Japanese knotweed question on property information form - red flag?

[SheWouldNever]

Due to exchange in the next few days and have only just received the property information form (and all other documents) from our solicitor, which is annoying as it’s thrown up a few questions.

One of which is the ‘Is there Japanese knotweed?’ question. instead of ticking ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘unsure’ the seller has left all boxes blank and instead written ‘not that I know of’. My husband thinks maybe the seller knows something and not ticking any boxes is an attempt to cover their back.

We are looking into indemnity insurance for Japanese knotweed just in case. But we may plan to sell in a few years so will be a pain in the bum if it is there. The back of the garden is overgrown, the seller has already stipulated that it won’t be cleared of overgrowth / garden off cuts etc before sale, plus it’s not the best time of year to spot knotweed if it is there.

If it were me, I'd ask my solicitor to query it with theirs. That should prompt them to select one of the options, or clarify their answer.

Yes clarify the responses...this wont be popular but a retired gardener told me he dealt with it by spraying it with diesel..killed it off in weeks !..no need for expensive treatments that are costing thousands by some companies.

That is something I would put in the form if I didn't think there was any but didn't want to state for certain that there was none. I have no reason to think my property has any but "not that I know of" is probably the answer I would give. I don't think it is necessarily a red flag - if the end of the garden is overgrown they may not know for certain but have no reason to believe there is any as it's not made itself obvious.

I’d say that unless I’d had a specific survey done.

Diesel does not kill knotweed. It may kill the above ground plants but it will regrow.

I thought it made sense as a response but my husband thought it seemed suspicious that they chose not to tick one of the boxes. Think we are guarded after relatives experience finding knotweed post-purchase that the seller had clearly tried to hide. We don't mind treating and tackling knotweed if we are covered for it with indemnity insurance, but we aren't yet sure how long we will stay in this property and could put a spanner in the works trying to sell it mid treatment.

i bought a house with a little bit of knotweed and killed it off in 4 years with regular application of gyphosate weedkiller. it is a DIY job.

Have you looked for it properly in the garden? if you can't see it yourself, it probably isn't too bad.

Think we are guarded after relative's experience finding knotweed post-purchase that the seller had clearly tried to hide.
Did your relative manage to sue on this?
I think I'm saying "how much use are these declarations anyway?"

To be honest if the garden is overgrown they have been completely honest, I have no idea what it looks like myself!

not a red flag.
we did the same. we didn't think there was knotweed in the garden or at neighbour's but some gardens in the area were very overgrown and the trainline less that a mile away was lined with the stuff.

I’m surprised anyone would write not sure to this question.

Op tell them it’s a yes or a no question and you want an answer.

I wouldn’t be suspicious of that. In the garden we currently have I’d be happy to say “no” as it’s very clear and I know what’s growing there. But in my sisters house her garden is huge and v overgrown, she wouldn’t know if there was knotweed in there so would say not that she knows of rather than a clear no. “Unsure” could be taken to mean you think there might be knotweed.

I'd write that as well as the honest answer. If it's at the back of the garden as well (assuming garden not 2 foot long), I'd think it's manageable.

Can you go and look? In my experience it’s difficult to have a small amount of knotweed! Even if it’s not the growing season for it it’ll still be there. In the growing season you can almost see it growing it’s so fast.

I’m surprised anyone would write not sure to this question.

They didn't. They wrote "not that I know of". Ie as far as they are aware there isn't any.

I wouldn't be prepared to commit to stating something like that with certainty on a legal document. Without having had a specialist survey it is not a yes/no answer at all.

I'm selling a property at the moment so have recently answered this question. I ticked no there was no knotweed and my solicitor advised me to change it to not known. I think they're trying to cover me in the unlikely event it is found. I hope that helps.

The answer in itself is not unreasonable. However combined with the state of the garden and how late the form came through, it would make me ask questions.

What else did they answer in that way?

Solicitor told me to write not known on our Property Information Form. Literally no thought that there is knotweed but just followed the legal advice.

That's what my firm advises our clients to write unless they are a qualified horticulturalist, or have had a survey to be certain.

Essentially, as no is an absolute answer, then the seller could be sued on it if they are wrong. Saying that they don't believe so is a statement that they aren't an expert so can't be certain and puts the responsibility onto the buyer to check for themselves.

I think they are saying “ the garden is overgrown and I haven’t checked every last inch”

It wouldn’t actually worry me: knotweed can be treated (either by injecting into the stems or regular spraying). If there was any, you could spray all growth as it appeared and get rid of it yourself within 2 - 4 years. The issue is really with it being in neighbours’ gardens, but I don’t think they can refuse to have it treated anymore.

If the garden is overgrown then the present owner probably genuinely has no idea what's growing there. He may not know what Knotweed looks like so is being honest, rather than evasive, in saying that he doesn't know.

It's not a red flag. It's a sensible answer from the sellers. They don't want to say no just incase there are any repercussions if some were to be found in the overgrown garden. It doesn't mean there is any. They're covering their own backs.

Thanks for all the responses. General consensus seems to be it’s a perfectly normal thing to write on the form. The seller doesn’t live at the property, it has been tenanted for years, so another perfectly normal reason for them to write ‘Not that I know of’. If we had seen this property form earlier, we probably would have got a specialist in to check for it, but we are now only days away from exchange and don’t want to hold up the process any further at this stage. We’ll probably get indemnity insurance if it’s not too costly.

@tilder the seller filled in the form promptly in the first week after sale agreed. Our solicitor has held on to all documents and forms and sent them all to us in one file just before exchange, despite me asking a couple of times for him to send the PIF earlier. So the seller wasn’t purposefully holding back on sending the form.

@senua I think they decided not to sue, I’m not really sure on the details of how they dealt with it.