Property Information Form Issues

[chrisrsmith]

We are in the process of buying a property and the survey has discovered Japanese Knotweed (JK) on a neighbouring property (a farm). Mortgage lenders and RICS guidelines state that if JK is discovered within 7 metres of your boundary then the property is considered as affected.
The surveyor has stated that technically the property is affected.
The farmer has agreed but is unwilling (reluctant) to pay a qualified treatment company to perform the eradication. He will do it himself as he is licensed for spraying and can obtain the correct chemicals.

Problem is that on the Property Information Form the vendor is not stating that the JK is affected - simply stating NO and a note to say "JK apparently resides on a neighbouring property"…

Q - Is this illegal as to what he has written and/or illegal that his acting solicitor has sent it through like this?

I already returned it once whenever it simply stated "no" -but all they have done is added a note.

[Crazy council]

Re: Property Information Form Issues

hi

Q - Is this illegal as to what he has written and/or illegal that his acting solicitor has sent it through like this?

is the farmer, the one selling you the land... JK is a nightmare to get rid of, and extremely costly. Last time i checked ( 2004 ) , you needed to remove the ground, and the soils is classed as contaminated. Back yourself up on this properly,

[chrisrsmith]

Re: Property Information Form Issues

hi



is the farmer, the one selling you the land... JK is a nightmare to get rid of, and extremely costly. Last time i checked ( 2004 ) , you needed to remove the ground, and the soils is classed as contaminated. Back yourself up on this properly,

No, the house is next door to farm land and it is the vendor not correctly (in my opinion) answering the PIF. Both farmer and vendor admit it is there.

[MissFM]

Re: Property Information Form Issues

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/our...iousweeds.aspx might be of oblique help? And

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...695_df1209.pdf

[MissFM]

Re: Property Information Form Issues

The relevant gist appears to be that it's the farmer's legal obligation to stop it spreading.

[Crazy council]

Re: Property Information Form Issues

I would step very carfully with this one

KW, itself, you can live with it, you just have to treat it regularly, not let it get out of hand, The problem being, if your ever ordered to remove it. It used to cost substantially. Things may have changed, but in 2003. to clear land for building on, you needed to remove ground a few meters down, and dispose of that ground as contaminated waste.... ££££££££

The farmer has agreed but is unwilling (reluctant) to pay a qualified treatment company to perform the eradication. He will do it himself as he is licensed for spraying and can obtain the correct chemicals.

Things may have changed since 2003, but you can not treat KW by just spraying,

Like i said, you can live with it, but, if ever you want to do any type of building or extension... or have a subsidence claim... you will struggle.

have a read of this, https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...695_df1209.pdf

For a negotiating point on price...... i suppose around 8k, i would account for..... but get some proper advise.. depends on the size of the land...

[michaelgreen92]

For anyone landing here from Google search etc in 2020 onwards, the answer would be: because of changes to the Seller’s Property Information Form (TA6), you could not put "no" on the form in these circumstances. Any japanese knotweed lawyer would suss-out the non compliance quickly and advise to make a claim for treatment costs (and potentially loss of amenity value in the land)

Notably, the content of the explanatory notes for Qu.7.8 has been updated to include:

“The seller should state whether the property is affected by Japanese knotweed. If you are unsure that Japanese knotweed exists above or below ground or whether it has previously been managed on the property, please indicate this as ‘Not known’.”

The note then emphasizes that to answer ‘No’ the seller must be certain that there is no rhizome present in the ground or within 3 metres of the property boundary. It then provides information about the effectiveness of different remediation methods and cautions the seller against assuming treatment will have eradicated the plant.

See https://hardwicke.co.uk/new-japanese...tion-form-ta6/