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MoridinUK
Posts: 3 Newbie
We're looking to buy a house and like many others we are affected by knotweed.
It was on a neighbouring property within 7 meters of our boundary (almost of our house).
The affected property had/has a treatment plan and has been certified knotweed free, but is subject to a 10 year treatment plan and monitoring. The neighbouring properties are protected by an insurance back guarantee. At the moment we are waiting for our vendor's to get the guarantee extending the property (which it should have been). However, this treatment plan is already 2 years into the 10 years of monitoring.
Our mortgage lender has insisted on this.
Our question is what happens in the future? My mortgage lender has specified a 10 year Insurance backed guarantee, but the treatment guarantee has only 8 years to run! What happens if we remortgage in 5 years, will we need a new 10 year one? What about in 10 years when the treatment plan finishes?
At the moment this lack of any idea about what this means in the future and for future resale of the house is what's putting us off. My solicitor tells me we would have to inform about it on the law society form, even 10,15,20 years after it's gone not to be seen again.
I can't find anything like this on the web, I think that maybe the Japanese knotweed situation with regards to mortgage lending hasn't matured enough for us to have answers to these questions.
Any advice?
I
It was on a neighbouring property within 7 meters of our boundary (almost of our house).
The affected property had/has a treatment plan and has been certified knotweed free, but is subject to a 10 year treatment plan and monitoring. The neighbouring properties are protected by an insurance back guarantee. At the moment we are waiting for our vendor's to get the guarantee extending the property (which it should have been). However, this treatment plan is already 2 years into the 10 years of monitoring.
Our mortgage lender has insisted on this.
Our question is what happens in the future? My mortgage lender has specified a 10 year Insurance backed guarantee, but the treatment guarantee has only 8 years to run! What happens if we remortgage in 5 years, will we need a new 10 year one? What about in 10 years when the treatment plan finishes?
At the moment this lack of any idea about what this means in the future and for future resale of the house is what's putting us off. My solicitor tells me we would have to inform about it on the law society form, even 10,15,20 years after it's gone not to be seen again.
I can't find anything like this on the web, I think that maybe the Japanese knotweed situation with regards to mortgage lending hasn't matured enough for us to have answers to these questions.
Any advice?
I
0
Comments
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It wont affect your future remortgages. They wont as for again its just as your buying. Or when you sell. How much of an impact historical knotweed would have I don't know.0
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We never had an issue remortgaging or selling.
How did they know it was there?0 -
They know, because I will tell them?
My solicitor is quite insistent we will have to tell future buyers on the law society form, basically forever...0 -
They know, because I will tell them?
My solicitor is quite insistent we will have to tell future buyers on the law society form, basically forever...
Only until the treatment plan and guarantee have expired. Unless there is a resurgence. The form is quite clear about current JKW and then the supplementary question about treatment plan and guarantee. If you can answer no there is no current JKW and no there is no treatment plan or guarantee then you don't need to add an addendum saying that x years ago there was and it was successfully treated and the guarantee expired in X.0 -
Hopefully it won't be an issue in the future...Leeds Uni and Aecom have done a mjor piece of research concluding JK is no more of a threat to buildings than, say, trees. https://www.aecom.com/uk/press-releases/ecologists-find-no-evidence-japanese-knotweed-causes-significant-structural-damage/
I know RICS is going to be considering its advice to mortgage lenders in light of this, and there is a strong feeling among many JK experts (though not necessarily those who profit from guarantees!) that it should not be any barrier to getting a mortgage. So fingers crossed!0 -
Yes I saw the research out of Leeds, and also from Swansea where they have figured out how to actually kill it (it takes 3-5 years to be sure!)
I'm not so worried about the 'threat' to my property as to how other less well informed people may perceive it.
I see the form asks whether the property IS affected by Japanese Knotwood, rather than has it ever, but my solicitor still advises me that disclosure would be necessary to avoid any potential ramifications. This seems extreme, but even my lender's valuer (who has to make the call on whether the treatment and IBG are sufficient) doesn't know what we should do once the plan is over.
I do hope the world gets more sensible than this, but people are people, it would be useful if the mortgage issue does go away in light of research.0
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