Japanese fracking Knotweed

miss notax

Hiya

I've had rather a stressful day involving my estate agents telling me that the above has been found in the garden of house i'm selling.... :shock:

Obviously I have googled it this morning which induced a state of complete panic, but in reality it's only two bits (100ft away from the house by a stream) which i'm hoping can be sorted out *relatively* easily. I'm sorting it asap and doing everything I can to keep the buyer on board.

Anyway, please no scare stories, but does anyone have any actual experience of this?

Thanks!

(and I didn't swear in the title - honest - it's being pedantic!)

EH_Rob

I'm an ecologist, and have some experience of it.

The good news is it isn't an offence to have it on your land. The bad news is, as I'm sure you've read, it may make it more difficult to sell your house without getting rid of it, which is what I'd be looking at doing. If it's that far away from the house there's probably little danger of it doing anything to it, so that's good. How much of it is there? Bear in mind this stuff grows pretty fast, so the sooner it is dealt with the better.

Don't pull it up, it'll come back, and if you get caught disposing of it anywhere you shouldn't you risk a big fine. Contact a removal specialist (better still two or three) and get them to come and have a look and quote for the work - they can vary pretty wildly in cost. You're probably looking at some sort of herbicidal treatment a couple of times a year for 2-3 years to get rid of it properly. Make sure you get a report from the contractor which says 'in my opinion there is no risk to the building' or something to that effect, and details of the treatment regime. This will help satisfy the buyer (more importantly their lender) that you've got it under control. You're probably looking at a few hundred quid per treatment, and I guess you'd have to make clear to the new owner that they would be required to continue treatment. Although their lender will probably do that.

Hope that helps a bit, wouldn't worry too much about it, its bloody everywhere that stuff.

miss notax

Thanks - much appreciated

Yes, I worked myself up into a proper state about it this morning. I wouldn't have been been surprised by something about the roof or wall ties, but I wasn't expecting this!!

The Estate Agents is liasing with the council and getting a quote for removal - which i'm going to get done asap. I am really worried about losing the buyer but have offered to pay for another survey etc and will just do everything I need to keep them on-board. Fingers crossed.

Ironically, after all this stuff this morning, I had my offer accepted on a house I want to buy this afternoon. I don't know whether to cry or celebrate :?

cooldad

Cry?
MTFU

ps I would dig it up and chuck it over my (soon to be) neighbour's fence. Or parcel it up and post it back to Japan.

jimothy78

I've had success controling it with glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup, resolva and the like) mixed from concentrate to the maximum stated dose and applied to all parts of the plant. 2 doses in the course of a year has killed off smallish clumps with no re-emergence so far.

You mustn't allow glphosate to run off into watercourses, though, so sounds like the usual method of application is ruled out for you due to the stream.

I have heard of some specialists injecting concentrated glyphosate solution directly into the stems of the plant to avoid run-off problems, but this would presumably be a very drawn-out and costly process.

EH_Rob

As its already in a report, trying to get rid of it yourself is pointless, as it'll still be in the report and you'll have no statement from a professional that the problem is/has been dealt with.

miss notax

Yes, agreed, i'm not even going down that route.

I want the official receipt to say that i've paid X amount of hard-earned cash to get rid of it!

Finding out later today whether my buyer wishes to proceed or not - keep your fingers crossed

miss notax

£1400 to remove two stalks.... :shock:

I never want to see another suspicious looking plant in my life after this... :twisted:

pesky_jones

£1400 for two stalks?

I know weed can be expensive but seriously?

.blitz

http://japaneseknotweed-removal.co.uk/

Saw one of their vans on the mway the other day it looked like a pro outfit

bennett_346

miss notax wrote:

£1400 to remove two stalks.... :shock:

I never want to see another suspicious looking plant in my life after this... :twisted:

Did you have a survey done before you bought the house you're selling? It would probably have identified the knotweed before you bought it. Moral of the story - always have a survey done!

I admit i might be biased, i'm a building surveyor myself

EH_Rob

its only really in the last 2 or 3 years that some lenders have started to care about it as far as im aware, so a general survey before that would have been less likely to pick it up im guessing.

they do seem to have overreacted to it somewhat. total number of houses which have fallen down in the uk due to knotweed = 0.

Giraffoto

Congratulations on finding a new house, selling your old one and getting some free botany lessons. After this, will you again be looking for a smallish economical car that can fit bikes in? It's definitely the Honda Jazz that can fit a whole bike in the back.

miss notax

bennett_346 wrote:

miss notax wrote:

£1400 to remove two stalks.... :shock:

I never want to see another suspicious looking plant in my life after this... :twisted:

Did you have a survey done before you bought the house you're selling? It would probably have identified the knotweed before you bought it. Moral of the story - always have a survey done!

I admit i might be biased, i'm a building surveyor myself

Of course I had a survey done!! I'm not an idiot :evil:

I bought this house 6 years ago and I guess it either wasn't here, they didn't spot it, or it just wasn't a big deal then.

pesky_jones

I guess this depends when it became notifiable, but are the surveyors not liable for not finding it?

EH_Rob

Depends if it was there or not. I'd stick my neck out and say it probably wasn't. Even if it was, how would you prove it?

homers_double

Not that will do anything else other than vent frustration, but burn the ****ing stuff with fire.

pesky_jones

EH_Rob wrote:

Depends if it was there or not. I'd stick my neck out and say it probably wasn't. Even if it was, how would you prove it?

Yeah I was thinking that, I guess if you had the survey done, and then two weeks later you found a huge bush, you could photograph it and say its pretty obvious the plant has been there longer then two weeks. 6 years on the other hand...

EH_Rob

this stuff can grow about 3m in a month, but yeah, point taken.

i reckon if it was there 6 years ago it'd be thriving by now, so i bet it wasn't.

bennett_346

Yeah if it wasn't identified back then, it wasn't there. Has it came from a neighbors garden or land?

Stevo_666

A mate of mine found some in the back garden of the house he bought last year and he got rid of it with a mixture of digging plus some vicious chemical and incinerated what was left. So can be done DIY.

pesky_jones

Stevo 666 wrote:

A mate of mine found some in the back garden of the house he bought last year and he got rid of it with a mixture of digging plus some vicious chemical and incinerated what was left. So can be done DIY.

Yeah it can be done, but theres no proof to the buyer that it's fully gone. The buyer might take your word for it, but a report, like miss notax says, stating you've payed x amount to a specialist for the removal is far, far better

EH_Rob

If you aren't used to apply correct methods to get rid of it its could be still there.

You can't use 'vicious chemicals' near a stream, so that kind of rules that out in this instance.

Digging is usually pretty ineffective, it usually has a large network of rhizomes (roots) which extend pretty deep. An additional problem is that it grows very aggressively when cut. So you have to get all of it, if you don't you're making it worse.

Gazlar

miss notax wrote:

£1400 to remove two stalks.... :shock:

I never want to see another suspicious looking plant in my life after this... :twisted:

My friend Ben paid 5 grand to have a stalk removed but now we now him as Lisa

DesB3rd

£1400 is a fair bit but not mad; last year I got three clumps removed for £3k.

Ask for a full template copy of their warranty before proceeding, some are fairly worthless once the caveats and liability limitations are considered.

Jakeyy84

Japanese Knotweed sucks. I wrote this article after finding some in my mums back garden. It explains the history behind it, what it looks likes during different times of the year, and (probably most importantly) different ways to eradicate it.
My personal suggestion, though, is digging. Although it can be a big job depending on the depth of the roots..!
https://www.repossessedhousesforsale.co ... -knotweed/

steve_sordy

If I was the contractor, I'd be looking upstream to see where it came from, and downstream too in case it has already spread. More customers!

JBA

Resurrecting a 5 year old thread. Why?

The Rookie

Spam to advertise their blog.....

EalingEagle

Don’t have it yet, but having researched around it, I figure that I will take a gardeners/cyclist approach....chop them back to 6 inches above ground and then a nice smear of copper grease into the wound. Should be systematic if not quite organic. Will it work? Dunno. Himalayan Balsam is getting a bit too cuddly in these parts, so I should be able to launch soon....