The dreaded Japanese knotweed

[Livingintheclouds]

After losing two houses due to seller being ill and withdrawing and another not funding an onward purchase and me withdrawing (and seller now taking house of the market), both after spending thousands on getting searches and surveys, I'm getting desperate. I'm moving some distance for school, have already completed on my sale and am in a holiday let costing me £££ (it was only to be for the two or three weeks before purchase).
Tomorrow we go see a house just come back to the market. It's near the last house, so I know the area and it's a grid of Victorian terraces so they are all pretty much same layout.
The EA says there was a small amount of Japanese knotweed found by previous survey (this is not the main reason the buyers pulled out). The seller immediately got it assessed and has started a treatment which comes with a transferable 10 year guarantee. I understand this is acceptable to most mortgage companies which doesn't concern me as I'm a cash buyer, but of course I will sell it at some point.
I know more recent research has said JK is not as damaging nor as invasive as previously thought, but it's reputation is such that I'm sure many would walk away just in hearing it mentioned. What are your thoughts? It doesn't bother me, but I'm just thinking down the line, probably I another five years or so, when I want to sell.

I believe we're the only country that has such a reaction to it - my friend had it all over her garden in the US and has no problem selling last year. Ignorance and Mail-style fear mongering isn't helpful.
It can be damaging, though no more than many woody shrubs, but all the overreaction has just led to people not disclosing it or getting it treated properly, as it is hard to eradicate.
The RICS has put out new guidelines as the 7m 'rule' used by many mortgage companies has been revised and they have even suggested that it should be taken off the property information form after no reoccurrence for x amount of years. It's in all boroughs of London and most cities so people are being very naive if they think it may not be prevalent and possibly - most people wouldn't even recognise it. After all it doesn't have seeds so how did it get in my garden (and the neighbours) in the first place?

We had some in our paddock. I injected a huge amount of glyphosate into the hollow stems and that was that! Been over 10 years now and it's never come back.

I would have no hesitation in buying a house with manageable JK especially if I got a discount.

Wow I'm really surprised at some of the scaremongering posts here.

OP we sold a flat 2 years ago with JKW. We had a management plan in place, as did the neighbouring property, and the plant was quite close to the rear of the property (less than 3m). Our buyers mortgage company was fine, and they were also fine.

However the buyer's parents then got involved and freaked them out so they threatened to pull out. So in the end we got the garden excavated and a weed membrane put in to stop it coming over the border.

That solved the problem for the buyers and we sold without further issue. So if the worry is the weed coming back in over the boundaries, this is another option that solves the issue.

Seriously though, in London it everywhere, and even if you bought somewhere with no signs, doesn't mean it couldn't spread. This needs to be dealt with more sensibly rather than something out of revenge of the Triffids (like others say, plenty of other invasive weeds out there!)

Really helpful to hear people’s comments, I’m not the OP, she has come back to comment and did buy her property.
We are now waiting for the sellers to get in a specialist to check out the Japanese knotweed, then we will have to see what our mortgage providers say, if they will still lend or not.
Then there is the question of price and if/how much we should reduce our offer.
I really don’t know what to think anymore.

I found the perfect house, at a good price, in a perfect catchment. Survey said it had JK previously undiscovered. Seller offered to treat it and postpone sale until it was dealt with.

We said no.

I would never, ever want a property that had had drastic chemical treatment and might need it again in future. Plus if the JK is at the boundary and spreads, you can be held liable for the cost of treating the neighbours' problem.

Definitely a no. No no no.

@PennyWus

drastic chemical treatment

Oh please! Drastic treatment would be using napalm or something like that. A bit of weedkiller (likely the most popular one in the world no less) does not fall into this category.

When you buy a house do you ask the vendors if they've ever used weedkiller?

@MyAltAccount.your comment reminds me that Smoking was pretty “popular” for a very long time, wasn’t it?

Glyphosate is a very popular and strong weed killer. The stuff the professionals use is significantly stronger than your standard Roundup. Often the JK returns in spring of year 1 after treatment and the plant is distorted, the leaf growth is radically altered. At this point the weed killer is used for a second time.

The glyphosate isn’t supposed to hang about in the soil, it washes into the water table. So it is safe in that sense. If the jk returns - and I’ve known this happen - you have to treat it again. So there’s not much point replanting that area of the garden for several years. There is unproven accusation of endocrine system disruption etc in humans from glyphosate. There’s concern about it, and people worry about these risks.

The biggest problem is that the glyphosate is it is bad for insect populations including bees. Many EU countries have banned the weaker Roundup style products beyond agricultural use, as have many UK councils who used it in weed control.

Some people don’t want to live near graveyards. Some people don’t want to live near mobile phone towers. Some people don’t want to live beside a busy road or an area of affordable social housing or a patch of ground that has permission for travellers. Some people don’t want to live with gardens treated heavily with strong weed killer. It is relevant because it can reduce the re-saleability of your home.

My dh is a landscaper and also cannot understand the JK hysteria....he can kill it for about £30 in decent weedkiller....there are a lot of people making money from this plant.

@myusernamewastakenbyme that’s very interesting, but honestly there is so much conflicting info out there, some people really wouldn’t even consider buying a house with JK, so it does effect a house sale and mortgages can be effected, but it does also seem a bit hysterical, like you say it’s a massive money maker for the people that implement the eradication programmes and the insurance industry.

@PennyWus it's injected and sprayed twice a year for a couple years , very specifically on that plant inly - I can atest that the rest of the plants growing hearby are unaffected. And the treatment cost less than £1500.
As pp said, there are many issues that may put a buyer off that another wouldn't think twice about. But experts (like the RICS who have reviewed the research ) say its not the demon beast it's reputation suggests. It didn't put me off.

I know it’s an old thread, but how did it go in the end?