Is Japanese knotweed a reason to pull out?

Nb5123

We are about to complete and we only now realised that the property is affected by Japanese knotweed, it is a block of flats and leasehold. 

We received a certificate which says it was eradicated back in 2017 and has a guarantee of 10 years. The flat we are buying is being sold for £30,000 less than what the buyer paid for it, I’m wondering if Japanese knotweed could be a reason for this difference? Although this was an office building before being converted to flats and the vendor bought it in 2019 as soon as it was converted so I’m assuming they would have already been aware of the Japanese knotweed? As it was eradicated in 2017.

is this something we should be concerned about? We love the property, the area and we feel we got a good value for it but I’m concerned when it comes to selling in a few years this can cause problems? Any advice would be great 

diystarter7

Hi

From what I have seen in recent years and we are only to get more stories about this, I'd pull out. However, if the place is great, price is good and those that prived the certificate are still around or better still its an insurance backed cert, I'd consider buying

I'm just thinking what would happen after ten years if no show for that period by JV.

It will defitnetly reduce market appeal come to sell but at the right price like anyhting can be sold

Only you can decide

Good luck

user1977

It won't have dropped in value because of JK which was dealt with prior to (or as part of) the redevelopment - that doesn't make sense. It's probably more because newbuilds tends to be overpriced and it isn't that long since they bought. I wouldn't be particularly concerned abvout the JK, it is commonplace for sites to be cleaned up before being built on (or converted) - the planners etc ensure these things are checked and dealt with.

I'd probably be more concerned about the typical poor quality of these office conversions.

ReadingTim

Assuming the knotweed actually has been eradicated (rather than you simply having a piece of paper saying it has) then the passage of time should diminish the risk and thus decrease concerns.  However, those will probably always exist, so will exist when you come to sell it, in the same way as they exist now when you're thinking about buying it. 

Meaning you'll probably buy it at a slight discount (compared to a non-knotweed property), but you'll probably also have to sell at a slight discount too, and it might take longer to find a buyer.  Assuming you're ok with that, there's no reason not to proceed.  

tooldle

Japanese Knotweed is not the threat it was once rumoured to be. https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/standards/Japanese%20knotweed_October%202022.pdf

GixerKate

if its been dealt with and you have the eradication certificate then if it were me I wouldn't pull out.  If it was present in any way well that is different and it would give me second thoughts.

There was that case not too long ago about knotweed in the news thought can't remember the details...

ArbitraryRandom

I would say there's a big difference between JK being present on site and the property having had JK in the past. 

2017 is 5/6 years ago - have you inspected the property to see if you can spot any regrowth? And check just over the boundary/at the fence line. 

diystarter7

GixerKate said:

if its been dealt with and you have the eradication certificate then if it were me I wouldn't pull out.  If it was present in any way well that is different and it would give me second thoughts.

There was that case not too long ago about knotweed in the news thought can't remember the details...

Hi

A polite heads up and I have stated this earlier. The  "certificate" may not be worth the paper its written on as the co could have folded, will fold etc and as per my previous post, an insurance back guarantee is the one to look for.

Thnaks

Emily_Joy

Nb5123 said:

We are about to complete and we only now realised that the property is affected by Japanese knotweed, it is a block of flats and leasehold. 

We received a certificate which says it was eradicated back in 2017 and has a guarantee of 10 years. The flat we are buying is being sold for £30,000 less than what the buyer paid for it, I’m wondering if Japanese knotweed could be a reason for this difference? Although this was an office building before being converted to flats and the vendor bought it in 2019 as soon as it was converted so I’m assuming they would have already been aware of the Japanese knotweed? As it was eradicated in 2017.

is this something we should be concerned about? We love the property, the area and we feel we got a good value for it but I’m concerned when it comes to selling in a few years this can cause problems? Any advice would be great 

I looked at an apartment in a building converted from offices and my main problems were (1) cladding (2) windows that wouldn't open (3) some sort of air cleaning system installed to rectify the latter. If the apartment you are buying is free from these issues, you are lucky!

mark_cycling00

In many countries, Himalayan knotweed is treated with the same fear as Japanese knotweed (iradicate otherwise can't sell property)

But in the UK people are blissfully unaware and it's in loads of gardens and not part of any house buying process 

Knotweeds can be eradicated and also not cause damage. 

A suspect that a leasehold block would have a managing agent who would have obtained a decent company to do the eradication, and will do same if anyone ever notices it again.

cymruchris

When you say £30k less - is that £30k less than £100k? £200k? £400k? A million?

As has been mentioned - if the first owner bought it 'new' then there would definitely have been a premium in the price that's lost over the first few years before gaining back again as time goes on. (Not always the case - but I've seen a few examples in my own searches).

Has anything changed in the immediate vicinity since 2019? New railway lines? More noise? Big names pulled out of the town centre? Major employer closed? There could be quite a few reasons as to why 'demand' is lower than 2019 specific to your apartment's location.