Caught on camera - neighbour filling up my skip

[cannehelpit]

I need some guidance here please!

I have a skip outside my house. Several times a week, whether there is someone in the house or not, my neighbour comes and deposits something there. Bulky items, not small tiny things. I'd say about a quarter of the skip's contents is now my neighbours. I can see him on the camera crossing over the road, walking about 6 doors up and going back into his house. I don't know him personally, though I've lived on the street about 3 years.

What should I do about this. I do need that space for myself. I have also learned that I am responsible for the contents, so if it is rejected by teh skip company when they come to return, or god forbid there is anything illegal etc in there, I am liable. Also, it's just my skip!

What should I do? My parents say I should report it to the police. My uncle says he'll come and put the stuff back in my neighbours front yard!

I think the best thing is for your uncle , or yourself to go knock on his door and tell him that you have the skip on camera and have seen him putting stuff in and would like him to accompany you back to the skip now to remove all his items . It would be useful to go through the footage first and write a list . That way his stuff gets removed and you don’t get accused of anything . If he refuses tell him you will be going to the police to ask what action you can take .

Only by cheeky fuckers

Dig it all straight out, dump it on his doorstep, knock on his door and tell him he's been caught on camera and if he does it again you will report him to the police. Legally he is fly-tipping.

I agree. And good for your uncle! 👍👍

If you have evidence that the items belong to him on camera, it’s not fly tipping. It’s returning his lost property. I’d place it all back on his front lawn with a sign/letter stating that he appears to have misplaced his property and mistaken your private skip for a storage unit. You are returning to him for appropriate disposal or storage.

I agree. And good for your uncle! 👍👍

As a minimum I’d take out the table and metal poles and return them to his garden with a note saying if you’d like to order your own skip here’s the cost and telephone number. What if other neighbours join in, you’ll have no room left for yourself.

knock on the door and tell him that he has mistaken your personal skip for a common use one, you need it and he has to come remove his items. Here's the number of the skip company if he needs one himself.

ime, metal poles, put them out to the kerb in front of your property. Scrap metal people will take them away within 18 hours.

Hope you have a good resolution to this.

I think you need to go and speak to him, or if you can't face that put a letter through his door. It's weird that he's doing it so openly and that suggests he thinks it's an acceptable thing to do. In the interest of good neighbourly relations you could attempt to come to an arrangement with him, which might involve him sharing the cost of the skip, or agreeing that he can put a limited number of items in there provided he checks with you first. Otherwise I would tell him that the skip is being monitored and you will be removing the items he's put in there and returning them to him, and will be doing the same with any further items.

It's good practice to cover a skip to prevent fly tipping. Where I live an open skip would be guaranteed to attract all sorts of random items in the night.

"Several times a week".

So probably better to stop this the first time than let it go on for ages.

I would probably talk to him and tell him he has a choice, either to remove his property or you will report him to the authorities along with the video evidence.

I’d have a chat about how he must of misunderstood it is not a community skip! I would offer him the number of the skip company cf!

I'ev never known any area where a skip on a road won't attract unwanting dumping. Absolutely everyone I know would expect this and either take steps to deal with it or accept it will happen. And please note, I am not saying it's right - I am however astonished that anyone would see this as unusual or worthy of comment. It's like saying you've found litter in the street and expecting people to be horrified.

If you are lucky enough to have wombles, better they collect from his lawn.

Also there is no such thing as the skip police.

We also had the opposite issue when we had a skip on a north London street! Skip divers came around in the middle of every night with a van and took loads of stuff out! Not just potentially useable things like old garden chairs etc but pieces of metal and wood, bundles of wire, all sorts. It would be nearly emptied some nights, it was great.

take their stuff back out and put it on their doorstep

As you don't know him I wouldn't approach him alone. I'd ask your uncle to come with you and tell him you know he is using your skip as you have it recorded. That he needs to remove his items or 'you will take it further' I'm not sure what this further is but hopefully if he knows you have him recorded it will be enough

Take out some big bulky items that you know for sure are his, walk straight up to his door (with witnesses) knock, hope he answers, and say 'Hi, I think you accidentally left these in my skip. I didn't want you to forget where you'd left them so I thought I'd bring them back for you. If you'd like to come with me now and get the rest of your belongings, that would be great.'
He was ballsy, you need to be bigger ballsy.

I'm so confused why you've let it keep happening without at least saying something? I'd be taking it back, knocking on his door, and telling him it's your skip that you're paying for to put YOUR stuff in.

Is the skip on your property or on the road? If it’s on your property then he is fly tipping.

If it’s on the road then it’s a bit trickier, but it’s still wrong. He’s basically stealing skip space you have paid for.

Definitely let him know you know, and see what happens.

Upload the video to youtube "unlisted" so only people with the link can view.
Put a note through his door with the link to the recording. Give him a deadline to remove his shit.

Metal doesn't stay in skips long round here. We have scrappies coming round regularly.

The allotment people nearby will be eyeing up anything useful.

Yes, there is - they just usually prefer to go by their full name when they're being formal.

Yeah I would take it all out and give it back to him

Next time you hire a skip, ask the skip company for an 'enclosed lockable skip'. It's a standard skip with a metal roof and a hatch. You will be able to put a padlock on it to stop anyone else putting stuff in it

They're an excellent idea, @katmarie, but won't stop the sort of CF who'll just leave their stuff at the side so that the skip hirer has the pleasure of both paying for removal and heaving it up into the thing

We had this at our community centre where just such a skip was installed and some maggot dumped a drive's worth of paving stones
That cost the centre £170 for the council to remove it, only once they had we found out it actually wasn't the whole drive ... he dumped the other half the very next week

Print out an A4 still of the CCTV with said neighbour on and tape it to the skip