House has Japanese Knotweed

dllive

Hi,
Im currently buying a house and it turns out it has Japanese Knotweed. The solicitor is concerned about it. Is this a show-stopper? How much would it be to get rid of it? Would it devalue the cost of the house when I come to sell (even if it is completely eradicated)?
Thanks

Surrey_EA

JKW can prove something of a problem, and will undoubtedly put some people off.

How close is it to the property? Is it currently being treated?

There are many specialist companies the treat JKW, and provide an insurance backed guarantee.

Ozzuk

Some mortgage lenders won't even touch a property with knotweed. Others will insist on a management plan. Some may dismiss it, depending on how much/how close etc.

It will certainly put people off, and it is extremely difficult to eradicate completely. However, it is relatively easy to manage. See what the surveyor says.

cloo

JK is nothing like the doom-plant it is made out to be, though it is a pain. Unfortunately lenders do tend to be ridiculously risk averse about it, even though it can't bring down buildings with foundations and it is possible to manage it.

A lot may depend on how much, how close, and is it all within the boundary of the property. A few stands of it with none nearby, at the end of a longish garden is much less of an issue than masses of the stuff 2m from your door and with a load of it on adjacent land of uncertain ownership/belonging to a mad old lady with 57 cats. Some lenders will be OK with a small amount over 7m from your door.

You can get treatment, or more likely demand the vendor gets treatment, with an insurance backed guarantee. For a small to medium patch it will likely cost a couple of grand and should satisfy at least some lenders. If lenders aren't willing to bite without treatment, frankly the vendor should pay if they know what's good for them.

If it's overspill from a big neighbouring patch of it where the owner is hard to trace or for whatever reason unlikely to cooperate, you might have to walk away, but if not, it's a workable situation between you, the vendor and your lender.

dllive

Im at the 11th hour in the sale process - only just found this out! Am I now obligated to tell the mortgage lender?
It is growing within 5 metres of the house.

dllive

cloo wrote: »

JK is nothing like the doom-plant it is made out to be, though it is a pain. Unfortunately lenders do tend to be ridiculously risk averse about it, even though it can't bring down buildings with foundations and it is possible to manage it.

A lot may depend on how much, how close, and is it all within the boundary of the property. A few stands of it with none nearby, at the end of a longish garden is much less of an issue than masses of the stuff 2m from your door and with a load of it on adjacent land of uncertain ownership/belonging to a mad old lady with 57 cats. Some lenders will be OK with a small amount over 7m from your door.

You can get treatment, or more likely demand the vendor gets treatment, with an insurance backed guarantee. For a small to medium patch it will likely cost a couple of grand and should satisfy at least some lenders. If lenders aren't willing to bite without treatment, frankly the vendor should pay if they know what's good for them.

If it's overspill from a big neighbouring patch of it where the owner is hard to trace or for whatever reason unlikely to cooperate, you might have to walk away, but if not, it's a workable situation between you, the vendor and your lender.

This is useful - thanks. What metre area would you say is a 'small patch'?

cloo

Take your solicitor's advice on that maybe?

How did you find out? If it's on a surveyor's report, I'm not sure there's any way out. If somebody just told you, then honestly, if it's a small amount and there's no reason for lender to find out, in your shoes I'd keep schtum and get it treated when you can. The house won't fall down, the lenders won't lose their asset, and once it's been gone a few years I don't think there's any need to flag it up (so I wouldn't go moving in less the 5 year or so )

Small patch is a couple of stems, like not even a shrubs-worth, I'd say. We had at most 3 stems show in our last place, almost exactly 7m from the flat, which hadn't been seen for 3 years after my husband treated it over that time, and fortunately we had a cash buyer who wasn't bothered by this.

dllive

What damage can it do? Does it just find its way into the drains?

Im not sure how much theres is until I cut all the undergrowth back. I guess 5 square metres. Is that a lot?

cloo

That's quite a lot, I'm afraid, and treatment will charge my the square metre - you'd definitely need professional help with that much.

The issue is that effectively it spreads underground, and very fast. It can damage walls and sheds, but my understanding is it can't do much to buildings with foundations. But nonetheless, most lenders consider it a risk to asset value. Treatment involves removing lots of earth, and this may be very disruptive if the property doesn't have direct passage to the front.

I'm afraid 11th hour or no, this probably needs dealing with now - talk to your solicitor.

glasgowdan

I'd look to negotiate a significant discount based on this, but would still proceed, as even 5m2 close to the house is easy to manage yourself, or via a professional if you like. Over the course of your ownership you can get rid, and come selling time you may have to declare it used to be there but has been managed and not came back after X amount of time.

trigger_fish

There's a whole new industry growing up around knotweed.

From my experience of it the horror stories about it are ott.

In my old garden I had some and so did everyone else. The adjacent hillside was infested with it.

But this was back in 2003 and the 'industry' seems to have grown massively since then.

Peashooter they called it where I was because of the plants bamboo like hollow stem.