Gypsies on my land!!!!!!!

vet8

My husband and myself have been UNBELIEVABLY stupid. :eek: We agreed to do a favour for an acquaintance of ours, he is a respectable local businessman and local parish councillor. He asked if a friend of his could site his caravan in our stable yard at the back of our house for a week or so. He had sold his house, had not completed on his new one yet and needed somewhere to stay for a week while the new house went through. My husband met him, he seemed pleasant and friendly, offered to help with any jobs around the yard and said he was at work all day and in the evening he came home and watched the T.V. in his caravan. We agreed.

Having said he would come with his caravan on Tuesday he suddenly arrived on Monday evening just as I was going out and my husband was still at work. He arrived with a lorry, two cars, the caravan, a wife, a teenage daughter and a dog!!! We have two German Shepherd Dogs, which he said he was terrified of, but he brought in his own dog with out warning us. For all he knew our dogs might have torn it limb from limb.

Straight away we knew something was not right, but it was now dark and we let them stay thinking that it might not be as bad as we thought. I know most of you will be laughing at our stupidity, but in our defence I must say that we are honest, truthful, decent people and I think we assume that other people are like us. It never occurred to us that these people would abuse our hospitality as it would never occur to us to act that way. We are obviously naive.

This morning I left for work at 7.00 a.m. I was home for an hour and a half during the day and then back from work at 7.00 p.m. In the three and a half hours I was at home I witnessed 14 vehicle movements into and out of our yard and saw 5 different cars and vans there. :eek: It was like Piccadilly Circus. And that does not count how many vehicles came and went when I was not here.

When I was home during the day there were a host of strangers in our yard doing whatever, all kinds of people I have never seen before acting as if they owned the place. The other thing that drove me mad was they kept leaving open the gate into the yard from the road. I have livestock and obviously keep the main gate shut to stop the animals escaping onto the road, but these people are clearly too stupid to understand that. I must have told them about 5 times to shut the gate, but every time I saw it it was wide open. The main man seems to be running his scrap business from our yard now.:mad:

We have now told them to leave in no uncertain terms, saying that this was not at all what we had been told to expect. The guy said he would find somewhere else. Will he go?

I do not need people telling us what idiots we are. Believe me I know that. I need advice please.

HugoSP

I would see a solicitor straight away and inform the Police.

If they commit any criminal damage then they can be arrested and charged. Take photographs of everything so that any further reports of damage can be backed up with evidence.

This businessman friend/local councillor needs to get involved. It seems he too has been taken for a ride. See if he can use his influence to get the situation resolved.

Unfortunately these people use the law that takes weeks for them to get evicted. They move out at the 11th hour. However if they are bright they will stop short of any criminal action that could be traced back to them.

maninthestreet

vet8 wrote: »

My husband and myself have been UNBELIEVABLY stupid. :eek: We agreed to do a favour for an acquaintance of ours, he is a respectable local businessman and local parish councillor. He asked if a friend of his could site his caravan in our stable yard at the back of our house for a week or so. He had sold his house, had not completed on his new one yet and needed somewhere to stay for a week while the new house went through. My husband met him, he seemed pleasant and friendly, offered to help with any jobs around the yard and said he was at work all day and in the evening he came home and watched the T.V. in his caravan. We agreed.

Having said he would come with his caravan on Tuesday he suddenly arrived on Monday evening just as I was going out and my husband was still at work. He arrived with a lorry, two cars, the caravan, a wife, a teenage daughter and a dog!!! We have two German Shepherd Dogs, which he said he was terrified of, but he brought in his own dog with out warning us. For all he knew our dogs might have torn it limb from limb.

Straight away we knew something was not right, but it was now dark and we let them stay thinking that it might not be as bad as we thought. I know most of you will be laughing at our stupidity, but in our defence I must say that we are honest, truthful, decent people and I think we assume that other people are like us. It never occurred to us that these people would abuse our hospitality as it would never occur to us to act that way. We are obviously naive.

This morning I left for work at 7.00 a.m. I was home for an hour and a half during the day and then back from work at 7.00 p.m. In the three and a half hours I was at home I witnessed 14 vehicle movements into and out of our yard and saw 5 different cars and vans there. :eek: It was like Piccadilly Circus. And that does not count how many vehicles came and went when I was not here.

When I was home during the day there were a host of strangers in our yard doing whatever, all kinds of people I have never seen before acting as if they owned the place. The other thing that drove me mad was they kept leaving open the gate into the yard from the road. I have livestock and obviously keep the main gate shut to stop the animals escaping onto the road, but these people are clearly too stupid to understand that. I must have told them about 5 times to shut the gate, but every time I saw it it was wide open. The main man seems to be running his scrap business from our yard now.:mad:

We have now told them to leave in no uncertain terms, saying that this was not at all what we had been told to expect. The guy said he would find somewhere else. Will he go?

I do not need people telling us what idiots we are. Believe me I know that. I need advice please.

Tell this 'acqaintance' who duped you into letting these travellers onto your land that you will be going to local press to tell them about all this, and his reputation is likely to be ruined. Good job you have a couple of large dogs.

vet8

Thanks for your replies.

The acquaintance, I cannot call him a friend, is strangely unobtainable -typical, all I get is his answer phone. Things are fairly quiet today, but it is a ludicrous situation. My husband and I cannot sleep for worrying about it and we dread coming home, every time I drive into the driveway I wonder what I will find.

I do not want my dogs near their caravan, not that I am worried about them frightening these people, the more they scare them the better, but there is so much rubbish lying around I don't want my dogs eating something nasty. So my dogs cannot have the run of the place as they do usually, they are fed up.
And this is our own home.:mad:

andrew-b

I'd lock all entrances shut with padlocks to stop vehicles moving in and out. Then firmly tell them you will only unlock the gate for them to leave. Definitely get onto the police straight away and if they cause any criminal damage.
I'd try and make life as difficult as possible for them...like a big pile of manure strategically placed. Don't give them anything..especially not water or connection to electricity supply.

nej

24 hours notice to your "friend", or you call the local papers.

Poppycat

How awful for you.

I may be wrong although it doesn't help your situation but maybe your friend was also duped although they dont have to suffer like you do. I will contact them though and then ask the Police and probably have to get a court order.

I know councils have trouble shifting them on land as it is. Early this year we had a local horse fair, a lcoal farmer allowed them onto there land and before you knew it there we around 30 caravans/4x4's and they even double parked on a nearby road, causing potential accident. They soon got shifted though but boy what a mess they left, the land is still a mess even after 3 months or so.

its such a shame you trying to do someone a good turn, hope that doesn't stop you in future

Debt_Free_Chick

vet8 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

The acquaintance, I cannot call him a friend, is strangely unobtainable -typical, all I get is his answer phone. Things are fairly quiet today, but it is a ludicrous situation. My husband and I cannot sleep for worrying about it and we dread coming home, every time I drive into the driveway I wonder what I will find.

I do not want my dogs near their caravan, not that I am worried about them frightening these people, the more they scare them the better, but there is so much rubbish lying around I don't want my dogs eating something nasty. So my dogs cannot have the run of the place as they do usually, they are fed up.
And this is our own home.:mad:

Let's deal with the "visitors" first.

Unfortunately, you are in a difficult position. Usually, this would be trespass. Even then, it's not easy to deal with as, ultimately, you would require a Court Order to evict them from your land.

However, it's not trespass as you gave them permission to be there :eek:

Having said that, there is no formal agreement, so I think you can still probably serve them with a notice to move on - it's worth paying for advice on this. I think you have to give 28 days notice - certainly, the County Council has to give 28 days notice to evict from the public Highway.

Before you do anything though .... phone the County Council and ask to speak to the Traveller Liaison Officer. Councils have to provide both transit and permanent sites for travellers and the liaison officer should take over and get them moved to a suitable site. The liaison officer may well give you other useful advice too.

Resist any temptation to deal with them yourselves and don't even attempt any kind of intimidation. Whatever you try, I guarantee they can come up with something a thousand times worse - and there will be no evidence that they had anything to do with it. Anyway, you could find yourself facing a criminal charge if you try to "frighten" them :eek: They're not easily frightened - they are used to facing all kinds of abuse and intimidation.

On that subject - by all means contact the Police, but as they are on private land, with permission, I doubt they can do much. I don't say they won't be interested and they may send someone around "for a quiet word", but there is no crime for them to solve - they have practically no power to do anything at all.

You say you can't contact the Parish Councillor now? OK - phone the Clerk. Ask when the next Parish Council meeting is and just turn up. PC meetings must to open to the Public, but you have no right to speak. There may be a slot for "Residents' Questions" but this is not a PC matter (I am a Parish Council Clerk - trust me ). Just sit through the meeting and then speak to the Councillor at the end. Or turn up 10 mins early and see if you can speak to him then.

I assume you know that you could have a Planning issue too. If the Parish Councillor refuses to help, then you could, of course make this a Parish Council matter by reporting a planning breach - you would, in effect, be shopping yourself, but in doing so you would also be "outing" the Councillor. (Strictly speaking, the PC has no involvement in planning enforcement issues, but they would no doubt like to be informed of any matters. I usually take up enforcement matters on behalf of local residents, but I can only pass them on to the Planning Authority - usually the District/Borough Council).

You might also want to phone the Planning authority anyway just to let them know what's going on - before someone reports the prescence of the visitors as a planning breach.

This is not going to be easy, but I'm pretty sure that the traveller liaison officer will help - the family may even be known to them! :rolleyes:

Let us know how you get on - good luck

debbie42

Excellent advice from the last poster.

Errata

What a rotten situation, you have my sympathy. If I were in your shoes I'd be banging on the doors of the parish councillor, the clerk to the parish council and the chair of the parish council. I'd also be taking lots and lots of photos.
You mention rubbish scattered around. Is any of that food waste or human waste? If so, you may have an environmental health problem, which you might want to flag up to the parish council. HTH

SPANIEL36

i was just wondering if you had spoken to this visitor recently regarding the arrangement for him to stay the one week as agreed?? have you said anything to him regarding the rubbish at all? I know the request of closing the gate fell on deaf ears. These type of people dont have any respect for others, no wonder no-one wants them "living" any where near any of us (sorry!)


i truely hope that the situation will be rectified quickly and without too much disruption to yourselves and your property