Picnic on unoccupied pub benches - AIBU

[Grobagsforever]

Out for a walk with another family. 2 DC each. Proposed stopping to eat our picnic on some pub tables. Pub currently unoccupied e.g it's To Let.

We won't leave a crumb of mess -AIBU? Seems an entirely logical action to me that harms no one...(have previously spent money in pub and will do so again when it reopens).

I would never eat my own food in an operating pub garden. That's completely different

You wouldn't buy a pub if you didn't like the idea of the PUBlic coming onto your property.

This pub is not open. It is closed to the public.

They weren't in the pub. They were in the garden.

Who on earth was going to tell you to move on?

But the garden belongs to the pub, just like my garden belongs to my house.

A garden attached to a public house is different to a garden attached to a private house.

A garden attached to a public house is different to a garden attached to a private house.

Why, because you say so?

Of course it's not. It legally belongs to the owner of the property in exactly the same way a domestic garden does. Usually with a pub garden the public would have implied permission to enter, but that isn't the case here.

So if it was any other type of empty building with seating in a fenced off area would you still go and eat there, or just a pub garden?

Well no, if you have to go through a gate that does sound more private. Even if the gate is open, it's a gate.

Ah - well now seeing the drip feed update, you are of course unreasonable and a trespassing CF.

I imagine there would be no public liability insurance. In the unlikely event some one hurt themselves and such.

They weren't in the pub. They were in the garden.

They were in the pub garden. Which is also closed to the public.

It’s private property, you can’t just rock up and have a picnic!!!

One of our group was uneasy and took a walk instead, so I wondered if it was me, as I tend to be less rule following than average

You know Claire off Derry Girls? That’s me, that is. The ultimate rule driven, petty wee bureaucrat.

What you are describing wouldn’t even ping on my radar.

Because a building/garden was once a business that was open to the public makes no difference. It is no longer open to the public and you were trespassing.

@Pipandmum seriously?? What was going to befall us on a bench on a patch of grass that we might want to sue someone for?

The river we walked along lacked insurance. Perhaps we should have stayed inside.

Posters aren't concerned about you not being able to sue someone

It's about the unfairness of the owner potentially being forced to bear liability under the Occupiers' Liability Act when it was your choice to trespass.

I wouldn't have gone through a gate, no.

Bear liability for what @Cohle ? We sat on a bench!!! They was some (gasp) grass.

I promise you, had the bench spontaneously come to life, started breathing flames and charred one of the DC I would not have asked the landowner to 'bear liability'.

Pls answer my thread with a grasp of actual reality, not as if watching one of the Final Destination films.

I am trying to explain to you why land owners dislike trespassers, even ones who appear not to be doing any harm.

In certain circumstances the owner could be liable for personal injury occurring on their property. Given the property is unoccupied they are unlikely to be in a position to keep an eye out for developing hazards. They have no idea whether particular trespassers, such as yourself, are or are not litigious.

"Oh, but WE weren't doing anything bad because we are so lovely and responsible..."

Still trespassing. Rules cover everyone, they don't make exceptions for people who think they are doing no harm.

I don't really see the difference between what the OP is proposing and seeing a house for let and then doing a spot of sunbathing in the garden and setting up a swing ball for the kids.

This former pub belongs to someone else and that someone ain't the OP.

Were you not brought up to respect other people's property?

Blimey, some of the pearl clutching on here. Going from one extreme to the other, sunbathing in an empty houses garden to potentially being able to eat your own picnic in an open pub, 🤣

It's fine op, I'd not give it a second thought.

Trespassing is trespassing)unless you are a picnicking OP)