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Hi.
gardeninglegend is absolutely right.
The Theft act states that if the person taking the property believed that at the time he took it the owner would have given him permission then that is a defence.
The law further states that in order to prove theft you must prove all three points of the act and they are: The INTENT to PERMANENTLY DEPRIVE. If they cannot prove all three they cannot accuse you of theft.
GLegend is right. Sue the swine and the CB will help you do that.
I would go further and post the details on here so we can all email them
George
(In justice mood)
graciemoo
Thank you for a better incite on the dragonian behaviour of this privatly run allotment.
Let me reassure you, it is not theft!
Your farther in law acted in the 'honest belief' that if the owner had known of the circumstances at the time would have consented to the picking of the broadbeans.
That is a statutory defence in law. I have just retired from the police service after 30 years.
Once you have moved the plants etc. I would seriuosly consider taking legal action against the committee for a defamed character. There are plenty of 'no win no fee' firms out there? Pop along to the Citizens Advice to see if that can cast an eye over my thoughts on this.
Hi there.
Sorry to hear about your predicament; we'd like to help if possible. We have a small community woodland site near to your allotment and would be happy to talk about how we can accomodate your plants. Please get in touch as soon as possible and we'll get things moving.
Yours,
Nick @ The Woodland Trust
Hello thank you for you kind advice
This is quite a long story, but basically A lady in a neighbouring allotment went on holiday and my Father in law offered to water her allotment while she was away. while she was gone three rows of her broad beans were going over.. So being the kind of man that goes above and beyond to help others.. picked her beans shelled them, froze them, then pulled up the dead plants and dug over the ground for her. When she returned he told her what he had done and said he would bring the beans to her... she was angry and said she was reporting him. My father in law then got a letter asking him to explain himself. He did this in writing, he then received a letter to say he had four weeks to remove all his belongings or the committee would have it removed and charge Ron for removal and storage of his property. Their reason for this was “theft of broad beans”
We as a family have fought this as far as we can as Ron is quite elderly and cant cope with it, we have also put a huge amount of time and money trying to fight it, but we have hit a brick wall as the allotment is privately owned and they have their own "rule book".
this is a very shortened version of events.. there have been letters and things that the committee have done that were intimidating, but there seems to be nothing that we can do.
All we can hope now is that we can find a land share in our area so that all his plants don’t go to waste.
i have a very young garden with not much in it, i would be more than happy for your father-in-law to put his plants here, he can do what ever he wants with them here, i do hope that you can sort out that he can stay on his allotment, as advised by the other posts, but if you are interested please contact me.
On the other hand, if the allotment is just being used to cultivate fruit whether bushes or trees, then that is a guenuine purpose for which the land is being used for, the only set back is that the plot would need to be reguarly weeded, so any weed seed would not then be blown across to neighbouring plots, which would be a condition of his agreement.
Hi
Firstly, your father in law should have a signed allotment tenancy agreement in his possession which is a copy of what the Local Authority have that have given his marching orders.
Check the small print, as most agreements generally follow the same guide lines laid down under the Allotments Act.
1. He should have had a writtern warning in the first instance setting out what rule he is infringeing givening him time to explain any reasons why he has not been complying and equally giving him time to put the matter right generally 3 months.
2. If his reasons for the infringement are not excusable and he took no action to put his allotment in order, then he would get a letter telling him of his termination of the allotment and giving him reasonable opportunity to removing structures friut trees etc. or run the risk of having to reimburse the LA for any clean up activity. However, the other alternative is to make contact with the 'new' tenenant to coome to some financial arrangent for say a shed.
If it transpires that once you read the agreement and that LA have not complied with the agreement, then your father in Law has every right to challange them on it.
My advice is you look at the National Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Association web site Mr Stokes whose was the Secretary when I was an affilliated member is very helpfull on these matters?