If you’re selling a property in one of the many not Tweed hotspots throughout the country be very, very, careful what you enter on form TA6,
there is a question that specifically asks if you are aware of the presence of Knotweed and that question has three answers no not known or yes if you are not certain either have your property checked which is the safest way before you even begin to sell it or enter not known do not enter no by default unless you are absolutely certain there was a recent uh court case where somebody bought a property in London and there was Knotweed hidden behind shrubs in the garden.
The seller had entered no to the question about Knotweed the buyer took the man to court and the judge believed that on balance of probability the seller probably knew about it maybe he did maybe he didn’t but that seller is now over £200,000 pounds out of pocket, in legal costs for both sides.
As you can see from the Knotweed heat map, if you’re in London, Birmingham, Midlands Corridor, up to Manchester, Blackpool, Newcastle, Bristol, South Wales, down to Plymouth and Cornwall, make sure that you are 100% certain that there is no Knotweed on your premises.
if you’re going to enter no there are companies who will conduct a free survey and in the event that there is not Tweed on your premises then you are better to deal with it before selling rather than drawing or after a sale if you have a property company to survey your property then it may turn out that the source of the Knotweed is on adjacent land which will make them liable, the worst case scenario is that you do have to have it cleared and how it normally works is that the knotweed needs to be cleared within five meters or at least five meters from your property, with a 10-year guarantee.
Different companies handle it differently, I have come across it before and I have managed to get it cleared and the guarantee that would satisfy the lenders. If the land adjacent to your property is public land, the local Authority is liable, if it’s privately owned then the owners are liable, but it’s always better to deal with it beforehand, so unless your garden is literally a flat lawn with a fence and you can see what’s there or you’re not 100 certain make sure you have it surveyed they’ll come and do it for free and then you have some something in writing to state that you had a professional survey to say that there was no not weed at the time the survey was conducted, or just before you put the property up for sale, which will cover you.
It’s not something to be taken lightly and one thing is for certain do not lie on that form otherwise you could be leaving yourself open to legal costs, very high legal costs at some point in the future, there are quite a few companies who do conduct these surveys if you need advice on who to call uh by all means contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction.