rubbish tipped in my garden

lanzaroty

Short version:

Hi, I've recently had rubbish dumped on my property. There was a letter with an address of a neighbour in one of the bags.
My local council enforcement office came to investigate, and spoke to this neighbour.
They said they couldn't reveal what was said but said I would be held responsible and have to remove the rubbish in x number of days.
My question is, can I request details of their investigation, and see what was said? Is there any kind of appeal process?

Long version:

I moved back into my property after my tenants left. The tenants had been gone for over 3 months but I was only recently able to take back possession.
About 2 months ago the empty property was inspected and the back garden was clean.
A few days back I came and saw rubbish tipped in the garden.
I guessed it may have been linked to irate tenants(they hadn't paid rent and had abandoned the property - i was chasing them up for rent) but on inspecting the rubbish I found a letter with a neighbours address.
I confronted the neighbour who initally denied any knowledge, but when I pointed out my house, he admitted it was them (unfortunately no evidence of this - it was spur of the moment decision to find out, I wasn't really thinking about collectng evidence at this stage). The gist of it was my tenant had been dumping rubbish in his yard, and this was payback. I asked if they had reported him, and according to him they had, but I've never been informed of any issues.
I initially phoned the police as my window had been damaged. They were pretty useless, instead referring me to the council. I rang my local council to complain and the environmental officers came round. But on knocking on my property, I found out that someone else had complained about the rubbish in my garden and they seemed unaware of my complaint - ie they were investigating the rubbish from the point of view of a complaint against me. I explained the situation to them, and they said they would speak to the neighbour. Upon speaking to the neighbour, they said they were satisfied with the neighbours answer and that I would be responsible for clearing the rubbish.
My question is, can I ask to see the evidence? Can I appeal against the decision?
I am absolutely furious at the moment. There seems to be clear evidence and the fact that he's admitted it to me so I know he is responsible.
There is also damage to my property. As the rubbish was dumped over the wall, it's caused damaged to the top brickwork. And a radio was thrown against my window which has caused the outer window to shatter.

I want to know if there is anything I can do as I feel extremely annoyed with the situation.

Thanks

T3RRY

I would go to the neighbour and tell them to remove the rubbish or else legal action will be taken and the cost of removal will come to them. Sadly, it may be hard to win this case in court but you would hope it gives your neighbour a dose of common sense.

If you made a complaint to the council, then you should also chase that up. You should have a reference number, so it should be easy to push forward with your complaint. 

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to dump the rubbish back onto their property. 

Rosa_Damascena

Does the neighbour own their property / is their a lease they are bound by? Because if so the chances are there will be a provision about the right to quite enjoyment of a property, and dumping their rubbish in an adjoining garden is not it. So chase the managing agent / LL who may agree to remove it and recharge your neighbour through service fees.

I'd say a letter with someone's name and address ID indicates a pretty damning association.

Carrot007

You could tell the council you are not happoy with the response and will not be removing the rubbish and taking the neighbour to court. Which is your only option. (beyond illigally dumping it back on the neighbour if you are so inclined to go there, though I don't think that will get you anywhere).

Of course going to court will mean you need to mitigate your losses and take it to the tip yourself anyway, and fix whatever damage at a reasonable cost. But if you want angry neighbours when it seem like you had !!!!!! tenants in that probably did cause the problem given how they were to you then go right ahead.

TELLIT01

Although the council will investigate and potentially prosecute flytippers, it is the responsibility of the land owner (the OP in this case) to dispose of the rubbish in a legal manner.  There was a case on TV recently where hundreds of tons of rubbish had been dumped in an industrial unit.  The people who dumped it were known as they had rented the unit for other purposes and then used it as a dump.  The council prosecuted and won the case but the owner of the unit had a huge bill for removal of the rubbish.

another_casualty

Did you ever vet the undesirable tenants ? Did either you or your letting agent ever do periodic checks on the undesirables during the period you had them? 

Not what you want to hear, but the neighbours are at the end of their tether . If it were me, I would humbly go to the neighbour and apologise for everything and patch things up . 

Seems like that bridge has been burned .,

Homer_home

Personally I would be the bigger man here, apologise to the neighbours they are clearly very frustrated , ask them if it ever happens again to get into contact with you and give them your email and phone number 

shaun_from_Africa

Homer_home said:

Personally I would be the bigger man here, apologise to the neighbours they are clearly very frustrated , ask them if it ever happens again to get into contact with you and give them your email and phone number 

Apologise to the neighbours?
Apologise for what? The neighbour has dumped rubbish in the OP's garden, damaged a garden wall and broken a window.
If the neighbour had simply returned the tenant's rubbish back to the house that it came from this would be fair enough but they didn't. They dumped some of their own rubbish, damaging the OP's property in the process.

rach_k

I would speak to the neighbour again.  Say that you understand they had trouble with the previous tenants but you weren't told about it so couldn't do anything about it.  Give them your contact details (I'd go with an email address that's not your main one, in case they go wild with it) and ask them to get in touch if ever they have trouble with your tenants again, then let them know if they can clear the rubbish within a week, you'll forget about it.  

stragglebod

How long have you got to dispose of the rubbish?

Write to the neighbour telling them to remove the rubbish by your deadline minus 14 days, or if that isn't possible telling them that you will be disposing of the rubbish and invoicing them for the costs in due course.