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@stevo_com
Re: knotweed. We had some treated last year and paid just over £1600 for a 10 yr insurance backed guarantee. Most lenders will insist on a management plan which is usually the 5 year thing. The 10yr guarantee covers you if it comes back and the treating company has gone out of business. I managed to convince my neighbour to do the same as there was growth just on their side of the fence. There has been zero regrowth this year, on either property. They found more up a shared access path and sprayed that while they were at it. There was some flytipping of building waste on the path years before we bought, which is probably where it came from.
As has been said, it is no where near the scourge that some media will have you think. The guy doing the treatment even said there are far more destructive plants, like rose bushes, that don't get the same stigma. JKW is particularly hated because it spreads and is impossible to completely kill. You can either have it (read: your whole garden) dig out and removed, which costs a fuckton. Or, have it treated with glyphosate which makes it dormant. The latter just means you can't dig in the area.
So long as you have the management/treatment plan (and preferably the insurance backed guarantee), most lenders should be fine. You can do it yourself, but if it came up in a survey and you didn't have the £1600 bit of paper, you'd be a bit stuffed.
The dude even went so far as to say that the issues with mortgages only really spiked around about the time of the crash as more and more lenders were looking for reasons not to lend.
Tldr: throw money at the problem and it will go away.