Dealing with new housing estates factor

Doodle169

A new estate has been built in a field behind my house, this estate has a factor managing the communal areas. 3 years ago we got a letter from their factor talking about japanese knotweed and threatening fines of up to £2500. They said the knotweed is coming into their properry from time to time. My take on it is there are large leylandis on my side and there is no sign of anything. I contacted scottish natural heritage and they told me that the law quoted does not apply in scotland and that they were trying to intimidate me. SNH volunteered to tell them they had no right talking about species orders or fines as that was only in government remit. I told the factor this by letter and got no reply in the last 3 years.,
So Long story short when the letter came in about a species control order the factor had already employed knotweed contractors. The area behind my leylandi had been blitzed. I found out a few days ago that the factor has being paying for the eradication of knotweed for 3 years and thats its about £8000 spent so far. Now that we decided to take down our leylandis as they are very unwieldy being both wide and about 15 feet high, we have been getting lots of moans via our fencers etc that they ie individual house owners want their money back from their factor. We are not adverse to paying something or even half what their bill was but theres also a bit annoying me that they didnt discuss money or quotes before they ran up this bill. I thought they did some eradication as a one off but thats not been the case. Im not mean, what do you think whats a reasonable offer, each householders paying about £55 a year for knotweed removal but my bill as there neighbour could be £4000 as thats half what they spent all be it without my knowledge

Davesnave

You are on the wrong forum. This is a forum about gardening, not the law.


You should re-post in the House Buying Renting and Selling Forum, but try to make your post clearer, particularly why you think you owe the factor anything if they did not consult with you in some detail over the eradication programme. I know JK doesn't seem to fit into that section well, but people who understand the legalities (and Scottish law) often lurk there!

Personally, I'd suggest paying nothing if you didn't enter into any kind of contract. Payment implies acknowledgment of responsibility.

Also, what have 'fencers' to do with it and why are they acting as go-betweens between you and the individual householders? Are you a private individual or a business?

Don't answer these points here, but think about them when drafting your questions for the more legally orientated forum mentioned above.

paddy's_mum

Davesnave wrote: »

what have 'fencers' to do with it and why are they acting as go-betweens between you and the individual householders?

Probably because they are constructing fencing from the individual houses side (ie access) and are just passing on the householders' general grumbles as in "here's a heads up, mate".

Personally, I find it hard to believe that if there is JK there (in the desert that mature Leylandii create) it is growing ONLY in/on or behind the OP's property in which case, why is the factor targeting just this one property?

Good luck with this OP and I agree with Davesnave that you should not accept responsibility for payment for a course of action that someone else instigated...where does that buck stop?

Apodemus

From a gardening perspective....

The balance of probability is that the Japanese knotweed is more likely to have originated in the development land rather than your garden, either from fly-tipping on a vacant site or by the developers bringing in topsoil from elsewhere. If it pre-dated your Leylandii you would have problems further out into your garden.

So, you could go on the attack, write to the factors stating that you have learned that they have a knotweed problem and that you expect them to take measures to prevent it from spreading into your property. At the very least, you want to get the message out to the grumblers over the fence that it was the construction of their houses that caused the problem to arise.

Doodle169

Thanks to all 3 of you. I was officially told about the knotweed from the factor in writing after they had instigated its removal over 2 yeara ago. My next door neighbour was a very elderly woman and her garden simply went out to the farmers field with no marked boundary. She had no immediate heirs except for a gentleman that put eventually inherited and put the house up for sale and must have been told by the surveyor that there was knotweed at the bottom of her garden. The person inheriting the property agreed to pay for the disposal of the knotweed to get the house sold. When the new owner came in they knew about the knotweed and knew it was being dealt with. However they decided to continue their boundary down about another 3 to 4 feet down to the builders fence. We on the other hand had our established leylandi as our boundary with our small post and wire fence behind that. Its just now that the new housing estate occupiers see our trees going down and our new fence going up that they think to quote “if thats theirs i want my money back from the factor’. We are unlike our neighbour, we are only going to our leylandi stumps and the metal fence behind it and not to the lazy boundary going round the boundary that the house builder set up round their fields perimeter.. its very stressful to be in this position with people taking pictures and obviously thinking we are taking the mickey out of them. It i suppose will either end up as a boundary dispute or a dispute over knotweed removal costs. However i have pictures of an even older rotten fence that is in the same place as my wire fence and has been attached by wire to a tree that was behind my leylandi and not where the builders put theirs up. Which does back up where my boundary is. I do understand that but i suppose they have taken on thousands of pounds and feel we should have contributed but there again we were not consulted or given quotes or even know who their contractor is. I will just have to see what happens next. Thanks again

Davesnave

The response from davidmcn is as I hoped it would be.

davidmcn wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it unless and until you get a request for money. In any event I can't see they've got much of a case.

I'm 99.9% sure David is legally qualified and based in Scotland.


I'd suggest reposting on your thread on the housing forum if there are developments that need further advice. At present, it looks as if the factor (not a term widely understood south of the border) is just trying it on.