Am I trespassing?

My first thought is that you were definitely trespassing. Thatcher’s ilk made that a criminal offence post the illegal rave era. Although without a sign saying “Private Drive – no unauthorised vehicular or pedestrian traffic” you probably wouldn’t get arrested were the event to spiral and require police involvement. PS This is not meant as a statement of the law, accurate or otherwise. Just a 2 minute opinion – any lawyers out there?

Keyworker

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

Keyworker, you are wrong about that. The offence created was aggravated trespass, quoting: yourrights.org.uk from Liberty:

The offence of aggravated trespass is committed when a person:

- trespasses on land;

- when a lawful activity is taking place on that land or land nearby;

- and he or she does anything intending to intimidate, obstruct or disrupt that activity.

...so PopC was doing nothing illegal. Trespass is a civil offense, so there is no law against it, rather it’s a dispute between two parties that gets resolved in the civil (not criminal) courts. So if anybody continued to occupy the land (i.e. squat it) they could be taken to court to remove them, but it’s not going to affect to people walking across it. Not unless they broke something to get in.

- I am not a Lawyer I just play one on T.V.

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

I know an Edinburgh schemie who somehow lucked out with renting a top-floor Paragon apartment for a pittance. His spit-fleckled invective about Class War will finally be tolerable now I know to walk him back to his gaffe, point at the sign, and me and twenty Kidbrooke estate chavvies can kick seven bells out of the elitist Borders tosser. So cheers for the info.

- Mockers

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

IANAL, but I don’t think trespassing is a criminal offence. Having said that, the land owner can use reasonable force to evict you and anyone, probably including the police, can assist them.

Since 1994 there has been a criminal offence of ‘Aggravated Trespass’ where someone is trespassing and carries out an act with the intention of disrupting a lawful activity being carried out on or adjacent to that land, which was introduced to put a stop to all those pesky protesters and Hunt Sabs.

- Doveman

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

Is there a lawyer out there?

Good grief – there are thousands of us.

Unless you are causing criminal damage there is nothing the old witch can do – she could call the rossers, who would tell her to piss off.

Next time suggest you go through and she makes a comment, tell her she will need an injunction if she wants to stop you walking through there. If she carries on arguing, tell her to get a lawyer, or you will be obliged to call the police because you are in fear of the mad old cow using unlawful force against you.

- coveredinbabypuke

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

PopC was almost certainly trespassing. The Tory bastards did indeed sort-of criminalise it, but only if you trespass with the intention of disrupting, or intimidating those taking part in, lawful activity taking place on that or adjacent land.

The lady had the right to insist you leave the property immediately, and indeed to use force to make you leave if you didn’t. She could call the police if she liked, but (if they turned up) they shouldn’t do anything except help her make you leave.

I am not a lawyer.

- JonR

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

Despite Keyworker’s robust anti-Thatcherism, trespass to land is not, in fact, a criminal offence – but the person in possession of the land could sue.

However, in my considered legal opinion the resident of the Paragon encountered by PopC is an interfering embittered old bitch with absolutely nothing of value in her fucking life except the small-minded joy of enforcing her imagined exclusitivity over decent Londoners, the well-heeled boots of whom she is not fit to lick.

LbL – do you need a lawyer? I hate my job…

- Archie

Posted over 2 years ago by whenthiswasfields

This may be a silly question, but how does this work if, for example, I find someone in my back garden? Obviously if they’d broken in, that’s against the law, but what if they wandered in while I was doing some gardening or something and refused to leave?

Posted over 2 years ago by GinjaNinja

coveredinbabypuke, surely you don’t believe that if I were to ‘wander’ onto some company’s private property, they wouldn’t be entitled to have their security guards chuck me off it (or indeed, prevent me ever getting on it in future if they saw me coming?

Archie, do you really think that the only option available to said company would be to sue me?

Or do different laws apply to a company’s property as opposed to an individual’s property?

Posted over 2 years ago by Dove

GinjaNinja, I’m studying law at the moment so hopefully I’ll get this right. My understanding is that if they simply wandered onto your property, you’d be entitled to ask them to leave and if they refused to do so then you could call the cops. In all likelihood they would know that they were trespassing and if they had no valid reason to be there, then the cops would have no problems in moving them on. If however your land had some kind of ancient right of way or other easement then things might get a little bit more interesting as they may well be entitled to be there. Such a beast should hopefully appear on the title document held by the Land Registry so you’d have a heads up on that beforehand.

Also squatter’s rights isn’t something they can claim as a relatively recent change in the law has all but eliminated that particular loophole from our legal system.

Hope I got that right, if not it’s gonna have to be back to the books!

Posted about 1 year ago by crossboy