pulling out of house purchase due to Japanese knotweed

GDB2222

daveyjp wrote: »

Knotweed isn't the earth ending plant it is made out to be.

Whether to withdraw from a purchase depends very much on how extensive the outbreak is.

Even so, you can expect a sizeable discount.

The TA6 property information form specifically asks about JKW. Did the sellers lie?

pinkshoes

lon_85 wrote: »

I'm not sure if the EA knew about the jk or not - the owner put "no" in the TA6 form and when questioned said they didnt realize hmmm

How could the seller NOT know about the JK if a treatment plan was in place???

How long have they lived at the property?

lon_85

The sellers put "No" in TA6 - but my solicitor picked this up with them as they had provided the jk warranty - not sure why they put no as they had to pay for part of the treatment! Anyway this was addressed and now the treatment plan is in place but still leaves me with the issue of costs- my solicitor became aware same time as me when the documents were provided showing the warranty up to 2026 - im not sure if the ea were aware prior or not

In addition when asked about this initially they said its only in the neighbouring property but after getting the report its clear that its definitely present.

GDB2222

You've been led on a wild goose chase by the sellers, I'm afraid. They have clearly lied in the TA6, but as you have not exchanged contracts you seem to have no recourse.

You would be throwing good money after bad if you continue with the contract at the original price. What is more, if they're lying over this, what else are they covering up? Personally, I would just look for another property.

If you're feeling vindictive, you could continue with the purchase, then on the day set for exchange gazunder them by £30,000 and see what they say. I am not sure what the discounts are for JKW, even with a treatment plan in place, but at best it's clearly a serious hassle that you don't need without compensation. Besides which, who is to say the treatment will work or the firm guaranteeing it will still be around in a year or two's time.

babyblade41

The big black mark wouldn't necessarily be the JKW it would be the lie on the TA6 form

If I'd emotionally committed to it then a big discount would be needed as this would cover anything else they have told porky pies about

If you proceed get your own plan in place

lon_85

Just to follow up on thos due to further developments ...

The Estate agent said they were not aware of jk being present or treatment plan in place however they have sold 2 other properties in the same building and have 3 others waiting to sell- surely they know about this before and have withheld this information from me? Or is this not their responsibility and is down to my homebuyer survey telling me the details? Who also gave me a report not mentioning anything about jk - he said visually he did not see anything present when he did site visit so did not state as such hmm

I only found out when receiving the jk warranty certificate provided in the final paperwork- (also seller said no in TA6)


Can I claim anything from the EA/surveyor for not giving me the full facts ?

lisyloo

The estate agent is not liable if they didn’t know. Can you prove they lied?

Surveyor - do you have any evidence they missed it? I.e. how do you know the buyer didn’t pull it out before the survey it visit? I think you’ll have difficult with that one.

If the seller lied then the seller would be liable for you had bought.


What do you think your losses are?
What has your solicitor said?

pinkteapot

You have no contract with the EA so forget about them.

Even if your surveyor should have spotted and didn't, what exactly would your losses be from that point until now. You'd already paid your survey cost and presumably your mortgage application fee, if any. It would only be the incremental cost of work done by your solicitor between the survey and today. The fees up to that point would have been lost anyway.

Finding out things like this is the whole point of the conveyancing/survey process. You find out about any nasties before exchange, and decide not to exchange. It's unlikely you'll be able to get anything back from anyone (and certainly not the fees up to the point of the survey).

My concern would be: If the seller's willing to lie on one question on the TA6, what else have they lied about. If you go ahead with the purchase and something else emerges and you can prove the seller knew about it (easier said than done), you would have a claim about them, but it'd be a lot of hassle with no guarantee of success. The fact they didn't answer accurately would put me off far more than the knotweed.

davidmcn

lon_85 wrote: »

Can I claim anything from the EA/surveyor for not giving me the full facts ?

Do you have any evidence that either of them actually knew about (or ought to have spotted) the JK? As above, even if the surveyor has failed to notice something they ought to, you haven't suffered a loss given you now know about it anyway.

lon_85

@lisyloo - The only way i can prove they lied is the fact that they have sold other properties recently in the same building - jk will have come up during those sales as they share the same land. Re: surveyor - you are right I don't have any way forward there I guess if he cannot see it then he cannot give any further information- I thought they also do searches on the property to check things like jk treatment?

My solicitor is on holiday but should be back this week so will try to connect back on this - my total losses would be around £2k :-( - I think far better than 245k + maintenance + service + ground rent + jk treatment (if needed post 2026)