Japanese Knotweed at purchased house

todayisagreatday

Laura_a wrote: »

Hello,

I'm looking for some advise please. We recently (approximately 1 month ago) completed the purchase of our first house. We noticed several plants sprouting quickly at the back of our garden and via a conversation with our neighbour today, found out that it is Japanese Knotweed. We had a Homebuyers survey and this wasn't flagged. On the 'Property Information Form', the sellers said 'No' to the question regarding if the property is affected by Knotweed. Our neighbour said they have knotweed in their garden and had told the sellers what it was. We were told the seller used to just cut the plants and made them spread. This isn't the first issue we've had issues so I'm quite annoyed. As we're first time buyers, we don't have a lot of spare money but we're wondering if there was anything we could do about this? Surely the sellers are liable for this?

Thank you.

I'm not sure about a Homebuyers would report on how. We paid just short of £900 for a full RICS building survey but had him focus on specific areas, one being jkw as the property borders a canal and old railway line which increases likelihood of jkw.

Whilst there was no evidence of it, he did say the time of year (Feb) and the cold weather, can make it very difficult to spot. It perhaps was that it was not noticeable then?

ProDave

My advice is buy as backpack sprayer, and some glyphosphate, e,g, gallup 360 and spray very regularly at the first sign of any new growth. It will take long and persistent treatment to eradicate it, but treating in situ is preferable to trying to remove it and the cost if you do it yourself is minimal.

Share the cost with the neighbour and spray both each time until eradicated. Then keep the sprayer should it ever return.