Scottish Home Report - Japanese knotweed

[CooperRed]

Hello everyone!

i live in Scotland and have recently been successful at a closing date for my dream house. My problem is that it’s became known since my offer that the property contains Japanese knotweed on the land, this was not mentioned anywhere in the home report.

I have been informed that the current owner has to fork out for a long term eradication plan before we move, which I’m happy with, but my great concern is that from reading articles online, the sheer presence of the stuff can devalue homes by 10-20%.

I feel I have bid on a property with a false home report value in this instance if that is the case. Has anyone been successful in Scotland at a closing and managed to re negotiate a price afterwards? Do you think I am within my rights to ask for a new home report to be completed INCLUDING it this time to reflect its actual value?

any similar experience or knowledge of how this works in Scotland would be so much appreciated! :)

This is almost impossible to get rid of. I would advise to walk away and buy somewhere else. You should be able to as they failed to mention problem, they may have deliberately concealed problem from you.

My friend's neighbour has JK. It is literally breaking & forcing it's way though her concrete patio. I've been stunned at the strength of it & the speed at which it grows, it's phenomenal. I'd be very wary of buying a place with it because it's likely that's not the only patch.. Other neighbours probably have it too.

how much? how far from the house?

it is all over the place where we are in London but doesn't seem to cause too much trouble if you keep on top of it. do a proper systemic chemical weedkiller and you can defeat it.

Distance from house & extent of it would matter to me. It can be cleared very effectively and permanently (nasty chemicals injected into the canes) but the whole patch needs to be tackled at same time (some might be in neighbouring properties). If it’s arrived via eg a watercourse then it’ll be an ongoing issue though, as more roots will wash downstream.

IME in reality it’s really not as bad as some people insist, but my view might be coloured by soil type and climate! Often when it emerges through patios, driveways etc it’s because the roots were already there, rather than spreading from adjacent areas.

BUT... it will affect house value. I’m not sure banks will mortgage a property without a professional, insured eradication plan in place. I’d be going to the vendor and ask for the surveyor to revalue based on it. You are NOT committed to buy yet, and with a material finding like this it’s fine to investigate, walk away, or re-negotiate... the EA & vendor might not like it, but you’re not backing out because you’ve changed your mind or whatever, there’s a specific objective issue that’s come up.

PS - it’ll take several seasons to eradicate it, during which time you won’t be able to use that part of your garden.
PPS - I’m in Scotland, and whilst I’ve never pulled out after a closing date, the “winner” of one property we offered on did.

So I don't have any knowledge on the Japanese Knotweed but we did win a house at closing date, then pulled out. We had just panicked about losing so many houses so bid on a house we didn't really want.

We then came second in our current home. but it was being sold by the same estate agents that sold our house. So, our estate agents went to her saying we were in a more sound position than the winner (we had sold, they hadn't even got a HR done yet) and we could move in her timeframe. We also added a grand or so onto the bid. We were accepted.

So it is definitely possible to renegotiate after the closing date.

This sounds really worrying. Although you can (eventually) get rid of JK, it's a swine and yes, devalues properties, even if it hasn't invaded the building (yet).

The Scottish system is usually held up as being far superior to the English one, but in this case, I am glad we get to do all our due diligence before the contract is binding.

@FuzzyPuffling , the contract isn’t binding until it’s signed though - so OP can pull out now without any issue.
Gazumping, gazundering & general dicking about doesn’t happen in Scotland like it does in England. But anything that comes up during conveyencing or whatever is still perfectly acceptable to pull out.

You can pull out at such an early stage for any reason. Your solicitor will almost certainly have said that your offer was subject to survey and mortgage approval (even if he knew you weren't intending to have a survey) so an issue emerging like that is absolutely grounds to walk away with a clear conscience.

It depends on the size of the garden, proximity to the house (especially if it's already done damage to the house), willingness of the vendors to put a treatment plan in place (they're legally obliged to but could still try to be difficult) and if you can get money off the purchase price to reflect the impact of it.

If you're still keen to go ahead you should insist on seeing the specialist knotweed report the owners will have to get anyway. I've found that the homebuyers survey you can pay hundreds for is basically just the home report the seller's already paid for with a different cover, but you could ask for them to refresh the HR in light of the knotweed for a revised valuation.

When we were looking for our current place I really loved a cottage with a 100 meter garden; the 60 meters furthest from the house had knotweed which had been treated for a couple of seasons. The owners had a treatment plan in place which covered five years of root injections etc, all at their expense; the only 'cost' to us would have been allowing access to the eradicators once or twice a year. When I viewed the cottage there were a handful of isolated spikes of knotweed nearer the house but it was largely under control and still had three years of treatment left to go.

The owners had bought the house at the top of the house price peak in 2007 for £225k and were selling it about five/six years ago for o/o £140k in a not unhealthy market, for whatever that tells you.

Our circumstances meant we couldn't put in an offer but I don't think it would have stopped us as it was so far from the house, was being monitored and actively controlled, and the sellers had taken the hit on value. We would have stayed there long enough that the knotweed, assuming it was fully eradicated, wouldn't have had to be declared when we sold. But I'm not so sure I would now.

Metres, not meters.