Uninvited visit from council

joop

I hope I'm in the right forum and wonder if you can help with some advice.

My son arrived home to find someone from the council in my garden. When he suggested he should have made an appointment with me, he said that he had knocked but when there was no reply, walked through the gate. (The gate has a large chain on it so it would have taken him a while to unravel, hardly open access).

The reason he was there is because neighbours have made a complaint that I was burning down a tree with a preservation order on it! Well I wasn't and the police noted that when they were called as well.

So I'm going to call up the guy tomorrow and ask 'what, why' etc., but would really like to know where I stand.

Any advice would be really helpful...

pimento

Do you own your house or rent it from the council?

joop

It's mine.

Esqulax

Im Mister paranoid when it comes to things like this... if you dont have any annoying neighbours, or have no trees with preservation orders on them (never heard of that TBH) consider the possibility that it was a gentleman of a dubious nature assesing your property as a target.
So, talk to the council and police and see if you can find out who lodged the call and when.

of course it could be legit, and a neighbour might have genuinly thought you were burning something.

ISCA_3

Was he REALLY from the council? Even if you do rent from the council, a landlord has NO RIGHT to enter your property unless he is invited in. Same goes for private landlords.

lynzpower

do you have a tree subject to TPO in your garden.

joop

My house is not a council house, i am the owner of the house.

Yes tree's under TPO but none harmed by bonfire.

noh

Designated officials of the Local Planning Authourity apparently have right of entry to land to ascertain whether there has been a breach of planning control.

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=2&NavFrom=2&parentActiveTextDocId=2283230&ActiveTextDocId=2283230&filesize=15614

theartfullodger

joop said...

So I'm going to call up the guy tomorrow and ask 'what, why' etc.,

- If it were me I'd be very calm, polite & patient, drag as much info out of him as possible (who called, what they said, can I gave a copy, under what law were you taking this action, where in the council's code of conduct does it say you can trespass...) - then write to your councillor under the heading "wasting council ££ & time...".

Cheers!

Lodger

duncan303

Council officers on specific council business do not require permission to enter onto any land. Unravelling a chain however long, is not the same as a lock. Anyway however alarming for you and your son is it not better than he has had the opportunity to have unrestricted access to the tree and can properly see that it is not damaged in any way?

You have explained the reasons he gave for being there. Although we "own" land it is a special type of ownership whether in "Fee Simple" or Fee Absolute" these can affect our enjoyment of land. The most striking and misunderstood mechanism being compulsory purchase.

Best be calm and try to sort things out factually , after all you have done nothing wrong. Sounds to me that you have a misinformed well intentioned neighbour.

possibly who did not like the bonfire to which you refer........

Look on the bright side, now you can go back to having a bonfire whenever you like....

..

Milliewilly

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago. The council tried to fob me off with the fact they had rights to enter private property / land as its in the public interest - (my arguement was that they should have made an appointment to view ongoing building works with me for council tax exemption and they told the plumber who was on site that I had given them permission to enter my property anytime - that is what I took offence at). They dont have any rights other than to walk down your drive and knock on your door like a postman or any other visitor would. The only people who have rights are the police for example if they were chasing a burglar through your garden. I got a written apology from the council.