Selling:Surveyor:Japanese Knotweed

Hootie01

Found this brilliant link from Wouldham Parish Council and the bush in question is def not Japanese Knotweed.
http://www.wouldhampc.kentparishes.gov.uk/default.cfm?pid=news&newsid=8954


From here you can go to a printable booklet if anyone's interested.
If the information is correct we do not have the blighter and have nothing else in the garden that comes anywhere looking like it.
Its "strange" they have not pinpointed it or supplied photos as evidence.
I'm going to also send photos to the RHS for ID if I have to.
Since when did RICS members you are now qualified to do this. Most are not. Maybe Ill eat my words but this all seems a bit odd.

daveyjp

I agree with bobatwork. If the buyers surveyor has found it they need to be employing an 'expert', not you as seller.

I would however contact RICS and let them know one of their members isn't fully trained in an important aspect of their work and it is leading to problems.

Surveyors are supposed to keep abreast of new issues. RICS have produced comprehensive guidance on JK which all building and mortgage surveyors should be up to speed with.

Hootie01

We have lost our buyers because the surveyor from the XXXXXXX "indicated there is Japanese Knotweed at the property".
We have had a full survey done that categorically states we do not.
The bush in question does not have the same node pattern, stems, leave shapes or anything in common with knotweed whatsoever. Oh the leaves are green though..
So would anyone out there suggest to me if we have some legal comeback here.
Are surveyors allowed to identify plants and state on a document something that can cause so much grief and is factually incorrect ???

Hootie01

Im not sure if this pictures going to load up from this web page, but basically we have lost our buyers and payed a lot of money for a Japanese Knotweed survey.
Surveyors are not botanists of any description or horticulturists. To STATE (as I have been informed by our estate agents) on a report to the lender that a Siberian Dogwood (Cornus Alba) is Japanese Knotweed when they have no resemblance is the work of a fool... and more
He may very well be brilliant surveyer (for all the five minutes he spent in my house) but how I would like to have a conversation with this guy.
Sellers beware in Notts, the surveyors still out there and our Siberian interloper is looking relieved that he is indeed the innocent suspect in all of this.
By the way...do RICS ever have anyone answering the phones????