Neighbour skip on my front lawn

shaun_from_Africa

Raggie said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

Raggie said:

In the good old money saving tradition. 

Sell it.

It on your land, you didnt order it, treat it as a gift.

Call a few recycling companies, or the local travelling community.

Couple of angle grinders and it will soon fit in the back of a van, and you will be a few quid up.

The "good old money saving tradition" doesn't normally mean advising someone to do something that could end up with them getting a criminal record for theft.
Just because the OP didn't order the skip doesn't mean that they have free rein to do as they wish with it.

How is it theft?

Goods abandoned on his land.

Its the equivalent of fly tipping.

He as the landowner is responsible for removing said items from his land.

He is free to choose method of removal.

A civil matter if anything.

The goods were not abandoned on his land. The skip was put there by the owner at the request of a customer so any dispute is between the OP and the neighbour. At the very least, they have to give the legal owners of the skip the right to collect their goods.
If the neighbour owned the skip and dumped it in the garden then yes, this may be flytipping but this isn't what happened.

The OP may well class as an involuntary bailee and as such could be held responsible for the skip.

In reality, it's no different to parking your car on someone's drive without their permission:
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/cars/parking-drive-law-police-trespassing-260605

Raggie

shaun_from_Africa said:

Raggie said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

Raggie said:

In the good old money saving tradition. 

Sell it.

It on your land, you didnt order it, treat it as a gift.

Call a few recycling companies, or the local travelling community.

Couple of angle grinders and it will soon fit in the back of a van, and you will be a few quid up.

The "good old money saving tradition" doesn't normally mean advising someone to do something that could end up with them getting a criminal record for theft.
Just because the OP didn't order the skip doesn't mean that they have free rein to do as they wish with it.

How is it theft?

Goods abandoned on his land.

Its the equivalent of fly tipping.

He as the landowner is responsible for removing said items from his land.

He is free to choose method of removal.

A civil matter if anything.

The goods were not abandoned on his land. The skip was put there by the owner at the request of a customer so any dispute is between the OP and the neighbour. At the very least, they have to give the legal owners of the skip the right to collect their goods.
If the neighbour owned the skip and dumped it in the garden then yes, this would be flytipping but this isn't what happened.

The OP may well class as an involuntary bailee and as such could be held responsible for the skip.

In reality, it's no different to parking your car on someone's drive without their permission:
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/cars/parking-drive-law-police-trespassing-260605

It is entirely different from a vehicle which has unique serial numbers (vin or licence plate), and which are subject to specific legislation which covers ownership and responsibility.

This is a skip, a metail box without a formal method of registration or identification on it. Think of it as a large tin can thrown into your garden.

There are no ownership requirement for a skip, no central register, no formal identification method. 
If there was then he would phone the skip company and he already states that he couldn't identify them.

For items found on the land : https://www.inbrief.co.uk/land-law/objects-found-on-land/

If he wishes to cover all bases he only needs to phone a few local companies (as suggested previously) to attempt to locate the owner.

If not then as it's on his land, and has no means of identification, it can be considered his to dispose of.

Call 101 and check if he is concerned see if they say it's not a civil matter.

Silvertabby

I'd still be inclined to ring round local skip hire companies to ask if it is theirs - and to tell them to move it pronto, as 'you have delivered it to the wrong address'.

Even if it isn't one of theirs, a skip company may be able to tell you which companies use blue/red/yellow/green painted skips.

Failing that, stick a bill on to the skip detailing storeage cost for X days and cost of re-seeding/re-turfing your ruined lawn.  You may get lucky !

452

Raggie said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

Raggie said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

Raggie said:

In the good old money saving tradition. 

Sell it.

It on your land, you didnt order it, treat it as a gift.

Call a few recycling companies, or the local travelling community.

Couple of angle grinders and it will soon fit in the back of a van, and you will be a few quid up.

The "good old money saving tradition" doesn't normally mean advising someone to do something that could end up with them getting a criminal record for theft.
Just because the OP didn't order the skip doesn't mean that they have free rein to do as they wish with it.

How is it theft?

Goods abandoned on his land.

Its the equivalent of fly tipping.

He as the landowner is responsible for removing said items from his land.

He is free to choose method of removal.

A civil matter if anything.

The goods were not abandoned on his land. The skip was put there by the owner at the request of a customer so any dispute is between the OP and the neighbour. At the very least, they have to give the legal owners of the skip the right to collect their goods.
If the neighbour owned the skip and dumped it in the garden then yes, this would be flytipping but this isn't what happened.

The OP may well class as an involuntary bailee and as such could be held responsible for the skip.

In reality, it's no different to parking your car on someone's drive without their permission:
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/cars/parking-drive-law-police-trespassing-260605

It is entirely different from a vehicle which has unique serial numbers (vin or licence plate), and which are subject to specific legislation which covers ownership and responsibility.

This is a skip, a metail box without a formal method of registration or identification on it. Think of it as a large tin can thrown into your garden.

There are no ownership requirement for a skip, no central register, no formal identification method. 
If there was then he would phone the skip company and he already states that he couldn't identify them.

For items found on the land : https://www.inbrief.co.uk/land-law/objects-found-on-land/

If he wishes to cover all bases he only needs to phone a few local companies (as suggested previously) to attempt to locate the owner.

If not then as it's on his land, and has no means of identification, it can be considered his to dispose of.

Call 101 and check if he is concerned see if they say it's not a civil matter.

So you're saying anything without a unique serial number can be owned?

clive0510

I'm just wondering how do you get on with cutting the grass when there's a skip dumped in the middle of the lawn?

TELLIT01

The OP said that the skip was due to be collected today.  I'd love to know if it was.

I accept that in this case it wasn't a simple case of delivery in error, but I did have that situation some years ago.  I was told the skip would be delivered before 9am.  When it hadn't arrived by 11am I called the company.  They said it had been delivered and left on the drive.  I advised them I was looking at the drive and there was no skip.  The person I was speaking to got the paperwork and checked the address.  We live in xxx WAY, the skip had been delivered to xxx DRIVE which is about 4 miles away, and a very different post code.  The skip did arrive later that day.

George_Michael

Raggie said:

It is entirely different from a vehicle which has unique serial numbers (vin or licence plate), and which are subject to specific legislation which covers ownership and responsibility.

This is a skip, a metail box without a formal method of registration or identification on it. Think of it as a large tin can thrown into your garden.

Why do you think goods having a VIN or licence place makes any difference?
Theft is theft and there is no requirement for the item concerned to be serialised.
The goods (the skip), were not simply dumped in the garden. They were put there by the owner at the request of a customer of theirs so any dispute is between the householder and the neighbour and as mentioned by another poster, when you have abandoned or misdelivered goods, you can't simply dispose of them as you are classed as an involuntary bailee, something that means you have certain obligations to follow before you finally do have the right to dispose of the item, but even then, you may well still be liable for the value of the goods or for any money received from their disposal.

renfirsttimebuy

How unfair! How would they like it if you did that to them. I would call the police!!! 

George_Michael

renfirsttimebuy said:

How unfair! How would they like it if you did that to them. I would call the police!!! 

No criminal offence has been committed so the police wouldn't be able to help.

littlerock

I wonder if it is worth blocking it in so that the skip owner has to ask you for it back. Stick a big notice in it saying Illegally parked without permission.