Legal advice needed

[george356]

Hi

I need a bit of advice here and thought I would throw it open to the forum.

We are being inundated with slugs and snails, coming from my neighbours garden! This garden is a complete wilderness, grass hasnt been cut for years, what plants that are in there are completely overgrown, shrubs are reaching ever upward.

Now, you are going to ask, "How do I know they are coming from his garden"?

Well, they come over the close boarded fence and can be seen to be doing so.

My neighbour is an owner occupier, as are we, so I don't think we have any redress via the Local Authority. He is, at heart, an inherently nice guy and we don't want to fall out over this. We have asked him politely to do something about his garden but his reply? "I like a wild garden" !!!

Help, what do I do?

[taff]

Nothing you can do.

Put some vaseline or something on top of the fence so they can't climb over.....

[FionaH]

Legal advice for a slug invasion? Really?

[veggiechicken]

Fiona, you're in the Shire police, can you arrest those slugs for trespass?

[FionaH]

Malicious damage maybe?

[lynda66]

advice

the only legal advice i can think of, is, when you cut a tree back from overhanging your property .... you have to give the cuttings back .... maybe the same applies to slugs .... cut them in half and chuck em back over the fence ..... although then you may run the risk of the rspca coming round after the slugs owner calls them, and reports you for cruelty

[alldigging]

Video it. Get evidence first.

[lynda66]

oh yeah, and take notes of every invader

[mothhawk]

Slugs are "wild animals". As such, they do not belong to your neighbour, and he is under no legal obligation to do anything about them as they are passing through his garden in the same way greenfly do. They obviously prefer your garden. Tough luck. Once in your garden you can get rid of them any way you choose. As taff says, vaseline the top 3 or 4 inches of your side of the fence, although unless it is set into the ground there is not much to stop them coming under it as well.

[mothhawk]

Video it. Get evidence first.

Then what?

[veggiechicken]

Take fingerprints, have an identity parade and arrest the villains.........

[out in the cold]

I remember years ago, our next door neighbours had a house lying vacant for a long while and my dad (who was a keen gardener) asking politely twice and then getting his lawyer to write a letter to get them to take control of their garden, as his hard work was being undermined by them letting weeds go to seed, not cutting grass and so on).

I don't quite think this is the same thing though, as their house was effectively "abandoned", and as Mothhawk said, the slugs are wild beasties, so I think you could be onto a loser in terms of legal redress.

Seeing it is snails though, you could petition the local council to set up a traveller's camp for them

[lynda66]

wonder if slugs taste like snails .... maybe you could run a slug cafe

[out in the cold]

wonder if slugs taste like snails .... maybe you could run a slug cafe

They don't...

HFW tried it on River Cottage about 2/3 years ago and they tasted foul

[lynda66]

they tasted like foul

why does everything taste of chicken?