Homebuyers survey and Knotweed

Davesnave

Yes it's illegal for the landowner to allow the JK to spread to your/ your neighbours' gardens, so take photographs now to prove it's not in yours and, hopefully not next door either.



When you know the neighbours better, it might be possible for a group of you to approach the land-owner about control. They may not want to spend serious money on the issue, but they probably have the facilities to undertake their own management at minimal expense. All they need is a sprayer, some glyphosate and the will to act methodically.



There are other avenues that you could explore, but this should be tackled on a friendly basis in the first instance.



It goes without saying that a Homebuyers' doesn't include the field! No liability there.

jbainbridge

Perhaps start a new thread?

buglawton

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/revealed-japanese-knotweed-not-big-deal-groundbreaking-report/
Article from July, register for free to read all of it.

todayisagreatday

I had a full building report by a RICS surveyor (separate to a standard mortgage valuation/survey) and we were able to ask that the surveyor look for things we wanted, so JKW was on the top of our list due to thr canal, old railway location, followed by any issues that may arise when remodelling the house/extending, e.g. potential structural problems, damp etc. We were lucky as our surveyor had a good knowledge of it having it on a family members property so he was really good, though in December it can be hard to spot but so far we haven't had any sight of much.

For us, a home buyers would have been useless as it would have only told us things we knew already, roof needs work, heating system needs repairing and electrics need updating, all irrelevant to us as its all going to be replaced anyway.

Comission your own survey and if you find a surveyor on RICS website ask if they can specifically check for JKW.