Remove Travellers or relinquish land title?

[Toetouchingtitties]

I’ve recently become an Administrator for a relatives estate. As part of their estate, they owned a very small plot of land in a London borough, surrounded by houses. The land is fenced in and did have a padlocked entranced.

I visited recently to check everything was ok, to find Travellers, plus their horses have taken it over. This must’ve happened in the last few months. It was relatively contained and tidy before - but is now an absolute mess, covered with rubbish etc.

I’ve enquired with bailiffs about costs to remove them and it’s roughly the same as the land would be worth if I sold it. I do not want the hassle of managing the eviction, re-securing the site, cleaning it up and then selling it; especially as the estate will lose money overall.

So, I’m thinking of just relinquishing the land back to the land registry and walking away. But, at the back of my mind I’d feel somewhat guilty as the area is otherwise well kept by the local residents.

AIBU to save the estate money, but by doing so potentially impact the local residents enjoyment of the area? For clarity, I don’t know anyone who lives in the area, I don’t live locally and we don’t have any local family ties.

Selling to the squatters would be a permanent solution to a, more or less, temporary problem

Where I live we get some passing through quite regularly and when they are you hear lots of the typical prejudice against travellers and people being quite scared of them and how bad it must be to live near them etc.

But there's a big permanent camp on the edge of our South London town that most locals don't even realise is there, and they actually do live just near them, and they don't even notice.

If you want to relinquish you could talk to the councils assets team to see if they want it. Then it goes to the community.

also report to planning enforcement. The estate would have some liability over this so you may wish to get some planning advice on this matter. Im
surprised they haven’t been in touch already

Spot the person who has never had thrm camp next to their house massive spike in thefts, restaurants closing so they don’t get accused of a hair in the meal, human excretion in a kids play area together with load of rubbish. Kids football clubs cancelled as they can’t get on the pitch abc it’s ripped to pieces after they’ve left.

There’s a huge difference between Romanies - likely the people referred to in the previous post and travellers IME

Could whoever is the beneficiary just maintain the status quo. Because if they’re travellers eventually they will move themselves won’t they? And then you can consider what to do with it then? If selling it is not going to raise any money, and giving it to the travellers is not going to either, how about just leaving as it is and they may leave at some point down the line at which point they can reassess?

This. You'd be better off consulting a lawyer.

Might be a silly question but can’t the police just move them on? They’re illegally occupying land.

The travellers may not even want the land and will often move on for work etc.I'd recommend what a previous poster suggested re speaking to a local estate agent.

Oh stop it.

They've broken into secure private property, are now squatting and have turned a tidy site into a mess.

Are you seriously telling me that if someone did that to your property you wouldn't think it was a problem?

The best way to get travellers to leave is usually to block them in either by digging a ditch or getting concrete blocks dropped over the access. Farmers often use this as their go to method.

Obviously you will need to contacts and confidence to do this.

The naivety of this post is breathtaking. What planet are you on 🙄😂

It makes me so angry that the RSPCA never prosecute them. Look at the cruelty at the Appleby Horse Fair. RSPCA a "presence" but just give advice! At least one horse this year there was worked to death.

Might be a silly question but can’t the police just move them on? They’re illegally occupying land.

In England, trespass is considered a civil matter so the police won't act. They need to be evicted through following specific steps via civil proceedings, which unfortunately incurs a cost to the owner.

Why was planning refused?
Can you claim you want to rewild it and sell it to RSPB _ no idea if this is possible.
There is so much talk of building on brownfield sites that a builder might buy it with the travellers on it in the expectation that he will get permission to build in the future.
YOu could ask the travellers if they are there permanently - maybe they will move on eg in the winter

OP, how many vehicles are there on the land?

@Toetouchingtitties sorry but they are travellers. the council may wish them evicted but I fear they will come under different laws from the general public as regards planning. this happened in my local area when people were up in arms. the travellers had more rights and they HAD to be given permission regardless of council and public wishes!!

You need a Red Book valuation by a surveyor, not an estate agent valuation.

So basically above the law 😡

No - they’re not above the law, that IS the law. There is a separate planning policy for Travellers, (defined as ‘people of nomadic habit of life’). A major issue for them is that the law effectively leaves them to find their own sites - there’s no market for Traveller sites like there is for houses. You have to prove that you travel for work to get access to the policy, and in the meantime, caravan sites refuse to allow Travellers to stop there, there are no stopping places anywhere in the country, and trespass in land has just become a criminal offence. It’s not at all easy to get planning permission for a site.

Labour are making changes to planning . This land might then be eligible for planning. Get rid of the travellers.

☝this

Sadly, RSPB has fewer morals than the current occupants of the site:

https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/rspb-faces-backlash-over-plans-to-build-housing-estate-on-land-it-was-left-in-a-legacy.html

Lavinia Rhead RIP