We moved into our house last year and the property needs extensive renovation.
While getting work done, we’ve had to use a number of skips. The skips are always placed on our driveway.
We live on a busy road and every time we get a skip, it’s filled with other people’s rubbish. We’ve had everything from dog poo bags to an old radiator put in there. It’s disgusting and a nuisance.
Are there rules against this sort of thing? What can we do to prevent this and get the problem resolved?
Litter louts: A This is Money reader has other people throwing rubbish in his skips on his property
Jane Denton, of This is Money, replies: It’s unclear to me why some people think it’s their God-given right to chuck grisly dog poo bags brimming with excrement anywhere they like, including your skips.
As for someone dumping a radiator, that is potentially dangerous and it’s important to check regularly to ensure no other hazardous items or chemicals are being discarded in your skips.
As this has been happening regularly, consider installing CCTV on your property, which could capture the culprits in action.
Heavy-duty skip covers are also available and could help prevent some of the larger unwanted items from being thrown in. Strong motion sensor lights in the vicinity could also help deter culprits operating at night.
Make sure when you get your skips delivered that you are ready to get them filled up and carted off again at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately, even though it shouldn’t be the case, the longer an empty skip lingers, the more likely it is to be filled with other people’s rubbish.
It’s not possible in your case, but where viable, it can be useful to get a skip placed out of sight.
Unless you can track down the offender or offenders, their waste has, unfortunately, become your responsibility to clear up.
Joanne Ellis is a partner and dispute resolution specialist at Stephensons law firm
Joanne Ellis, a partner and dispute resolution specialist at Stephensons law firm, said: The unsolicited use of skips and even wheelie bins on private property is an increasingly common problem, in fact it is known in the waste industry as ‘bin stuffing’.
The first thing to say is that this is seen as anti-social behaviour and is illegal.
As a first port of call, I would always recommend speaking with your local council. They may be willing to assist, but typically would only investigate any problems on public property, rather than private.
Councils do have powers to bring action against anyone found to have deposited household, commercial or industrial waste, however.
If found guilty, an offender can be sentenced for up to five years and face an unlimited fine. Courts can also make an order so that the offender needs to pay costs associated with having the waste removed.
Alternatively, you may be able to bring a private action under The Environmental Protection Act 1990, which is the act the Environment Agency would use to bring a case.
Waste collection authorities also have powers to issue fixed penalty notices.
As the skip is on your driveway, and assuming your driveway is private land, anyone entering onto your land is committing a trespass. The items left on your land are also referred to as trespassing items.
The remedies available to you are, first, to use a ‘self-help’ remedy and return any trespassing items to the owner directly, if known, though this is very unlikely to be feasible.
Second, you could seek an injunction against the individual, if known, to prevent them from accessing your property. If an injunction is not followed, the culprit could be found to be in contempt of court and face a prison sentence.
Third, it is possible, if the perpetrators turn out to be close neighbours, that certain restrictive covenants could assist you.
You ought to have been advised of any such covenants that burden or benefit your land when you purchased the property, and you might want to look at the paperwork again.
Focus on prevention
Unfortunately, there are problems with the legal system and how quickly it could act to assist you, and the cost involved in making any application could be high.
A big issue with a problem like this is identifying the perpetrators to attempt to bring an action against them. It’s also increasingly challenging to seek legal fees from an opponent in court action, even if successful.
Consequently, in this case it would be best to focus on prevention and deterrence as opposed to legal remedies and compensation.
The skip hire company may have some practical solutions which could help. Aside from that, CCTV ought to be considered, with good visible signage to make it clear that anyone using the skip is being caught on camera.
You could state that the footage will be used to bring action against anyone using the skip.
You are entitled to have whatever CCTV you wish trailed on your own land. It is also possible to have CCTV that records outside of your own boundaries as long as you follow the relevant obligations on you when doing so.
Practically speaking, well-placed lights may also provide a deterrent whether they be permanently switched on or are activated by a sensor.
Finally, you may want to consider some form of physical barrier on your driveway such as a gate that will be closed and locked.
As with any potential legal dispute it is important to keep a detailed log of any incidents. The CCTV footage would be ideal for this.
Simon Colvin, a partner at Weightmans LLP, said: Depositing waste on land can amount to a criminal offence pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
A home owner benefits from an exemption from this offence which allows them to keep domestic waste generated at that property on that property, within certain limitations.
A local authority can issue a fixed penalty notice to someone that commits such an offence. In more extreme circumstances they can also take more formal enforcement action.
The real difficulty will be in identifying any individuals responsible for depositing the waste – on this occasion in the skip – and then trying to get the local authority to take enforcement action.
The activity is unlikely to amount to fly tipping as that involves the deposition of waste from a vehicle. Equally it is unlikely to constitute littering as that involves publicly accessible land as opposed to private property.
You could seek to bring a civil legal claim against those responsible but again that does not present an easy solution from an evidential and process point of view.
Your willingness to follow that approach will no doubt depend on the scale of the problem. A practical step might be to try and seal or cover the skip when it is not in use to prevent any unwanted materials being put into the skip – something to discuss with the skip company.
