Japanese Knotweed

[CircleofTruth]

Have name changed for this for obvious reasons.

We live on a street with a history of people that have at various times appointed themselves sheriff of the road.

About ten years ago, the latest sheriff moved in, set up a What's App group which we did agree to be included in.

There is an area behind our houses where he claimed to have discovered some Japanese Knotweed. Helpfully, he posted this on the group.

Neither DH nor I are experts in this and IIRC we did agree to get involved in some treatment. None of this was directly behind our house but obviously it spreads if that's what it is. It was unclear if we ever got confirmation of that.

It was a dolt move, for sure, to have something like that on a public chat but at the time it was many years before we would have considered moving.

We're thinking of putting the house on the market.

Is this the sort of thing that would come up in a survey? Do I need to do anything if it was never confirmed?

I think there is a question on a form regarding invasive species. If you are not sure answer "don't know".

I had a friend who sold their house and they answered no to the invasive species (knotweed) question. It turns out they did have some in their garden unbeknown to them and it costs them thousands.

If you answer don't know it's up to the buyer to decide if they want an additional survey.

If you Google selling a house with Japanese knotweed there is lots of information online.

Don't whatever you do say 'no' to the knotweed question on the solicitor's TA6 form.
My DDad got stung for £27k for misrepresentation by ticking no. He did have knotweed which was discovered 2 years after he moved because a neighbour also had it. It was settled out of court but was very stressful for us. By then he had dementia and we had LPA so had to make decisions for him.

We would tick the 'do not know' box. Which is true. To my knowledge and DH's it was never confirmed by an actual expert and it wasn't behind our property but down the lane, near the sheriff's property. I got the feeling he sort of wanted praise for being so clever at discovering it but it was a conversation that should have been had orally. Other houses have since sold, including one nearer to his, so I'm guessing we'd be okay to check 'do not know.'

I’d just say no. You’ve no knotweed, that’s for sure, so just say it.

Did you not read my post about being sued for misrepresentation by ticking 'no' to the knotweed question. Cost my DDad £27,000 and it could have been £100k +++ if it had gone to court.

as long as there is no knotweed on your property, you should be fine to say 'no'. if the question asks 'is there knotweed within 50m?' or something, then you could say 'dont know'

knotweed can now be eradicated with weedkiller so it is not such a bad issue anyway.

We sold within the last year & our solicitor told us to say do not know to the knotweed question

I can definitely say there is no knotweed on our property.