HOW MANY TREATMENTS?
We have yet again been amazed by a telephone call received this week in our office, when I thought we had heard it all, we could not believe our ears overhearing one of our Surveyors explaining some facts about Japanese Knotweed and that it couldn’t be treated in just one treatment and that lifetime guarantees are not worth the paper they are written on!
A potential client calls our office requesting a price to carry out an Insurance Backed Guarantee treatment programme to allow her to progress the sale of her property.
So far so good, she was thinking ahead and wanted a treatment programme in place with an Insurance Backed Guarantee in place before the property went on sale!
However, what happened next totally stunned us. When we explained how the treatment programme works and that it is likely that an established stand of Japanese Knotweed would take a number of years to treat and eradicate with between 6 and 10 treatments, she explained that she have been given some better advice elsewhere.
The lady went on to explain that the previous quote was from a, so called specialist, that could treat the entire 25 m2 of mature Japanese Knotweed in one visit for the princely sum of £600 and that the works were covered by a lifetime guarantee.
We did try to explain that this was in fact not possible and that the small print will need to be examined very closely and that anyone offering a lifetime guarantee was dubious.
We also directed her to the INNSA website www.innsa.org where any potential customer can see what is involved with Japanese knotweed treatments and gives impartial factual information about how to deal with this invasive weed.
Furthermore, the website has a search facility on it that allows you to search reputable companies all of which are independently vetted and all provide Insurance Backed Guarantees that are accepted by the major lenders.
Unfortunately, we have yet to hear back from this particular homeowner but hope that common sense prevails she doesn’t pay her £600 to what can only be described as a cowboy!
Conor Leyden
Invasive Plant Company