Unusual Japanese Knotweed / leasehold problem

andyforr

Hi

We bought our leasehold house last year, at the time the solicitors could find no trace of the land owner and no ground rent had been collected in years - it is assumed they have passed away.

The property backs onto a United Reformed Church car park which has a tall growth of knotweed just over the fence from us. A few months ago our neighbour found it in her garden and we also found a solitary stem on our property, both were treat with weedkiller poured down the stem - not ideal i know.

So given our odd leasehold situation and the fact that it would appear to be spreading from the church car park - what would be the best course of action? We are hoping to sell the house as we need to relocate for my partners job but are unsure how to proceed.... feign ignorance?chase the church?

Thanks for any help

We are currently hoping to sell on the house as we need to move for my partners work it seems that the problem stems from the church carpark

deFoix

No you can't 'feign ignorance'. Contact the Church (write a letter) and tell them they have a knotweed problem that has spread to neighboring land. (I'm assuming that you have correctly identified the growth as JK - are you sure?)

It's a problem that needs to be dealt with but be very weary of 'professional' companies that will try and charge you (or the church) £1000s.

Read the advice from the Royal Horticultural Society on how a home owner can treat it themselves. TIP: glyphosate solution sprayed (or stem injected) during the growing season (July-September). It might take a few seasons to kill.

deFoix

Also you won't see any growth of the JK until around May time next year so until then there really isn't much you can do other than contact all the parties involved and make sure everyone is aware of the issue and knows how to treat it come July-Aug-Sept time 2017.

moneyistooshorttomention

Not actually sure why this has come up as a dilemma personally???

To me - it's very straightforward. That being = chase the church (and be glad it is a church - rather than many other people/organisations it could be). Being a church - they might have morals and they will know they had at least better appear to have some if it came to "going public" about this. So it should, hopefully, be easier to get them to "do their duty" than some...

I am surprised no church member appears to have noticed/told the church about this yet. But maybe they don't have a member that knows what it is - or they do have such a member and they've been nagging the church to "do their duty" but need a bit of help from an affected neighbour telling the church they must deal with it.

Davesnave

It isn't unlawful to have JK, but it's an offence if it's allowed to spread uncontrolled into others' property.

Therefore, if the spread is recent and obviously originates from a larger stand in the church grounds, then their governing body has committed an offence by allowing this to happen and they ought to be picking up the tab for treatment.

Although guarantee-backed eradication plans via a reputable JK treatment company may be expensive, they are the very least a mortgage lender will require before taking on an affected property.

As above it's too late to get anything done this year, but a plan needs to be agreed and in place for 2017.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Not actually sure why this has come up as a dilemma personally?.

Well, it does complicate the matter of selling the house!

moneyistooshorttomention

True Dave - ie that it complicates selling the house. But certainly no dilemma as to what to do about it was what I meant...ie get onto the neighbour that has caused it.

OP - don't forget that a neighbour can be fined for spreading JK to someone else's property now. That's your fallback position if they're awkward about dealing with it.

Still can't understand why one of their own members hasnt been on at their "governing body" about it by now - as I certainly would have if I were one. Though I know that sometimes "governing bodies" can be awkward about listening for some reason - been in that position before and they didnt listen to me - and they found later that they should have....(would have saved themselves a lot of money if they'd listened in the first place.....).

davidmcn

andyforr wrote: »

We bought our leasehold house last year, at the time the solicitors could find no trace of the land owner and no ground rent had been collected in years - it is assumed they have passed away.

I'm not sure why you've mentioned this, as I can't see it has any relevance to the Japanese knotweed (unless there is something unusual in the lease which would have put responsibility on the freeholder?).

cloo

If you want to sell the house soon, you'd ideally want the church to get it treated by specialists who are from the Property Care Association, so there can be a mortgage backed guarantee that it will be treated until gone.


If you treat it yourself, it will probably work after 2-3 seasons (ie, years) but you'll have to (if you don't want to get caught out) declare it is present when selling the property and mortgage lenders won't lend on it, which is utterly ridiculous when there is no evidence knotweed has ever caused meaningful damage to a building with foundations, but there you go. I know this as I know a guy who is one of the top authorities on JK in the country who told me that.


Honestly, my advice to anyone who wants to sell within 3 years and finds a tiny bit of the stuff is to treat it themselves and don't tell anyone, and keep hiding any signs until you've sold. It's not what you're supposed to do (but an what an awful lot of people do do), but honestly, given lenders' ridiculous excessive caution you're kind of screwed if you don't and for no good reason. We had to disclose it as other parties were aware, but if they hadn't been I think we would have just kept schtum - luckily by the time we were closing on our sale, the third growth season had come round since it had last been seen and our buyer was satisfied we had eradicated it. And we were damn lucky he was relaxed about it (and was a cash buyer).


Touch wood, some more sense will prevail with lenders soon.