Japanese knotweed grinds everything to a halt!

[IrianofWay]

My very elderly Mum and dad are in the last stages of moving out of the family home - exchanging contracts on the 6th. They are all packed up and keen to go. Lots of last minute hitches but nothing show-stopping.... until now! Their buyers' buyer is moving from a flat in London and JK has been found in the communal garden by the property company buying his flat. So all ground to a halt !

Anyone have experience of this happening? What is the usual outcome.

My parents are really despondent - it's been over 2 months since the offer on the flat was accepted and they were beginning to feel confident.

I'm sorry I can't help on the JK, but 8 weeks from offer accepted, via rest of chain forming, to exchange would be unusually quick IME. Aren't they being a bit previous being all packed up already? It's still 10 days until the earliest potential exchange date. It could easily take a couple of postponements before they exchange, and only then will they know the completion date. Or, it could flow through with no hitches, but I think hitches are more usual and it usually works out eventually. But there are no guarantees until they exchange. It sounds v stressful for them to be packed up with nothing to do but worry for days or weeks.

Are they expecting to complete and exchange on the same day? Are you in England?

As long as an appropriate programme is put in place to get rid of the knotweed, this threat can be dealt with effectively. Many mortgage companies are quite happy to offer mortgages ? as long as the knotweed is being eradicated under an herbicide programme applied by a specialist company. However, many people are put off by the presence of knotweed - it is expensive to eradicate and the programme has to be repeated over several years. You say a property company are buying the flat, so maybe it won't stop them from purchasing, but I imagine they may well try to renegotiate the price which could have a knock-on effect with the chain. Sorry to say, I don't think your parents will be exchanging on the 6th November.

You might want to manage your parents expectations a bit - packing before they've exchanged isn't something I would do.

My parents are adults so I am not in the business of managing their expectations.

They have lived in that house for 40 years so leaving everything unpacked until the last few days would just be ridiculous. It has taken this long to clear out the ancient clutter and sort out who us getting which bits of soon to be surplus furniture. I totally agree they have taken it too far but they were so desperate to move.

In addition their buyer made an offer in June but as they hadn't sold their own place nothing happened. So to them it feels as if it had been going on for much longer.

I guess the answer to my question is 'it depends'. As the stuff has come into the garden along a railway line I am wondering if the railway company are liable for some of the cost.

We had JK. It was neither difficult nor expensive to eradicate. Apply glycophosphate to leaves and it die off in a short while.

You have a property company buying a flat that which is owned by a 3rd party and they are arguing over liability that sits between a management company and Network Rail. There is not a lot you can do to influence the situation.

I suspect what is happening is the property company is looking to reduce the price they are paying the vendor (they wil have known at the outset it was there so are using it as a bargining chip - if it was a real issue they would have pulled out of the sale). The management company are most likely having a discussion with Network Rail over where the liability sits and are not time constrained on the resolution of the discussion. The vendor cannot do anything about the discussions between the NWR and MC and he will not want to accept a lower price for his flat for something that he is not responsible for. NWR and MC may acctually want to string out the discussion as JK is in the process of being reclassified from needing irradication to requiring control.

What he can do is take out indemnity insurance on behalf of the property company to cover any loss due to the knotweed - just in case the management company puts a service charge on to cover the removal. You could suggest to your parents estate agent that they suggest this to the EA who is managing the chain.

These things normally work out - they just take a little time.

Thanks luciole and unescorted.

I did think that the fact a property company is the buyer is more optimistic as presumable they aren't applying for a mortgage.

Wait and see!

it takes several years of repeated applications to kill the knotweed, not a 'short while'. Can be done but needs long-term committment.

but not a show-stopper.

I guess it depends how much you have to deal with. We killed ours off in weeks, but creepage from railway sidings could be more tricky.

luciole15 Wed 28-Oct-15 07:14:03

We had JK. It was neither difficult nor expensive to eradicate. Apply glycophosphate to leaves and it die off in a short while.

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I agree, I had knotweed too and glycophosphate injected into the stems with a syringe killed it off very quickly. It is definitely not expensive or difficult to eradicate.

Thanks all.

Well the move isn't going ahead on Thursday so they just cancelled the removals van - loss of a large deposit!

But it seems as if the 5k has been found to pay for the eradication so we just have to wait and see what happens no. Having googled a lot it seems that that will be enough for some mortgage companies along with some sort of indemnity.

The triffid has been vanquished! The move is back on for next Friday (the 13th!!)...assuming the EA can get hold of my parent's vendor who appears to have gone AWOL after throwing her toys out of the pram last week.