New Build Japanese Knotweed found during valuation survey

DoaM

Valuations depend very much on the local market and general market drivers (interest rates, inflation etc.). I agree with Dan, but there will always be exceptions.

lee111s

glasgowdan wrote: »

Have you just bought a new build then? I follow the local housing market very closely and new builds for sale 2-3 years later are almost always less than they were new. One of my clients sold for £15k less than they paid 3 years previously. Loads others the same.

So, no, sadly not rubbish.

First bit of rightmove digging and this comes up on a nearby newish estate. Quite scary!

I have, but it's largely irrelevant as it's somehwere I'm planning on staying for a long, long time. That said, a house the same as mine that was bought 3 years ago from new, has just sold for £15k more than I paid, and 22k more than the ower paid. So whilst in some areas, you're right, it's not nearly as many as people think. Typically, again not everywhere, new builds tend to get back towards their sale price after about 5 years from what I've read, but again every area, and indeed every development will be different. Some places are just more desierable than othrs, and as such will play a big part on the resale value of properties.

"Old houses" can suffer too. Just look at the state of Aberdeen's housing market following the poor oil and gs industry performance as of late.

KiKi

If I was only going to live there 2/3 years, I wouldn't touch a property with JK nearby. Selling on would be my biggest worry - plus being able to enforce a developer to clear it, if indeed they do.

I'd just get out now!

robox09

I emailed the surveyor who completed the valuation survey and received this vague reply about the JK on the site or near the plot we wish to buy:

I am aware anecdotally from speaking with other surveyors that JK has been reported elsewhere on the site, as to where exactly I do not know.

daveyjp

I'd go back and get him back out there to identify where it is so you can make a more informed decision.

First ask him if he knows what Japanese Knotweed looks like in mid winter.

csgohan4

Why are you even contemplating it, walk. Your re sale value is going to poor. You can't control JK if it's on someone else's land

moneyistooshorttomention

Actually - more to the point go and have a look for yourself (after having googled for how to identify it).

If you're lucky - then you will see what I saw a couple of days back on checking one of the local known sites for this. That being there are small shallow clumps of brown dead-looking hollow stems that could be mistaken (possibly) for bamboo. That first lot is clearly visible to me because it's growing up out of tarmac close to a building.

On the other hand - on checking out a couple of other nearby areas of JK and I can't see a thing there. However, I know it will be back up again and clearly visible in a couple of months time - because that's what has happened for the last x years in a row (ie since I moved here). These bits aren't visible to me at present because they are in areas where other plants are growing and, at the moment, masking them from view.

What has happened in the building site near me is that the builder has cleared every bit of vegetation from the area and it looks pretty bare earth at the moment - but there has been no widescale removal of earth to my knowledge from there or any chemical "treatment programme" and I suspect they've grubbed it out to some extent and deliberately hidden the remains of it with piling some earth on top of it. We are talking about a builder that is well-known as not bothering to meet their responsibilities generally.

teddysmum

It may be on a plot quite some distance away, but the weed can be spread from a small cutting, so it only takes a person (or even animal) to carry a small piece and drop it where it can take root.

Mojisola

teddysmum wrote: »

It may be on a plot quite some distance away, but the weed can be spread from a small cutting, so it only takes a person (or even animal) to carry a small piece and drop it where it can take root.

And on a building site where heavy machinery has been back and forth many times, it could have been spread everywhere.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mojisola wrote: »

And on a building site where heavy machinery has been back and forth many times, it could have been spread everywhere.

Absolutely:T

I'd listen to Mojisola if I were you - because she is a poster that talks a lot of sense imo.

Personally - I'd be inclined to take the cynics view as to just how likely the builder will be to tell their workmen to take suitable precautions against spreading it around. Put it this way - I worked for the Civil Service for years before retirement and if even we were told to "cut corners" in recent years and "got it in the neck" any time we tried to do our jobs properly = then what do you think a private sector employer will do?