Code of Practice 2006 states in accordance with their Enforcement and Prosecution Policy, failure to have a waste management licence or permit, when dealing with the knotweed growth on site, would not normally be prosecuted if the Agency’s Code is followed.

An offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act can result in a criminal prosecution. An infringement under the Environmental Protection Act can result in enforcement action being taken by the Environment Agency which can result in an unlimited fine. You can also be held liable for costs incurred from the spread of Knotweed into adjacent properties and for the disposal of infested soil off site during development which later leads to the spread of Knotweed onto another site.

As well as the two items of legislation outlined above, third party litigation for damages may be sought by adjacent landowners when Japanese knotweed is allowed to spread onto other property.

The Control of Pesticides

The Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 requires any person who uses pesticides to take all reasonable precautions to protect the health of human beings, creatures and plants, to safeguard the environment and to avoid contaminating water. For application of pesticides in or near water approval from the Environment Agency should be sought before use.

Allowing any Japanese knotweed to spread from your land could make you liable to third party litigation and/or civil prosecution. If allowed to escape onto an adjacent property an order could be served under nuisance legislation. Not disposing of Japanese knotweed in accordance with the Environmental Agency Code of Practice 2006 could easily result in spreading the knotweed and therefore breaking the law.

zzzLazyDaisy

Personally I would not touch a place that has a JK problem. But it is worth getting it checked by a professional as I have heard of surveyors wrongly identifying JK.. and understandably with litigation being what it is, they err on the side of caution.

cleofish

hi thanks guys, we had the full survey through and put it to the estate agents for a final offer of £100,000 which of course the woman refused, so we withdrew our offer and that thats!

the jk problem after reading the full report identified it being across from the property which has a wide road inbetween, not sure whos responsibility it would be though, it seems to be around an elec drop down station thing but if we had got any further we would have checked that out.

so it looks as if we are back on the house looking train now!

i think the womans a bit silly as you would assume whoever goes for the house next time and needs a mortgage is going to come down to the same valuation being 102,000 but nevermind its up to them now to deal with it.

even if the valuation had been ok, there were a few points after reading the full survey that would have been 'troublesome' anyway so perhaps its all for the best.

monty-doggy

Everything happens for a reason, you may have had a lucky escape.

The right house will be lurking out there I'm sure!

Good luck!

cleofish

as a side issue im fed up of hearing about jk, i think in nearly 90% of the houses we ended up seeing there was a jk problem and only one house owner had started treating it herself (through an envir agency) before selling.

It seems really rife down here in sunny south wales is it the same for others?

chickaroonee

Sounds like a lucky escape. The thing is if the knotweed isn't even on your property, you have no control of how it is being controlled.

I personally wouldn't touch a property with it, far too risky.

monty-doggy

I think you have perhaps been unlucky, although saying that lucky to have known about it. Seriously it's not worth the hassle and possible problems that come with it. I've heard real horror stories!