Japanese Knotweed on neighbour’s property

cc120

[FONT=&quot]On discovering that the numerous, over powering weeds growing between my brick wall (built at the same time as my house in 1930's) and my neighbour's wooden fence are Japanese knotweed that could damage foundation etc and devalue my property, there is also one of them growing in my garden. I sent a letter to the housing association who are the registered owners of this 'council' property (though I have no idea of the correlation of the council/government regarding this property to the housing association) as advised by www.environetuk.com:

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]'I am requesting that you take appropriate action to eradicate the Japanese Knotweed on your property and on mine. If you do not then I will be left with no option but to refer this matter to my solicitor to bring a claim in private nuisance against you.'

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]The reply from the association claimed that the strip of land in question was part of my property. www.environetuk.com referred me to www.japaneseknotweedclaims.com (who state there is a no win no fee policy) who in turn referred me to their legal people: www.excellolaw.co.uk, who after reviewing all info suggested I have a free survey carried out by www.knotweed.co.uk. The report stated that the offending weed is certainly on the neighbours/housing association property. The solicitor at www.excellolaw.co.uk wrote up 'onboarding' documentation which I was to sign, but on reading that despite a 'no win no fee' offer, I will be responsible to pay all disbursements that would be required to bring this case to court, which would amount to at least £900, therefor I am unable to take this case any further due to lack of funds.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Are there any suggestions on how I might be able to proceed?[/FONT]

moneyistooshorttomention

1. Have you made sure you have the Title Plan for the offending HA property? = ie to be able to prove to the HA that its their land that is at fault.

2. I'm pretty sure there is an overall body that Housing Associations are supposed to belong to and I would imagine that body has some sort of "code of conduct" as to how their members must behave. Worth checking. From memory - I think it might be called the Housing Corporation (well - at least I think it was in the past).

3. There must be laws and regulations as to how housing associations are to proceed and it may be that there are one or more of these that this HA aren't complying with.

4. I believe it has recently become law that those with JK on their premises can be fined. I think public bodies (eg like housing associations for instance) can be fined what was either £20,000 or £25,000 for not dealing with it if its identified as on their premises.

5. Maybe you might get some useful advice from a Council Environmental Health Officer about this (probably not your own one that is!!! - try ringing one elsewhere in the country). Devon and Cornwall County Council, for instance, have jointly produced a leaftlet on JK before now - so maybe they are a bit "hotter" on this than some Councils????

6. Do you have legal insurance as part of your household insurance cover?


Those are the first thoughts that have come to mind as to possible avenues to proceed down.

cc120

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

1. Have you made sure you have the Title Plan for the offending HA property? = ie to be able to prove to the HA that its their land that is at fault.

2. I'm pretty sure there is an overall body that Housing Associations are supposed to belong to and I would imagine that body has some sort of "code of conduct" as to how their members must behave. Worth checking. From memory - I think it might be called the Housing Corporation (well - at least I think it was in the past).

3. There must be laws and regulations as to how housing associations are to proceed and it may be that there are one or more of these that this HA aren't complying with.

4. I believe it has recently become law that those with JK on their premises can be fined. I think public bodies (eg like housing associations for instance) can be fined what was either £20,000 or £25,000 for not dealing with it if its identified as on their premises.

5. Maybe you might get some useful advice from a Council Environmental Health Officer about this (probably not your own one that is!!! - try ringing one elsewhere in the country). Devon and Cornwall County Council, for instance, have jointly produced a leaftlet on JK before now - so maybe they are a bit "hotter" on this than some Councils????

6. Do you have legal insurance as part of your household insurance cover?


Those are the first thoughts that have come to mind as to possible avenues to proceed down.

Thank you moneyistooshorttomention, excellent points. Unfortunately, I don't have any household or property insurance.

I do have my own land deeds which clearly shows my boundary.

Davesnave

cc120 wrote: »

Thank you moneyistooshorttomention, excellent points. Unfortunately, I don't have any household or property insurance.

I do have my own land deeds which clearly shows my boundary.

Having once lost my home for 6 months thanks to a fire started by someone else, I'm probably the right person to point out the logical inconsistency of your position here.

There's no immediate threat to your home from knotweed, whereas, by this evening, thanks to one many of potential misfortunes, you could be out in the street with only the clothes you stand up in. Therefore, the obvious first step is to get buildings insurance.

The boundary between your property and your HA neighbour might be clear on a piece of paper, but the difficulty arises in translating that to points on the ground, where an inked line scales up to a swathe about 45cm wide. This gives the opportunity for boundary disputes.

On first reading, it looks to me as if you are now in a boundary dispute with the housing association, because they feel the knotweed originates on your land. Boundary disputes can be more costly to solve than treating knotweed, so tread carefully.

If I were you, having realised that there's no such thing as a free lunch, I'd want to meet with the relevant person from the HA at the site to discuss this calmly. I certainly wouldn't go further down the path of litigation via some company that chases business by exploiting situations like this.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

4. I believe it has recently become law that those with JK on their premises can be fined. I think public bodies (eg like housing associations for instance) can be fined what was either £20,000 or £25,000 for not dealing with it if its identified as on their premises.

Link?

People believe all kinds of things, as evidenced by those who rave in the street, particularly where crowds naturally gather.

Giving the OP the notion that some vague law might come to their rescue isn't very different from suggesting that their problem can be resolved for free. If this law existed, you'd be able to find it on Yougov or Council web sites.

Here is what Bristol City Council Say:

Council land

If Japanese Knotweed is found on council land, we will treat it chemically between May and October each year. We only treat Japanese Knotweed between these months as this is when the weed is most receptive to treatment but we will take reports throughout the year. The treatment process can take three to four years to be successful.
If you have identified Japanese Knotweed on what you believe is council land, please report to Parks and Estates on 0117 922 3719 or email [EMAIL="bristolparks@bristol.gov.uk."]bristolparks@bristol.gov.uk.[/EMAIL]
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Council tenants

We can in many cases also treat council tenants' front and back gardens at the request of Landlord Services. If as a council tenant you feel that Japanese Knotweed is in your property please report to Landlord Services in the first instance on 0117 922 2200 (option 4) or by email [EMAIL="estates@bristol.gov.uk"]estates@bristol.gov.uk[/EMAIL].
If you believe that Japanese Knotweed is growing on land owned, managed and maintained by Network Rail (this includes railway tracks and property both used and disused) then you can it report directly to Network Rail on 08457 11 41 41 or by visiting the Network Rail website.
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Short link: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/node/19754

moneyistooshorttomention

:eek:Agh! to the thought of not having household insurance - whatever the circumstances. That is something you really need to have - quite apart from the JK situation. Its not that expensive. My house costs me less than £300 pa to insure and that is for house, contents, the legal add-on to insurance and Home Emergency Cover. Obviously, I could pay less by omitting the legal insurance add-on and the Home Emergency Cover (it would be about £50 pa less if I didn't have those add-ons).

You say you have your own "land deeds" - from which I presume you have the original Deeds on the house. Do you also have the modern-day Title Plan? Its as well to have both if possible.

It is true that the boundaries to a house are "general boundaries" normally and therefore only exact to +/- eighteen inches either way.

1. How far inside their boundary is the offending strip of land where the JK started? Is it more than 18" the other side of the boundary?

2. It is possible to have more precise boundaries done I understand - by a process of "boundary determination". This fixes where a boundary is to within a 4" precision. I don't know the "ins and outs" of this - ie how much it would cost and whether the decision made is binding on the Other Side in this.

The one plus point to it if the HA are trying to make out that their land is yours in this case (ie to try and shift their burden onto your shoulders) that they cant have it both ways. If they succeed in making out its your land - then you've just acquired some free extra land.

moneyistooshorttomention

Re JK fines - some of the links are long ones to info. on this and one of them is a Government pdf (I never know how to do a pdf link....)...

but just put "Japanese knotweed fines" into Google search engine and loads of info. on it comes up promptly. Just done quick clarification - and its £20,000 fine they could be liable for.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just had quick check back for location of JK and you say its "between your brick wall and their fence". If, indeed, your brick wall was built in 1930s, then I think it likely their fence was put up some time after the wall and they may well have built it inside their boundary.

1. How old is their property?

2. How old is the fence? (ie presumably a lot younger than the wall).

3. Do you have proof that the wall is built in the 1930s?

Sounds to me like the crux of the matter would be whether you can prove they built their fence in their garden - rather than bang at the boundary (as would normally be expected). That legal presumption about it being assumed people will put up a wall/fence/etc at the farthest edge of their territory is what is coming to mind here - and hence the need for you to prove they didn't do that, but put it further back inside their garden.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Re JK fines - some of the links are long ones to info. on this and one of them is a Government pdf (I never know how to do a pdf link....)...

but just put "Japanese knotweed fines" into Google search engine and loads of info. on it comes up promptly. Just done quick clarification - and its £20,000 fine they could be liable for.

Links for PDFs are the same as links for anything else. i.e. copy and paste.

I think you are referring to CPNs which are Community Protection Notices. Details here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/352562/ASB_Guidance_v8_July2014_final__2_.pdf

The document is linked to the JK issue here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364846/Japanese_Knotweed_information_note.pdf

This poses the question whether this is a community nuisance or not. From the details supplied, I don't think it is, but I'd be interested to hear how others interpret the guidance

moneyistooshorttomention

The second link is the one I found.

There's also links to various newspaper articles about using this against JK. I think that's more useful personally - my reaction to first one being "Oh...yes...think that's the thing I might have to use against my antisocial neighbours (as people) iyswim".

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The second link is the one I found.

There's also links to various newspaper articles about using this against JK. I think that's more useful personally - my reaction to first one being "Oh...yes...think that's the thing I might have to use against my antisocial neighbours (as people) iyswim".

I ignore newspaper articles and go to the source.

The first PDF is the one professionals will use when determining whether to use this extended legislation.

I am not clear myself if the matter under discussion could be seen as a community issue. There's also the matter of boundaries and the origin of the JK.

As I said at the start, a can of worms. Time for adult discussion, not threatening letters or litigation.