'borrowing' wasteland to grow on?

[tootles]

In the UK there is no law of trespass. There is agravated trespass (or words to that end) whereby it is not illegal to enter someone else's land. It is only illegal to damage their property in the process.
Scary but true, if someone decided to live in your garden shed, so long as they hadn't broken anything, it would be a civil case to have them evicted (same goes for your house - watch who you let in the front door!)

[janeyo]

I guess you could argue in court that digging and growing vegetables in damage!

Have taken pics of it, will attach later.

[janeyo]

I love the guerilla gardening website, inspired!

[Polly Fouracre]

I would keep it very low key, grow your veg, say nothing to anyone and if after , I think, twelve years you haven't been asked to pay rent etc, then you can register the land in your name.
I believe there are conditions attached such as keeping the land in good heart, growing as much as possible etc.
Anyway, good luck with it and even if you're rumbled you will have had a few years growing.

[NOG]

[QUOTE=tootles;363429]In the UK there is no law of trespass. There is agravated trespass (or words to that end) whereby it is not illegal to enter someone else's land. It is only illegal to damage their property in the process.
Scary but true, if someone decided to live in your garden shed, so long as they hadn't broken anything, it would be a civil case to have them evicted QUOTE]
Not quite Trespass is a common law offence and you have 3 options in law, you as the owner of the land (freeholder) and not a company. If someone was in your shed you could take him by the arm and escort him off your property, go to County Court and apply for an evicton notice or take a Tort action. The Police would not get involved except to prevent disturbance of the Peace (section 5 offence of the public order act, or DOP Common Law).

[NOG]

Fencing off of land only works if the land is not registered, and if the owner is not known. You have to fence it for 12 years and the fences have to be maintained and you need to make some improvement to the land.

I would pay the £3 fee for a Land Reg search or £5 for a copy of the Title. The if its not registered fence and apply for title.

[tootles]

You are right, it is a civil not criminal offence, however, if the individual did not wish to leave it would take months of costly court action to evict them. Taking someone by the arm, who does not wish to be taken by the arm, opens a Pandora's box of litigation possibilities.
The bottom line, though, is that simply being on someone else's land does not constitute an offence.

[NOG]

28 days. If they are on you land you go to County Court and apply for a possession notice and then you or a CC Bailiff serve it. That gives them 28 days to leave. At the end of the 28 days if they are still there you and your agent or a CC Bailiff can remove them from the property.

If they are on your property and will not leave you can get the police to attend you the ask them to leave and escort them off the property. once they start kicking up they have breached the peace and they get nicked. Ok they could try a common assult on you.

In you house...thats a differant story.

[janeyo]

I can't wait to see my veggies uprooting themselves after getting an eviction notice lol

[Growem]

I think for the cost and time involved in planting a new garden, you would be well off to see if you can contact the owner via a land search. Because the cost of the land registry search will undoubtably be cheaper than spending a year planting and tending a garden to then have it dug under when the owner does show up and doesn't like it.

If you do the search and get no word after trying to contact the owner, at least you can say you tried to reach them if anyone asks.

I can understand the appeal of wanting to use the land, but I really think you should try to do it as legally as possible, rather than trying to do it sneakily.

[Polly Fouracre]

Fencing off of land only works if the land is not registered, and if the owner is not known. You have to fence it for 12 years and the fences have to be maintained and you need to make some improvement to the land.

I would pay the £3 fee for a Land Reg search or £5 for a copy of the Title. The if its not registered fence and apply for title.

This thread got me thinking. I know I advocated plant, wait and if possible grab but this is what happened to friends of ours a few years ago............
Our friends live in an old farmhouse in Gloucester, have done for about forty years. Attached to the house is a series of barns and attached to those is a cottage which was for sale. Said cottage was bought by a young couple who, after they had been there for about six months approached our friends and asked if they could store a few things in the barn next to the cottage.
The friends, of course, said "Yes, help yourselves, we don't use it anyway"
Years went by, and not the twelve years I mentioned but, I think, eight ,and one day the friends opened the door between the barns to find a breeze-block wall in front of them!!
The people in the cottage had taken the barn and made it into a part of their home.
The friends took the case to court, thinking that as these people knew that the barn belonged to them that right would be on their side.
No, the court ruled that as they had been using the barn and no rental agreement had been made and a fair period of time had passed that the young couple were entitled to call the barn their own!!!
So, maybe it would be fair to find out if the land is owned. Though not to say use it and grow your veg. Just be fair if someone does own it.

[Hilary B]

This thread got me thinking. I know I advocated plant, wait and if possible grab but this is what happened to friends of ours a few years ago............
Our friends live in an old farmhouse in Gloucester, have done for about forty years. Attached to the house is a series of barns and attached to those is a cottage which was for sale. Said cottage was bought by a young couple who, after they had been there for about six months approached our friends and asked if they could store a few things in the barn next to the cottage.
The friends, of course, said "Yes, help yourselves, we don't use it anyway"
Years went by, and not the twelve years I mentioned but, I think, eight ,and one day the friends opened the door between the barns to find a breeze-block wall in front of them!!
The people in the cottage had taken the barn and made it into a part of their home.
The friends took the case to court, thinking that as these people knew that the barn belonged to them that right would be on their side.
No, the court ruled that as they had been using the barn and no rental agreement had been made and a fair period of time had passed that the young couple were entitled to call the barn their own!!!
So, maybe it would be fair to find out if the land is owned. Though not to say use it and grow your veg. Just be fair if someone does own it.

Sounds wrong to me, but I think the SAFE option, if you allow someone to use your property, is to remind them from time to time that it is yours, regardless of whether there is any agreement or rent paid. I would have thought there would be a requirement for planning consent to extend into the barn, and as neighbours they should have been given notice of the application in time to object before consent was granted.

[Polly Fouracre]

No, they didn't need planning permission apparently, only had to satisfy building regs. My dear friends would only see the good in Saddam Hussein!

[Hilary B]

No, they didn't need planning permission apparently, only had to satisfy building regs. My dear friends would only see the good in Saddam Hussein!

OH, (who knows quite a lot about planning law) says there must be something more to this than we have heard. Last I heard change of use from outbuilding to residential DID need planning consent, unless it is a listed building, in which case it needs THAT kind of consent. Unless this was a considerable time ago, the Party Wall Act would apply.

[Polly Fouracre]

This happened ten years ago.