Japanese Knotweed

kazzalenton

Hey Folks,

Hope you are all well.

I please wondered if anyone is able to help me with this issue i have been having. For several months Network Rail who run a railway near my house has allowed Japanese Knotweed to grow rapidly on their land. I have contacted them multiple times about this but they have not done anything about it.

The weed has now spread severely and it has entered my garden and it has now got severely bad. It has spread rapidly around the railway banking and it has entered my garden at several points. I have contacted Network Rail again and they have offered to spray the weeds, it may take several years to eliminate this completely.

I am completely upset as i have a medical condition and soon want to hopefully sell up and buy a bungalow, as i have trouble with one of my legs. I will not be able to sell my home now, if at all due to this problem. I am sad as if Network Rail had acted sooner, this weed would not have entered my land and would not have taken as long to hopefully treat.

My question is i have asked Network Rail for compensation, but they have declined as they have stated, they are now treating the weed and they cannot be held responsible that the weed has entered my land. Would it be wise to engage a solicitor to try and get some compensation for this and if so are they likely to settle out of court? I really do not want to lose lots of money as i do not have much, if anyone could help i would be grateful.

I am not doing this for the money, but surely due to the misery they have caused their is some legal recourse. Have they declined my compensation request in the hope i do not pursue this further do you think?

Thank you so much for reading my post. Hope to hear from someone soon.

Many thanks,

Kazza

csgohan4

get a solicitor:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-38867039


The above might of interest and seem Network rail have not learnt anything

glasgowdan

It sounds like they actively allowed it to spread, so I think you should absolutely hire someone in to do this legally, and may have a good chance of fair compensation.

Davesnave

kazzalenton wrote: »

I have contacted them multiple times about this but they have not done anything about it.

The weed has now spread severely and it has entered my garden.....

February's judgement may help, especially if you have records of correspondence sent to Network Rail, but if you only 'phoned, then it will be harder for you to prove an ongoing problem that was ignored.

You will note that the person in the article fought for 4 years to get a judgement, which awarded only 1/4 of their claim. That's chicken feed to an outfit like Network Rail.

If there is an eradication process under way, then the knotweed may be historic by the time you'd get any compensation, but there's no harm in taking legal advice.

I would be realistic about the chances of success on any aspect of this, other than the complete removal of the knotweed. Some people like a fight, but I'm not one of them!

moneyistooshorttomention

Do you have legal insurance as an add-on to your household insurance? Hopefully you do and, if so, then ring them and ask for their advice on this. Failing that - maybe you can get a half hour free legal advice from one of the solicitor firms that does that?

There is a recent law enabling people to get compensation out of people or firms that spread JK to their land. From memory - I think the figure from a firm is around £20,000/might be £25,000. Googling should bring it up - and do read the links you've been given.

I hope all communications with Network Rail were in writing - rather than verbal? Fingers crossed you've kept a paper trail of your dealings with them so far. If not - write down what you can remember as clearly as possible - to have a record of what's been happening to date.

From here on in - keep a diary of events. I always recommend that people have an A4 page a day diary for dealing with maintenance of home and body (ie over and above their own personal carry-round diary for their Life - ie social engagements etc). It's very useful for keeping a record of what happened when. Such a diary would help you easily keep track of what is happening (or not happening:cool:) as the case may be.

Have you taken photographs of it as it steadily advanced towards your house? At the least - take a load of photos now and take ones of progress (or otherwise) as you attempt to resolve this.

What about your neighbours? Are any of them protesting about this? You must have neighbours that are being affected by this as well - "strength in numbers" and all that - so do check what they have been/are doing about this.

What about any local councillors/your MP?

It is even more of a problem to you if you are trying to sell your house obviously. Now there are two attitudes one can take imo to a major Bad Problem in the area that might create/is creating a problem with selling one's house for its proper value (ie not a value that has been reduced by said problem). Either:
1. - keep your head down and hope no potential buyer realises
OR
2. - decide to whack at it full belt and with every bit of publicity you can summon up and trust that you will manage to get rid of said problem and potential buyers will forget all about the problem by the time you come to sell the house

Either strategy has its risks. When I had a major Bad Problem crop up in the area as regards my last house I had to make that decision. I decided to go for Strategy 2 and belt it full whack and with huge amounts of publicity and the first thing I did was head for a neighbour I am friends with there and that is of a distinct "campaigning bent" and "knows everyone". I won't go into what that particular problem was - but the strategy worked and really drew the community together to fight it. Come the time I did sell that house not that long thereafter - it was all over/"done and dusted" and didnt have any affect on my house price.

Different people have different ways of handling things and I loathe and detest being put through having to "have a fight" - but will do so if I must. Others will use different strategies or do nothing. It's your choice.

Good luck - whatever way you decide to handle it.

ProDave

There is not much you can do about it on the railway, other than complain. BUT you CAN deal with it on your own land, and I would PDQ.

The simplest way is buy yourself a backpack sprayer and some glyphosphate based weed killer e.g Gallup 360 and spray it regularly. One dose won't kill it, that will just knock it back a bit, you have to keep on and on and on spraying it, sometimes for years before it's eradicated, but this is a very simple, very cheap method and at least will keep it under control.

All the time it's still there on the railway, it will keep coming back, but the objective is to control it, stop it reaching the building and doing any harm.

Davesnave

ProDave wrote: »

There is not much you can do about it on the railway, other than complain. BUT you CAN deal with it on your own land, and I would PDQ.

The simplest way is buy yourself a backpack sprayer and some glyphosphate based weed killer e.g Gallup 360 and spray it regularly. One dose won't kill it, that will just knock it back a bit, you have to keep on and on and on spraying it, sometimes for years before it's eradicated, but this is a very simple, very cheap method and at least will keep it under control.

All the time it's still there on the railway, it will keep coming back, but the objective is to control it, stop it reaching the building and doing any harm.

The danger with this approach is that if Network Rail have now initiated a treatment programme, as the OP suggests, it could be counter-productive to interfere.

Like Network Rail or not, their contractors know more about eradication than you or I. For example, they might be planning to use direct injection in the autumn, which would be messed-up by amateur spraying right now.

OP hasn't stated how long their garden is, but there was no suggestion their house is under immediate threat.