Japenese Knotweed - how severe is this??

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Hi all,

We've found a property we're really keen on in Surbiton, but... the neighbours have a level 4 Japanese knotweed situation whilst the house itself is free of it at present, but has been assessed as a level 3.

Anyone able to shed some light on this and whether it's something we should stay clear of. Also, is this not something that can be cured and treated (sorry, I'm a kiwi and we definitely don't have this situation back home!).

TIA!

Do. Not. Do. It.

Do some proper research on the implications to your mortgage agreement, ability to resell etc in the event of your house being impacted. It is a huge issue and will be of huge detriment to you in the event that the house becomes affected.

I wouldn't touch that property with a barge pole. It will need a specialist review before any mortgage company consider it.

Is the property near the railway line into Waterloo?

Don’t buy it, op.
Find another property to buy.

Are the neighbours dealing with it with a guaranteed professional service?

Our neighbours have / had it and they have a specialist indemnity policy which includes yearly inspections of their garden and the surrounding gardens too. Theirs is kept very well managed and we’ve never had it spread to ours or any issues at all

The specialist I spoke to said that in lots of terraced houses in London where they’re paved the knotweed has spread right across. He said it’s not as much of a big deal as everyone makes out as long as it’s kept well controlled.

id definitely do further reading and research in to it but it might not be as bad as you think (with a caveat I have no idea what grade 3/4 is)

It could crop up anywhere, London is full of it because if so many railway lines cross crossing residential areas.

I would rather buy somewhere where everyone is being upfront and dealing with it than find I had bought a house where it had been ignored, or concealed because if the general hysteria about it.

It is a plant. It can be managed. But that’s the issue: what are the neighbours doing?

You’d have to see if your lender would agree before you decided yourself tbh!! Some of them would say no to your scenario

Is it the prob that people have paving / tarmac and it sneaks into your garden and gets established without you knowing?
I had some in my garden when I moved in 15 years ago and once I recognised it glyphosated it, and a couple of more times in successive years and it's long gone, but we have open earth and not acres of paving.
I don't understand the problem unless it has resistance to weed killer now.

The street the house is on is just off Ditton Road, heading towards Upper Brighton Road, so can't see any nearby Railway lines. Not sure if this is a common issue in Surbiton in general?

Thanks for this insight! Do you know of anyone who's had to deal with this before? My concerns really are in the future value of the house and how seriously will this impact our mortgage application.

We're yet to get more details from the vendor tomorrow around this. If the neighbours agree to deal with it and put in place regular checks, do you know if this could be heavily relied on, or should I also have someone in regularly to check?

Could be a prostitute - not necessarily a long term thing

This is somewhat reassuring. So it's so called a detached house.. but connected via the garages (if that makes sense). So there is a risk it could spread underneath I suppose?

LOL.. thanks for the humour! From my research it seems to be a very persistent plant!!

Without wishing to derail (pun intended) the thread, I was going to ask what the connection with railways is?

But having now seen @SaintHelena 's post, I simply must know what a Japanese Knotweed prostitute is?

It seems to be that Japanese knotweed tends to be more prevalent near railways.. don't ask me why.. but just found this out through a few things I've read.

.. re the Japanese Knotweed 'prostitute' reference I assumed it was meaning that it'll be present for a bit and then eventually stop once the matter's been addressed?!

Did you guys end up getting your property looked into to see if it had spread over to yours?

Yes, they come yearly to inspect the JK and also the surrounding gardens (ie ours). Never spread, never had a problem

Did they give you a 'risk level'? Apparently it's on a scale of 1-4, with 4 being most at risk and 1 being unlikely at risk.

Also, thank you for the reassurance!

It’s really common. It also spreads easily where a lot of building work is going on as piles of earth are moved around, dumped etc

if you know about it and treat it you will be fine. Prob get a bargain too.

No, they were very much more relaxed about the whole thing than I’d have thought!

At some stage the railway companies thought it was a good plant to put on embankments.

And now, of course, do nothing to eradicate it.

OP: look on the Property / DIY board .

Lots of ‘buying a property with knotweed’ threads.

It's pretty obvious when you've got it as the stems shoot up really quickly. I'm not sure why you'd need to pay for an inspection when you can just monitor it yourself by keeping an eye on the garden boundary to see if any has crossed over.