Invasive Weeds on Neighbours' property – remortgage or selling?

[AnxiousNewHome]

Has anyone had success with sale and/or remortgage where invasive weed on neighbouring land is not being treated properly? We've exhausted all the options to try and get them to treat it.

Bought a house a not too long ago, no mention in (multiple) surveys of the weed near the property, sellers ticked 'No' on TA6. Not our forever home, and in any case will need to deal with lenders for remortgages etc.

Transpires that that the weed is in two neighbouring bits of land, one large landowner and one smaller one within the RICS prescribed distance. Both parties had a lot of other overgrowth, which might explain why this was missed - only became clear when one party cut back other vegetation. No encroachment on our property yet, but its close enough to our boundaries to cause trouble.

One lot claim to be treating it (apparently for years) but we're very dubious given the health and extent of growth. They haven't provided any meaningful plan details. The others are doing nothing, and not engaging at all. Both parties won't allow third parties onto land. Root barriers tricky for a number of reasons.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do? Could you get a management plan for remortgage/selling purposes despite no access to neighbours?

Oh dear! I had this problem with a neighbour and asked if I could go round and deal with it myself. He was happy for me to do that. Is that an option for you?

A 'No' for both parties.

Is it Japanese knotweed? If so, it makes selling very difficult.

😢

We are very worried about selling indeed, and hoping someone has had luck with a solution.

Furious to find ourselves in this situation, we thought that's what surveys and solicitors were for.

If its Japanese knotweed isn't there a legal obligation for them to deal with it?

Is it Japanese knotweed? You’ve not said yes or no to that question. If it’s not that is it a species on the Defra list of invasive alien plants? How you resolve this will depend if your plant is on this list or not

Its not that clear cut (scuse terrible pun).

Sorry all, it is indeed JKW. It definitely is not clear cut in the law – it's only an issue once encroachment takes place onto you own property, which obviously we would like to avoid. Not illegal to have it on your own land, only illegal to cause it to spread.

Even then, the party where it originated can only be forced to treat it on their own land, and you'd have to take legal action for any damages – and undertake treatment to your own property to ensure you're not letting it spread from your land. Or so we have learnt over this whole saga.

Council aware and has taken as much action as they can, but we are where we are despite that.

Legally, our options are to warn everyone that there is a risk of knotweed spreading from their land and to take action, and to keep a record– and if it does spread to us, we can then use that as the basis to take further action. We'd probably be able to seek compensation, but we'd need to appoint a solicitor and do all of the legal stuff to make that happen – definitely not automatic.

As you can imagine, tearing our hair out with the frustration of it all!

So sorry to hear you're in this position, OP. Hard to get your head around why anyone would be so deliberately obstructive 😣

Yeah. You got it @AnxiousNewHome . Should add that the regulation only kicks in when owner intentionally allows to reproduce and that’s tricky to prove unless you have a history of evidence. It is very frustrating.

There is evidence that most people live with JK nearby and probably don’t know it. Also that the problems for homeowners have been greatly overstated, see here, https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/japanese-knotweed/ but I do understand that it puts the willies up buyers.

The guidance is so much more reassuring than most we have seen, @MurdoMunro .

@Beachtastic thanks for the sympathy. One neighbour is a large public body, so I guess par for the course there.

If anyone has successfully navigated this in the past - whether by putting down root barriers, some act of legal genius, or something else – please do share.

There are others that say it’s not as bad as previously thought to have it nearby. But I don’t think many people know that, or if they do don’t believe it, so it doesn’t really help when trying to sell.

I do have some experience of trying to manage it on public land but the trouble is that’s not often the source, it’s spread in from private land or railway tracks etc. It’s a lot of money wasted when it just comes straight back in.

We try to hold it back by attacking the young stems if we can catch them on time (although with 150 sites and 5 staff that’s a hope over reality situation). The young stems are more susceptible to herbicides. But that’s a whole other wasps nest because as soon as we’re spotted doing that we get hauled over the press for doing that too.

Honestly, go round there in the dead of night and sort it out
Better to apologise then to ask for permission

@MurdoMunroabsolutely. Evidence has shown that other plants like buddleia is as damaging as JK, if not more so. There was a government paper about changing the need to declare it after X years.

Unfortunately, the larger neighbour is the railways – no access to the land at all

Legally, it seems like we can only do things once the encroachment happens, so really at this stage we're trying to work out if selling/remortgage problems as well as peace of mind are sorted out if we bite the bullet and pay for a really expensive root barrier (if it is even possible).

Is there much to be gained by taking expensive preventative action as opposed to an expensive cure if the worst happens?

We had something similar. If it isn’t on your land, your options are limited and I recognise that the fear of not being able to actively sort is almost worse than not having it. With us, neighbour engaged with steer from us and it was fine, all treated and sorted.

If you are in a triangular situation, that does make it tricky. You have my sympathies. Tbh would you consider selling now if not a forever home? At present you have no obligation to declare (so the sellers did nothing wrong).

I don’t think it’s something you can sort in the dead of night. It needs a professional and I think more than one treatment.

Could you take out some sort of indemnity insurance?

It does exist - maybe do some Googling if this might be of any interest?

https://www.environetuk.com/japanese-knotweed/insurance

@Beachtastic thank you, we actually spoke to them, but we don't qualify. Never buying another house without this, though, once burned...

@kittybloom We definitely thought about it, but we were told we'd probably have to say something. Unfortunately, our area is a slow market right now, with lovely, seemingly sensibly priced places languishing on the market for months.

The TA6 form has been revised - you only have to declare if within 3m of the property (used to be 7m). You may not be required to declare it, in fact if the JK is more than 7m from your property then neither did your vendors.

I wouldn’t be thinking about things like root barriers. As I said the young shoots are easier to deal with so keep and eye out and if any do appear on your side the treat with glyphosate. It works - honestly!

Yes, unfortunately doesn't change any of the above.

Well, I suppose you might worry a little less? That if you do decide to sell you might not need to declare it and if it is closer you can treat it fairly cheaply and easily I mean.

I do understand, but JK is very common, most of us could find it near our houses if we looked closely enough.

No, we definitely have to mention it even with these recent rules is what I meant! Sorry if I was unclear. It definitely feels like being in the worst of all worlds.

@MurdoMunro curious why wouldn’t you think about root barriers in this situation?

I totally believe you that young shoots can be dealt with if they encroach, but surely they’ll just keep coming back in this situation?

Plus lenders usually want plans and guarantees, and we were told those aren’t available unless the company providing them is certain they can also guarantee all land within a few m of the boundary like all affected neighbours OR install a barrier?

We had the same issue a neighbours field had some and nothing picked it up even though we had some roots in our boundary hedge. We knew we wanted to sell eventually so took some legal action and enforced rights to access the land to treat.

We spent 5 years on a treatment plan which is fairly cheap think £100 per year, after year 3 it had almost gone and year 5 we got a certificate to say it was clear we sold in year 8 and had all the evidence treatment plans etc.

the legal part didn’t take long either they caved after the a letter and signed an access agreement as they realised we were paying g and treating their land.

it’s literally the only way forward, also bamboo is just as invasive! Don’t plant it.