Seller on Hook for Japanese Knotweed Invasion, Court Holds

A seller can be held liable for an invasive weed and other hazards scattered on a buyer’s property, a panel of Massachusetts Appeals Court judges held Friday.

Seller Peter Cricones of real estate company Reedy Meadows LLC violated Massachusetts consumer protection laws by failing to disclose Japanese knotweed and metal and glass debris strewn across the lawn on a property he sold to Joseph and Kim Trites, the judges said.

“It is clear that the Triteses would not have purchased the property had they known about the contamination of its soil,” the Appeals Court said in its first known decision ...