Rose Cottage, Haslemere

I had been dealing with a property purchase and mortgage on a house with Japanese knotweed 10 metres from the house at the end of 2020. It is classified as RICS Category 3 as it is more than 7 metres from the dwelling but within the boundary. This means some lenders will not consider lending as it is within the boundary, but many will.

I will point out dear readers that when the application was submitted to the mortgage lender in question neither I nor the client was not aware of the presence of Japanese knotweed. It was only when a full structural survey the client had instructed for their own purposes was completed that mentioned it.

It was also a complicated case in terms of self-employment income structure together with trying to find a mortgage lender who would lend sufficient funds to buy the house in the first place.

Treatment plan in place but not yet started

A treatment plan had just been put in place by the vendor of the house (November 2020) and herbicidal treatment is due to commence June 2021. The mortgage lender in question wanted the first course of treatment to have already been completed to consider lending.

The thing is that there is no point in treatment commencing in November given the plant doesn’t grow in the winter plus the amount of rain we have in autumn, winter & early spring would wash away herbicide sprayed on the Japanese knotweed.

So, on the face of it we had a problem. However, I did note that on the Japanese knotweed report produced by a suitably qualified firm in November that it mentioned that there was evidence of previous treatment and that there was no evidence of new growth. Therefore, if I could obtain this evidence that treatment had been done this might satisfy the mortgage lender.

Investigation into previous treatment

I managed to get in touch with the guy who produced the Japanese knotweed report. He believed treatment had been completed and he was good enough to give me the name and telephone number of another surveyor who had completed a survey in 2018. My client then called the elderly vendor of the house who said he hadn’t paid for any treatment because of the cost and as he had no plans to move at the time felt it was an unnecessary cost.

I called the previous Japanese knotweed surveyor up and he was fairly sure treatment had been completed, not by the vendor but by the local council in 2020. As the council owned some land near part of the boundary, and had treatment on the council land, they also treated the area on the garden too to prevent it potentially spreading back into the council’s land.

Bespoke report produced

He very kindly produced a report for me detailing what treatment had been completed. I in turn forwarded this report to the mortgage lender. Now whilst the lending policy of this particular lender was not to consider lending as the new treatment plan now paid for by the vendor wasn’t due to commence until June 2021, the underwriter had indicated they may be able to agree it as an exception given some treatment had been completed in 2020 even though this wasn’t part of the new treatment plan.

It is cases like this that I thrive on. Where the buyer has invested so much time, effort and money on trying to buy a house to be told last minute that it was declined by the lender can be devasting news to them. He had moved out of his previous rented house, arranged for his children to go to the local school, paid architect fees to improve the house and was under a lot of pressure. Where common sense or indications show it can be resolved I will try to persuade and argue the case with the mortgage lender as I don’t like ‘no’ for an answer.

If you’ve got a property you wish to buy that has evidence of Japanese knotweed on the land or indeed you’re a seller whose buyer has had issues getting a mortgage possibly due to the Japanese knotweed and need some help do get in touch.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up with the repayments on your mortgage.

Photo provided with kind permission from Chris Osborne of Complete Weed Control telephone 01243 776996 or mobile 07713 599691.