Japanese knotweed at our old house

[Funky1985]

Hi wise mums,

I'm wondering if anyone else has been in this situation that we now find ourselves in? It is causing great stress so i'm hoping someone has some advice.

We sold our old house almost 3 years ago now and over the last few months we have been contacted by a solicitor representing the people who bought our house saying that Japanese Knotweed has been found in the garden. They are saying we sold them the house knowing that the knotweed is there but didn't tell them - this is not the case! Now they are saying they will drop the case if we pay them £25k to cover the work needed?!?!

Firstly we didn't know there was knotweed present. Secondly we can't afford a solicitor to represent us. And thirdly we don't have anywhere near that sort of money anyway!

Of course we have responded to them in the past to say we knew nothing about it and should they contact the people that we bought the house from but they just keep coming back saying we have to pay them or it will be taken to court.

Can anyone offer any sort of advice here please?

Thank you

Do you have legal cover with your house insurance? If not do either of you have membership of unions that may have legal cover?

Three years on? They're trying it on.

Japanese knotweed grows and spreads so quickly, it may not have been on your land three years ago.

Have a word with CAB, but my guess is you can cheerfully ignore these chancers and their solicitor.

Do you have any legal cover with your house insurance?

Eeek.
Just asked my husband who is a building surveyor, and he says this is something he's seen happen in the past.

He advises you get legal advice.

He thinks it's strange 3 years later to make this claim, so the onus would be on them to prove it's been an issue since they bought the house.

He says its common for solicitors to use the 'gives us £xxxxx and we will drop the case line'.
However if worst case happens they can obviously only charge for actual costs plus legal fees- so the figure they give is just an estimate.

I can understand how worrying this would be!

This is something they need to raise with their surveyor. The surveyor should have picked it up if it was present at the time of sale.

A month after I moved in I got a marketing email from my solicitors asking if I wanted to sue the surveyor for anything I had discovered that they hadn't raised in the survey.

They don’t stand a chance with this claim unless they can also prove you covered it up (e.g. built over it or evidence of poison in soil).

You filled in a questionnaire when you sold which asked whether you knew about Japanese knotweed and will have ticked the ‘no’ box.

They then should have got a survey.

You don’t need legal advice unless they actually sue you - I’d just reply saying we had no knowledge and will not be responding further.

We have Japanese knotweed and I used to be a property solicitor

Agree. They have to rely on their own searches and surveys. 3 years is plenty of time for it to develop. Tell them you had no knowledge of it and won't be engaging further. How did they even know your new address BTW?

wow they are chancers!

in my survey it was shown there was no knotweed anywhere. They checked! so tough shit.

if it was 3 months id be a bit more..ok. but 3 years?! tell them jog on

No legal knowledge to add but I’d be curious where in the garden it is now growing - next to a border of a neighbouring property that is infested with it perhaps in which case it may have spread from there or have the new owners imported in new plants or topsoil which brought it in or could they be trying to scam 25 k from you.

If it’s nearly 3 years since you completed in the sale, then the initial visits/survey probably took place in the spring/summer/autumn not the dormant winter season of the plant.

That is a good point about topsoil.

Can you see the garden from outwith the property? Are you close? If they have landscaped at all then it is likely been brought in.

Cheeky buggers

It may be worth a phone call to the solicitor who handled your conveyancing at the time, say you had no knowledge of knotweed, do not think it was present when you sold etc.

They might send a letter for about £50.