What's the norm? - mortgages and Japanese Knotweed

moneyistooshorttomention

Having moved to an area where there is a noticeable amount of this stuff around - I am now wondering what the norm is re mortgage companies refusal to give mortgages when its around.

- Would it be the case that every single mortgage company would refuse a mortgage if the house itself had it in the garden?

- What percentage of companies would refuse a mortgage if the next door neighbour had it?

- What percentage refuse if its in the same street?

- There are mortgage companies that will refuse mortgages if its in the same town I gather. Who are these companies?

What are peoples experiences of mortgage refusal because of JK?

mpcooke3

2+ years ago I found 90% of mortgage providers refused outright if a shoot of the knotweed was visible within a few meters of the house.
(Quite ridiculous to be honest)

There is also I think "official policy" and what the valuer decides to report.

I've heard rumors that mortgage companies are gradually relaxing.

Rambosmum

Was in our front garden, loads of the stuff, right up to the house and didn't have a problem.

Kat88

Well I recently was looking at buying a new build, we pulled out of that specific plot though before exchange and went for another down the road. As it was with the same developer though we recently found out that the person who'd reserved it after us had just had to pull out themselves. It turned out there was Japanese Knotweed on the site, every single one of the mortgage companies you can use with help to buy refused point blank to loan on it. I still think it is a major issue..

moneyistooshorttomention

Re new builds = you would think a site would be totally clear by definition. That being because a developer would obviously inspect a site closely for JK before buying it OR demand a huge discount on the site and then do a JK eradication programme themselves before building on it. Well that is what you would think......

But the truth of the matter is that there are irresponsible developers around and I can think of two sites near me where that isn't the case. I could see clumps of JK on one site last year and this year I can see they are now building houses on it - I would be willing to bet there hasn't been a JK eradication programme on it and I am concerned about those poor people that will probably buy houses on that site in all innocence about that.

There is another site near me that is up for sale and I can see JK there again (for the 2nd year in a row since it went up for sale) and there is no evidence whatsoever of the land-owner dealing with it - though its obvious to the most casual observer. To me - I don't understand why that land-owner isn't spending a few thousand £s it would probably cost him to remove - rather than find his site will never sell or, alternatively, anyone buying it would demand much more of a discount for taking it off his hands than it would cost to cover a JK eradication programme. Why would anyone lose money like that by NOT dealing with it? - and it puzzles me.

I am wondering whether people who buy new homes (or, indeed any home) could sue the previous owner (developer or otherwise) if they found JK on their property and it was obvious it had been there before the sale?? Hence another reason why I am puzzled as to why sometimes it isn't dealt with before sale. These days I would think that comes under "misrepresentation" and the previous "buyer beware" thing is no longer applicable to a situation like that (after all - we are all told we must declare neighbourhood disputes and JK is a lot worse than that).

EDIT; Since moving to my current area, I've gone from "Wouldn't know it if I saw it" re identifying JK (not that I ever saw it I think - as it just didn't seem to be in my last area) to "I can now spot a 2" high seedling of it and correctly identify it" and so I'm sure developers in an area where it has been allowed to proliferate must be able to recognise it.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just checked those mortgage companies currently offering the Help to Buy Scheme and it includes some major names:

It includes: Halifax, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nat. West and Santander plus various others.

Presumably these companies won't give mortgages to anyone else either (even if they aren't using "help to buy scheme").

moneyistooshorttomention

Rambosmum wrote: »

Was in our front garden, loads of the stuff, right up to the house and didn't have a problem.

That puzzled me - ie as to why anyone would buy a house with JK in the garden.

Daylight dawned when I realised that this must be the house you bought when you were unaware how to identify JK and your surveyor somehow didn't seem to spot it when he did his survey.

As I've got two friends who moved to my current area at about the same time as myself and both have subsequently found JK in their gardens that their vendor carefully hadn't mentioned then there is an obvious "training need" for some surveyors to learn how to identify JK.

I would say that this could be dealt with by the mortgage companies having a list of approved surveyors and refusing to accept surveys from ones not on their list. It would be easy for a surveyor to get on that list - ie by just producing evidence they had been on a JK awareness course. Cue for no more surveyors apparently being unable to identify it - as, obviously, mortgage companies could "build into" the procedure the ability to have some sort of comeback against surveyors who hadn't done that course well enough and were still, apparently, unable to identify JK.

I see a business opportunity for JK eradication firms to run one-day JK awareness courses and charge, say, £200 for it. I'm surprised they aren't already doing it...

questionss

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

That puzzled me - ie as to why anyone would buy a house with JK in the garden.

Daylight dawned when I realised that this must be the house you bought when you were unaware how to identify JK and your surveyor somehow didn't seem to spot it when he did his survey.

As I've got two friends who moved to my current area at about the same time as myself and both have subsequently found JK in their gardens that their vendor carefully hadn't mentioned then there is an obvious "training need" for some surveyors to learn how to identify JK.

I would say that this could be dealt with by the mortgage companies having a list of approved surveyors and refusing to accept surveys from ones not on their list. It would be easy for a surveyor to get on that list - ie by just producing evidence they had been on a JK awareness course. Cue for no more surveyors apparently being unable to identify it - as, obviously, mortgage companies could "build into" the procedure the ability to have some sort of comeback against surveyors who hadn't done that course well enough and were still, apparently, unable to identify JK.

I see a business opportunity for JK eradication firms to run one-day JK awareness courses and charge, say, £200 for it. I'm surprised they aren't already doing it...

Surely surveyors would just put in a disclaimer along the lines of no JKW seen at the time of inspection. Not all buyers have anymore than a valuation survey, which can b a drive-by and is all mortgage companies require, a large garden wouldn't be fully inspected in any kind of survey.

moneyistooshorttomention

questionss wrote: »

Surely surveyors would just put in a disclaimer along the lines of no JKW seen at the time of inspection. Not all buyers have anymore than a valuation survey, which can b a drive-by and is all mortgage companies require, a large garden wouldn't be fully inspected in any kind of survey.

Precautions would have to be enshrined in law to prevent surveyors pulling that one.

I've taken it for granted both my friends that got lumbered by an unscrupulous vendor had mid-level surveys (rather than so-called "drive by surveys" )- but will check to be sure.

I can see those drive-by "surveys" might be more problematic to deal with - but that still wouldn't explain one property I know of locally with the problem (as their next door neighbours house sold recently) and surely even "drive by" surveys do a Googlemaps look and their Problem Neighbours JK can be clearly seen on Google Street View. Surely even "drive by surveys" at least look at Googlemaps?

Sounds like there might be the need to abolish these "drive by surveys".

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Sounds like there might be the need to abolish these "drive by surveys".

Even if they did, could any surveyor be totally sure there was no JK in a garden of half an acre or more, especially in winter?

The time they'd need to to 'survey' the garden could push up costs considerably, I'd imagine.

moneyistooshorttomention

Maybe a case for a dual pricing structure by surveyors then? - ie standard-size gardens on the one hand and BIG (half acre upwards) ones on the other hand?

Actually, also, that's another neglected business opportunity for JK eradication firms. They could offer their own surveys to people contemplating buying somewhere.

I am coming more and more to the conclusion that the mortgage companies and surveyors are the key to getting the more "recalcitrant" type of property owner with JK to deal with it - ie because their next door neighbour is pressurising them (that "neighbourhood dispute" no-one wants to disclose) and/or they will need to sell their own property at some point and won't be able to sell to anyone than a cash buyer unless they've sorted their problem out.