Topic: Eviction

[Fork]

Aplogies for this but If had a quick read through this and cant actually see how much you pay a year.....or how much the council want you to pay this year?

Ours is a council run allotment with 24 plots.The council get just £15 for the site,peppercorn rent.The allotment committee then set the cost for each plot which happens to be £20 per annum...same last year.This £20 pays for water,insurance,fuel for the lawnmowers and hegde trimmer etc.The council says its easier for us to do the cutting and trimming than it is to hire someone...hence the peppercorn rent.

[Baccy Man]

Aplogies for this but If had a quick read through this and cant actually see how much you pay a year.....or how much the council want you to pay this year?

Originally the council wanted to increase the rent from £4.71 per pole to £25 per pole but they backed down a bit & opted for a 47% increase instead which equates to £6.94 per pole. Or if you prefer, a standard 10 rod plot which previously cost £47.10 is increasing by £22.30 to £69.40.

[1066]

As far as I can tell the rent increase is unlawful, and the Council knew it was unlawful, but they imposed it anyway because they reasoned that no one would stand up to them over £20. 

...just a thought...but have you tried escalating your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman?

If the council has acted unlawfully then the Ombudsman is the place to start Unwashed.

1066

[Unwashed]

Thanks Baccy Man, you got it.  My 10 pole plot is now £69.40 when last years it was £47.10.

The council says its easier for us to do the cutting and trimming than it is to hire someone...hence the peppercorn rent.

Fork, my Council changed the rules to stop the tenants maintaining the hedge and ditch.  On numerous occaisons, direct to the officers and formally at council meetings, I asked for the tenants to be allowed to undertake this work and was dismissed out of hand.  The Council spend £22k on maintenance, and another £103k on administration and overheads, and before the increase got £12.5k rent from a reasonable £4.71/pole.  The Society asked all of it's members, and it had 50% membership on site, and 90% wanted to contribute to the maintenance and administration.  Newbury Town Council has bent over backwards to undermine and suppress the Society because it desperately wants the pretext to spend all of that lovely money, and I'm public enemy #1 because I started the Society and I don't give up easily.

OB, I'm a bugger, there's no denying it.  But it's only a problem because the Council expect to behave tyranically and not get criticised for it.

[Unwashed]

If the council has acted unlawfully then the Ombudsman is the place to start Unwashed.

It's a Town Council, the Ombudsman doesn't deal with Town Councils.

[Fork]

Thanks for that.I now fully understand what your predicament is.Why your council are acting so is beyond me.

When they maintained our site we were lucky if we got the grass cut twice a year....we cut every 3 days or so at the moment.The hedges just got thicker and thicker :-\

Best of luck with your quest for common sense

[Baccy Man]

Thanks Baccy Man, you got it.  My 10 pole plot is now £69.40 when last year it was £47.10.

Makes my £10 per annum for a 10 pole plot seem very insignificant.

[sazhig]

If the council has acted unlawfully then the Ombudsman is the place to start Unwashed.

It's a Town Council, the Ombudsman doesn't deal with Town Councils.

Does Newbury Town Council own the land or do they lease it from a county/district council? If they only lease it you could escalate the complaint to the 'higher' council and therefore involve the local government ombudsman.
http://www.lgo.org.uk/publications/fact-sheets/complaints-about-parish-councils/

[Unwashed]

Thanks sazhig, but no, the land was transfered to the Town Council.

[Unwashed]

Newbury Town Council served me a final notice to pay up or they would terminate my tenancy on the 17th.  I told them to do their worst or admit they were bullies.  They have now backed down, and instead given me a notice to quit in December.

So they knew all along that the rent increase was unenforceable, but they were happy to threaten eviction all the same.  And now they want to evict me for standing up to them.

[Squash64]

Newbury Town Council served me a final notice to pay up or they would terminate my tenancy on the 17th.  I told them to do their worst or admit they were bullies.  They have now backed down, and instead given me a notice to quit in December.

So they knew all along that the rent increase was unenforceable, but they were happy to threaten eviction all the same.  And now they want to evict me for standing up to them.

This is sort of good news....I think?  But can they still give you notice to quit?  Have they given a reason, or don't they have to?

[antipodes]

State that you will resist eviction (and payment of the increase) until the matter is addressed in the council public meetings. They are elected, I cannot see how they can make an arbitrary decision. Sounds like they want to avoid the sums being properly investigated...
Good luck in any case.

[elvis2003]

brilliant news...like squash said,i think? why december of all months,seems so random! they cant evict you without a reason. but for the meantime...youve kept your plot hoorah!  ;D

[:(]

Have they taken the payment you made  and calculcated pro rata that youve paid until december?