Japanese Knotweed

Author
Discussion

Temo_Wil

Original Poster:

161 posts

192 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Hi

Just looking for some opinions, examples and Information regarding this please.

Found a beautiful property that needs fully updating. Has the potential to be our “forever” house however it has several areas of Japanese Knotweed at approximately 4 meters to the front of the property. This has been allowed to grow to 3 meters in height in these areas. The property is circa 1940s.

My heart says proceed with the purchase but head says to run.

What would you do?

Also, the property is on the market for £415k, reduced from £450k. Needs £70k spending to bring it up to scratch. When finished I’d estimate £475k realistic market value so as you can see it’s currently overpriced. How much would you look to purchase for bearing this issue and modernising work involved?

Thank you....

paul789

3,681 posts

104 months

Friday 9th February 2018
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deckster

9,630 posts

255 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Do you need a mortgage? Because you won't get one with the knotweed there.

Oh yes, and run away.

Temo_Wil

Original Poster:

161 posts

192 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Hi

Yes, a mortgage is required. From speaking to our existing lender and researching their lending criteria this may be possible if an active treatment plan is in place by a accredited company. Such a plan is in place with treatment started in Oct 2017 and runs until 2022. This is also financed from the estate so no costs involved for us as the purchasers.

Voldemort

6,144 posts

278 months

Friday 9th February 2018
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If you buy it you will need to find somebody even more stupid than yourself to sell it to...

Wacky Racer

38,157 posts

247 months

Friday 9th February 2018
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Knotweed can be treated successfully, don't panic, it might take three or four years, but it can be eradicated fairly cheaply.

Plenty of information on the net.

Gemmot

117 posts

85 months

Friday 9th February 2018
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As above really. TBH, if you were looking at doubling your money once your renovations are complete and youve spent the best part of £20k getting rid of the JK then maybe and only maybe it would be worth considering

Temo_Wil

Original Poster:

161 posts

192 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Voldemort said:
If you buy it you will need to find somebody even more stupid than yourself to sell it to...
Thanks for the great input....

wilwak

759 posts

170 months

Friday 9th February 2018
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We had several large plants appear in the meadow adjoining our street.

I waited until it was in full leaf and then hit it hard with this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-5L-Rosate-360-TF-Ver...

Sprayed the full foliage every day for two weeks.

It completely killed the plants.

A couple of small plants appeared some months later a few metres away.

Again, let them grow until leafy and then gave the same treatment.

That was 5 years ago. Not seen any since.


Chrisgr31

13,474 posts

255 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Once you have got rid of the knotweed do you still have to declare it in the future? Seems to me that if you are going to hold it a long time then its worth going for. As regards price I think you can be aggressive, most people wont want to touch it.

castex

4,936 posts

273 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
We had this.

I hired a mini-digger. I went to town on it.
It worked. Minimal new growth.


Good luck.

Piersman2

6,597 posts

199 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
wilwak said:
We had several large plants appear in the meadow adjoining our street.

I waited until it was in full leaf and then hit it hard with this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-5L-Rosate-360-TF-Ver...

Sprayed the full foliage every day for two weeks.

It completely killed the plants.

A couple of small plants appeared some months later a few metres away.

Again, let them grow until leafy and then gave the same treatment.

That was 5 years ago. Not seen any since.
I bought a tub of exactly that Rosate stuff a year or two back, it's great for clearing the lock block drive with a light spray twice a year, and particularly effective at preventing next door's overly agressive vine from coming over the top of the fence; one quick spray along the top of the fence and it all turns brown and dies back not to be seen again for the rest of the year. smile


Alucidnation

16,810 posts

170 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Im sure there was a thread on here a few years go where someone had dug it out and ended up with a very large crater.

Wacky Racer

38,157 posts

247 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
The best thing to treat a smallish area is Roundup TREE AND ROOT killer.

NOT just ordinary Roundup....This is very important.

Gone completely in 2/3 years.

B17NNS

18,506 posts

247 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
castex said:
I hired a mini-digger. I went to town on it.
It worked. Minimal new growth.
So it didn't work then hehe

Condi

17,188 posts

171 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
Wacky Racer said:
The best thing to treat a smallish area is Roundup TREE AND ROOT killer.

NOT just ordinary Roundup....This is very important.

Gone completely in 2/3 years.
Its the same stuff, the tree and root stuff is 480g/l, while regular roundup is 360g/l from memory. So slightly stronger, but with regular application it will have the same effect much cheaper.


OP: really not an issue everyone makes out it is, glysphosate will control it, even if it takes a year or 2 to fully eradicate.

fuzzyyo

371 posts

161 months

Saturday 10th February 2018
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B17NNS said:
castex said:
I hired a mini-digger. I went to town on it.
It worked. Minimal new growth.
So it didn't work then hehe
Thats like one of the worst ideas you can do. One of the reasons its so resilient is that a new plant can shoot from a small cutting of the roots, so chopping it all up with a mini digger is not the way to go.

Andehh

7,110 posts

206 months

Saturday 10th February 2018
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With such large amounts of knotweed on site it would need to be considerably under market value, just for the knock you'd take selling it on, and hassle of mortgages.

However knotweed is nothing new, nor is how you get rid of it. Lot of professional firms do it with guarantees to suit. Just budget £10k-30k to do it. IANAL though, just lots of research on the topic a while back as I found it super interesting.

blueg33

35,859 posts

224 months

Saturday 10th February 2018
quotequote all
Its not a massive problem with a treatment plan in place. We buy at least one site a year with knotweed.

Do not dig it up and dump it anywhere, even the local tip, you will be committing a criminal offence and it probably won’t work.


blueg33

35,859 posts

224 months

Saturday 10th February 2018
quotequote all
castex said:
We had this.

I hired a mini-digger. I went to town on it.
It worked. Minimal new growth.


Good luck.
How did that work? What did you do with the stuff you dug up?