People trespassing on land?

As RTE implied the farmer who rents the field has an obligation to prevent tresspass on your property so talk to them. Is there a tenancy agreement in place? If not get it sorted PDQ as you will be storing up large issues in future believe me.It will make the tresspass seam very trivial. Just trying to deal with a property with no formal agrreement were the tenant is claiming a AHA tenancy as there was no agreement in force wont bore you with the implications of that .
 
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Paint Me Proud said:
Need some musings on an issue our family have.

The family own a 12 acres plot of grazing/agricultural land that is next to a family members house which is currenty unoccupied. The land is bordered on two sides by house gardens, one side if more fields and the forth side is a cricket club.

We have a farmer who rents it yearly (for a tiny sum, he's laughing all the way to the bank!) to graze cattle on and make hay.

We have recently become aware that the locals are using our fields for dog walking and general free acess. Some of the gardens backing onto the fields have also installed gates to our field so they can access it.

The family made 'no trespassing' signs and put them up on all access points and next to the garden gates, but ALL have been removed.

We have actually encountered people on our land and asked them to leave but have on more than one occassion been shouted at and told we were unreasonable as 'we have always walked here'!

So I was wondering if those of you who are more aware of rural land issues could give me some pointers on what we could do to prevent trespassers?

Thanks
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Stick a few cows and a bull in there.


Also as others said write to all the neighbours tell them its private property and they are trespassing.
 
Honey08 said:
I'd sell the land with the house and buy some land elsewhere where your future yard would have less problems.
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We're not planning a livery yard, that is just a potential in the future if we fancy it as there is already a stable block. We would prefer to sell the land for building.

HGA-12 said:
Stick a few cows and a bull in there.
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Cows do currently graze the field.

Thanks all for your workds of advice, i will bring it all up with the family and see what they decide (bearing in mind we are all townies, lol!)
 
HGA-12 said:
Stick a few cows and a bull in there.
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Assuming you're not joking I think that is pretty shocking advice.

What with the general public being largely lacking in understanding of livestock, the OP living an hour away and the liability associated with livestock and any kind of public (invited or not) I would think that putting cows in there is more or less an accident waiting to happen.
 
RunToEarth said:
Assuming you're not joking I think that is pretty shocking advice.

What with the general public being largely lacking in understanding of livestock, the OP living an hour away and the liability associated with livestock and any kind of public (invited or not) I would think that putting cows in there is more or less an accident waiting to happen.
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It is already used for cattle grazing! However from experience it wont stop the problem and as the OP is aware they have not worked up till now.
 
As you don't use the land or live anywhere near it and presumably are just keeping it until you can sell it for building, then what harm are the walkers doing ? Why not let them use it while they can ?
 
HashRouge said:
The fact you're so far away probably makes things harder, as the neighbours will know that there is no owner present and so will feel like they have free rein to do as they please. Would CCTV be an option, do you think? I'm sure exercising your dog on someone else's land can't be half as much fun if there's a big camera pointed at you!
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OHs grandad has a small holding and used to chase people off his land by taking his shot gun and telling them to p*** off. Nutty - yes, it worked tho not convinced it's the best way to proceed here tho.
 
Dad had this problem in one of his sheep fields....he had to erect electric fencing so close to boundary of garden gates that no one could get access --with very clear signs saying electric fence facing each gate opening. Everyone soon got the message.
 
Bonkers2 said:
Run a strand of barbed wire along the boundary and get a shotgun.
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Ah, the Nicholas van Hoogstraten school of trespass control. :D

Are the trespassers leaving dog messes? If so, it should be possible to prosecute? I would throw the book at them for that. :mad3:

Elbie said:
I like this idea!

"what are you doing?"
"Oh, what? Is this not ok?!"
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Love it! :D
 
Dry Rot said:
You could always move to Scotland. Up here it is called the right to roam and we can't stop 'em. :(
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Yes, but rights must be exercised responsibly and "legal trespassers" can be prosecuted for damage or interfering with landowners' activities such as farming.
 
bonny said:
As you don't use the land or live anywhere near it and presumably are just keeping it until you can sell it for
building, then what harm are the walkers doing ? Why not let them use it while they can ?
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Because allowing them will potentially create a legal right of access which could then prevent any sale as they would all have a legal interest in the land
 
If you don't really mind them doing it, apart from the access rights issue, I would just get solicitor family mmember to write an official letter telling them not to and send it recorded delivery to every house, then let them get on with it.
And really do contact NFU or similar to arrange PL insurance on the land, you really are mad not to nowadays, someone need only twist their ankle and they can sue.
 
Does your farmer have a legal tenancy agreement?
Has he been claiming Single Farm Payment on the land?
If he has no agreement in place he will not be able to claim this year under the new scheme.
What is his opinion of the intrusions?
I think he may be your key to solving the problem, ask him to erect a fence along the gardens no more than 2 feet away so they cannot gain entry, and write to all occupants asking them to remove their gates. It may be worth checking your deeds to find out who owns the boundary.
 
RunToEarth said:
Assuming you're not joking I think that is pretty shocking advice.

What with the general public being largely lacking in understanding of livestock, the OP living an hour away and the liability associated with livestock and any kind of public (invited or not) I would think that putting cows in there is more or less an accident waiting to happen.
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Well that could be said for ANY field where cows are grazed and a footpath through it.


I was joking but its fair to say people are less likely to wander into a field when livestock is grazing.(not horses)


OP
Why don't you have words with these houses and say this is our land no public access onto the fields, then say the owners will be putting a new fence along to stop people wandering over private land, and CCTV. Then say as a gesture the fence will be 6ft away from the edge thus allowing them to still walk within that cordoned off area but no where else.

( I would be inclined to put a new barbed wire fence along their boundary, even bring it away from the edge about 6 feet so they have no choice to wander over it )
 
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If you give them a permissive route, you must close the route for one day per year (photograph a newspaper by a Closed sign every year) to stop it being claimed as a PROW. I'd also put signs up saying it is not a PROW, again photographing with a newspaper for the date, so that you can prove that it is not a public footpath. The newspaper date means it doesn't matter if they take the signs down, you have your proof should they ever try to claim a footpath.
 
"
Then say as a gesture the fence will be 6ft away from the edge thus allowing them to still walk within that cordoned off area but no where else"

No way!! you will be opening up all sorts of problems. They have no ROW, no access. Fence YOUR boundary with stock fence and make it very clear there is no ROW.
 
jrp204 said:
"
Then say as a gesture the fence will be 6ft away from the edge thus allowing them to still walk within that cordoned off area but no where else"

No way!! you will be opening up all sorts of problems. They have no ROW, no access. Fence YOUR boundary with stock fence and make it very clear there is no ROW.
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THIS ^^^^ all the way!
If you try to meet them half way,it will be seen as a weakness by those who take the pee and they will keep chipping away until they have rights of way and take over, PUT your foot down and stop them asap.
 
I'd let a rumour escape that you are considering selling to travellers if the trespass hassle doesn't go away. Nothing puts the wind up MIMBYs quite like the prospect of having travellers as neighbours.
 
We have a similar situation to you. An arable field (used year round for farming) that backs onto a load of houses and gardens. Many homeowners have installed gates leading onto our field. You can see well worn tracks going in and out.
The risk to us is that they have an accident whilst on our property. That is why we don't want them on there.
When we have harvested, their kids take their motobikes out and whizz around. If we catch them, we chase them down (in our cars). I've even been known to stand at their gates telling them to come on out (they've been hiding behind a shed in their garden, for example). I explain why we don't want them (risk of accident....we get sued etc) but they STILL carry on. They just don't care!
If we make a barrier, they just cut it/remove it etc to carry on with accessing the land. They chuck rubbish in there (an old bike of their got caught up in our combine). We cannot afford to get ars8y with them, because then they go out of their way to annoy us (eg with the bike and the combine). We also had a stack of straw bales "mysteriously" burn down once....
Solicitors letters are expensive and ignored. Where's the actual threat to them?
What works best for us is being as vigilant as possible and chasing them off when we find them. And repeatedly telling them to get off our land! as firm/scarily as we possibly can be without being threatening or thuggish.
We also threaten them with calling the police due to the risks we are facing, we cannot have them on there with their motorbikes. It also disrupts our shoot having people out on the land.

I think you are stuffed unless you can be more present and keep asking them, forcefully, to leave - catching them in the act and having a go at them.

I think putting a bull in there is an excellent idea. Also, if you can afford it and you think it is worth the cost, put up a boundary fence right up to theirs to prevent access. Make sure it works though and they cannot climb over or through it.

You musn't sink to their level. Maintain your own FIRM but fair standards. You might casually drop in to conversation with them that if the hassle proves too much then you'll sell the whole bl88dy lot off for development. That might get them excited!!
 
Blurr said:
If you give them a permissive route, you must close the route for one day per year (photograph a newspaper by a Closed sign every year) to stop it being claimed as a PROW. I'd also put signs up saying it is not a PROW, again photographing with a newspaper for the date, so that you can prove that it is not a public footpath. The newspaper date means it doesn't matter if they take the signs down, you have your proof should they ever try to claim a footpath.
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The above is a load of rubbish! All you need to do is stick up a sign stating this is 'Not a public right of way' and then it is up to them to challenge this with evidence of historic use of the route or 20 years evidence of user use prior to the date of the sign going up.
 
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