Topic: Threatened with eviction

[Unwashed]

Trevor

No, it shouldn't be difficult to enforce a fair contract.  Say you have a condition in your tenancy agreement that "you will keep your allotment clean and well cultivated".  No arguing with that really, it's a pretty fair description of what we generally expect an allotment to be and still has latitude for all the legitimate variety we celebrate on an allotment.

So say you have a June inspection and a tenant has allowed her weeds to grow, then as a courtesy you might well have a word in her shell-like, and if the problem isn't put right you send her a letter saying "you're allowing too many weeds to grow and that breaks rule such and such, so you need to clear the weeds within 28 days or we'll have to evict you", and after 28 days if the plot is not clean and well cultivated you send her another letter telling her that she's evicted and if she's not gone within 28 days you'll issue proceedings in the County Court to recover possession and costs.

If it gets to court you'll need the signed tenancy agreement, the S.146 warning, the eviction notice, and evidence that the tenant breached the tenancy agreement, so photos of the weedy uncultivated beds and the inspection report.

[kt.]

Having read up a little bit, I am under the impression that for her to be evicted, she must have clearly broken one of the terms of the leasehold (which she has, to her knowledge, never seen or signed anything) quote]

Many posts on this thread keep mentioning terms of the agreement; but it appears that no tenancy agreement was ever signed by her own admission.  If this is the case then the plot could be allocated to somebody next on the waiting list who is willing to sign an agreement and suppress the weeds best as possible, not leaving them to become more overgrown than the crops.  A sticky situation for both parties possibly. 

Myself as allotment supervisor along with backing from our town council have evicted 2 tenants this year for non cultivation of plots with excessive weeds.  Both after being given verbal and written warnings.  Waiting lists being as they are these days, people cannot afford to let plots slip into disarray without good reason such as illness for example.

[Unwashed]

Many posts on this thread keep mentioning terms of the agreement; but it appears that no tenancy agreement was ever signed by her own admission.  If this is the case then the plot could be allocated to somebody next on the waiting list who is willing to sign an agreement and suppress the weeds best as possible, not leaving them to become more overgrown than the crops.  A sticky situation for both parties possibly.

A signed agreement is not necessary, a verbal agreement is just as binding, it's just not so easy to say what the terms of the agreement are.  The tenant has received an eviction notice, and that's documentary evidence that the committee accept that a tenancy exists.  If the committee tried to rent it to someone else knowing it wasn't theirs that would almost certainly be fraud.

If there really is no signed agreement then the committee have managed the situation very badly because there is no implied termination clause in a tenancy agreement and their options are severly limited.  Their best bet is to talk to the lady very nicely and ask her to sign an agreement, and it might help their case if they offered her the plot rent free for a couple of years for her trouble, but seeing as how they've gone right in with the eviction notice she might very well just flip them the finger.

[SMP1704]

With rights comes responsibilties and I wonder why that has been forgotten?  When anyone takes on an allotment, with or without signing a tenancy agreement and they pay their rent, they also have some responsibilities, which can also be implied (but I agreed explicitly stated is so much easier)

I just don't buy into this idea that a tenancy agreement gives us, as plotholders, boundless rights without any responsibilities.

[Unwashed]

Sharon, what implied responsibilities do you suggest we have as allotmenteers, and what are the boundless rights that you object to?

[SMP1704]

The supposed boundless rights that I object to are the possibility of paying my rent then turning up a few times a year to inspect the weeds or dig like mad for a week, spending a fortune at the GC on young plants, then leaving it all to be eaten, be infested by bugs, to grow non fruiting trees and not prune them - you get the idea?  All of that and more and expect to be able to carry on like that forever because I have a tenancy agreement :o ??? ::)

The responsibilities (implied or otherwise) that we as allotmenteers have are to maintain our plot to produce veg and fruit for ourselves and to consider the impact that our actions/inactions have on our plot neighbours - oh and remember to lock the gate and pay the rent.  Not much to ask really.........

[Trevor_D]

I agree.

And we also have a responsibility to the generations of gardeners before us who got the soil in good shape and passed the site onto us, and the generations to follow who will continue to enjoy the site. And to the local community who have a piece of green in their midst.

Our site is 100 next year. My aim is that in another 100 years a group of people will be planning how to celebrate the site's 200th anniversary.

[grawrc]

It is interesting to note that the original poster has not been back online since the day of the original post. I have been following this thread with interest, since I also have the thankless task of writing to folk to ask them to clean up their plots.

I am constantly amazed at the reactions of the recipients. One chap, who suddenly appears at his plot after receiving a letter then disappears until the next letter, asserts that he hasn't received any letters. Another replies asking why she needs to clear the weeds from her plot when the site is surrounded by nature and wildlife so the weeds will come in anyway. And then there are the ones who do nothing to their plot for two years, continue to do nothing after getting 3 letters  (our procedures require a warning letter, a 14 day warning of termination letter and a 7 day "your tenancy has now been terminated " + right of appeal letter) and appeal against the termination letter. Sometimes they don't reply at all, sometimes they are angry and aggressive.

We inspect plots roughly once a month, we meet once a month and invariably spend up to a good 40 minutes discussing the plot inspections, required action, feedback from the last lot sent out and so on. In the total sum of things it is a small number of people but they take up a huge amount of time.

It's just such a waste of the time that could be used by the committee to improve the site and what it offers for the whole community.

[Digeroo]

We have someone on our site who is actually very keen but seems to have a very open attitude towards weeds.  If someone is putting time into their allotment I am not sure that one should be able to question their techniques.

Yes there are dandelions but the field beyond has many more.  Yes there is a lot of grass but not sure that affects others.  No one has touched a plot near to mine since July so for me this is a different matter. 

[Unwashed]

The supposed boundless rights that I object to are the possibility of paying my rent then turning up a few times a year to inspect the weeds or dig like mad for a week, spending a fortune at the GC on young plants, then leaving it all to be eaten, be infested by bugs, to grow non fruiting trees and not prune them - you get the idea?  All of that and more and expect to be able to carry on like that forever because I have a tenancy agreement :o ??? ::)

The responsibilities (implied or otherwise) that we as allotmenteers have are to maintain our plot to produce veg and fruit for ourselves and to consider the impact that our actions/inactions have on our plot neighbours - oh and remember to lock the gate and pay the rent.  Not much to ask really.........

I'm not sure where you're confused.  The tenancy agreement says what you can and can't do and how well you have to do it.  Break those terms and you can be evicted, but you can't be deprived of your property without due process.  This really is very basic stuff, I would certainly expect any site secretary to have a good working knowledge of allotment law.  Do you have a copy of Paul Clayden's The Law of Allotments 5th edition?

If a landlord rents an allotment to a tenant without any conditions then she can't easily object if she doesn't like what the tenant uses it for.  But it's the simplest thing to write a tenancy agreement that says how well the plot needs to be cultivated, and then there's no argument; tenants can't easily misuse their plots, and site secretaries can't tyrannise their tenants.

[cornykev]

As Grawrc says the original poster has not been back on here, so maybe there's more to this  than meets the eye.  ???
Time will tell.  ;D ;D ;D

[Borlotti]

My allotment is Council owned, and must say they seem quite reasonable.  Have a booklet of rules when you sign on.  We were all told that carpet wasn't permitted so everyone pulled it up and put in on the trailer that the Council provided for rubbish (that was not in the book of rules but the rotted carpet broke one of their machines when they cleared a site).  Sheds are not allowed.  Manuel was told about his plastic greenhouse, but they have let him keep it for this year but he may have to take it down next year.  It was a wooden structure covered with polythene and does look ugly.  I am sure they have to go through a legal process to terminate a contract, was a bit longwinded when I wanted mine as the man who had it before had died, but they still had to go through a lengthy procedure.  Glad I am not on a private site, and also get a reduced rent as over a certain age.

[Hyacinth]

Back to the OP. I hope you've been reading all this even if you've not been logged on to reply, and that you and your mum have found some way forward since you posted - you wrote that she is very distressed by this and I was sad to read that.

Kind regards.

[elvis2003]

nicely put hyacinth,thoughtful of you.
would be nice to hear how things are for them now

[cornykev]

As the girls have said Gds, do post back with any news no matter how little, some of the replies may seem a bit negative, even mine when I read it back.
Our site is the same council as Borlotti's, but we are allowed sheds, but they refuse to repair or replace any, some have built there own plastic sheds but up until now no one has told them to take them down, and when they added the no carpet rule nobody took any notice.  ???      ;D ;D ;D