Topic: Non renewal of tenancy- help!

[Ellen K]

Perhaps it's too late for this, but I would do the "charm offensive".  Go to the committee, eat a bit of humble pie and try to negotiate a plan to get to grips with the cultivation.   You've only been on the plot one season and sometimes people need that to learn what to do to keep their plot up to spec.  Taking hostile actions is only going to make them dig in.  If they are like our allotment manager, well she takes pictures of plots immediately before sending each letter so you don't have a leg to stand on really, however much you wail and threaten to escalate.

[nodig]

Hi Tim1998

what you must realise is that allotment associations like the one you are on operate in a completely unregulated world. The committee are free to act how they want, where truth, rules and natural justice are of no consequence.

If 'they' (those who run the allotment) want you off, then they will get you off, no matter how well cultivated your plot.  Forget about tenants rights, proper notice, right to appeal, right to know what you have done wrong, these rights will be ignored.

When councils passed on their allotment land to associations they did not ensure that they were properly regulated, the reason for this is that they didn't want to become involved in disputes like yours. Because of this many allotments are run by self-interested groups of mean spirited people.

Self-managed plots can fly with the freedoms from council control but unfortunatlely they can also become hostile back biting places when the wrong people get in control.

Be sure that many of the posters on here will try to turn your situation around and try their best to imply that your undoing is basically your own fault...they specialise in it poor things.

Someone I know did go to a solicitor, and he wrote to his association threatening financial damages if they went ahead with the eviction.  It worked but it came at some financial cost.

In theory if you refuse to leave your allotment, and contest their reasons for eviction, they can only get you off their land legally using a properly served court order.  Of course if they are as nasty as they sound then they will use a more physical approach to get you off.

Good luck....you will need it!

[daveyboi]

Be sure that many of the posters on here will try to turn your situation around and try their best to imply that your undoing is basically your own fault...they specialise in it poor things.

Do not think you will find any posters like that on A4A Nodig I am afraid unless it is in a site supervisor role
with a scarecrow to have issues with

( the comedian returns again )

[Digeroo]

There have been a number of tales of disputes posted on this forum and sadly very few end happily.
Most of them feel very aggrieved. 
There seems to be a need for some kind of independent arbitration when disputes arise.

[Ellen K]

Perhaps, but it is also true that if most of the tenants who argue with the committee / go to the press / see a solicitor etc instead put that energy into cultivating their plots, there would be far fewer evictions.

[daveyboi]

Perhaps, but it is also true that if most of the tenants who argue with the committee / go to the press / see a solicitor etc instead put that energy into cultivating their plots, there would be far fewer evictions.

Quite often true but there are the other cases like our dear friend Unwashed came up against and those where someone dares to have an opinion that does not meet with those in power views or a breakdown in communication.

I do wish that sites had a buddy sort of scheme for allotment owners so there is feedback and encouragement 
and help when personal issues happen.

[Ellen K]

Yes, I thought about Unwashed when I posted but his eviction was nothing to do with cultivation.  His council gave him a standard 12 months notice to quit, which they all have the right to do with any of us, for being a "vexatious" tenant.  As much sympathy as I had for the guy, he wasn't a typical case.

It's a tough one - this is what is says on our Council's website, in a highlighted box:

Taking on an allotment requires long term dedication through frequent visits and hard work in order to keep them to an acceptable standard of cultivation.

And yet we see it every year - new tenants take on a plot, and there is an initial burst of activity followed by abandonment.  I think a buddy system assumes people are committed to have an allotment and just need information while they are starting up.  Whereas in reality people don't have the time or are just unwilling to do the hard work.  And it's a lot of work.

[johhnyco15]

Perhaps, but it is also true that if most of the tenants who argue with the committee / go to the press / see a solicitor etc instead put that energy into cultivating their plots, there would be far fewer evictions.

Quite often true but there are the other cases like our dear friend Unwashed came up against and those where someone dares to have an opinion that does not meet with those in power views or a breakdown in communication.

I do wish that sites had a buddy sort of scheme for allotment owners so there is feedback and encouragement 
and help when personal issues happen.

the buddy scheme don't work people feel even more pressured into turning up so they give up don't tell anyone so the whole letter thing starts again i think all new plot holders should have a 6 month probation on our site out of 5 new plot holders your might with a following wind end up with 1 being there longer than 1 year 1 in 15 to be a decent gardener that's what we have to put up with i think its the commitment people struggle with and start at the wrong time in the lives when they either work to hard at there job or have to many hobbies you cannot dabble in allotmenterring it takes alot of time in some ways it a life choice rather than a hobby this i think is the message we be telling to our new fresh faced members

[Digeroo]

I love my plot a lot.  But somehow the weeds still get the better of me.  I think on many sites I might have been shown the door.  Yet even so I get huge amounts of crops.  I do not believe that plants are supposed to grow in ordered rows looking like an animated army from Startrek.  I do not believe in seeing bare soil.  So  currently my plot is covered in green and some of them could be describes as weeds.
I do get rid of blowing weeds so they do not stray onto other people.
I am very pleased we do not have a bossy committee.

[Borlotti]

I agree with completely with Digeroo.  My plot is far from perfect, but last year was not too good, but have had good years, and give loads of stuff away.  I go up when I can, every day if possible, or once a week, some people go up once and do not see them for a year, so that is silly.  I think they have paid the rent for a year, and then don't bother to give it up, which is annoying.  Most allotments have weeds, unless they use weed killer.  Life is not perfect and allotments are not perfect, but weeds taller than me and no-one ever up there, they pay their money and then give up. Luckily we are have two good Allotment Secs. who are reasonable and trying to speak to the Council to sort out the plots that are overgrown.  This year if I feel it is getting too much for me, so maybe next year will have half a plot, if we don't move away, and being a nice person, will be in touch with the Council (so someone else can take it on) that is if they ever answer the phone.

[nodig]

Ellen K....."But if a committee member told me that my plot was "not up to standard", well I don't see how that is "help" and I'd just tell them to mind their own business.  It's between me and the landlord."





Edit to remove inappropriate text.

[sparrow]

Jeez this forum's getting unpleasant.

[pumkinlover]

Time to remember that this forum is to here to help and advise other members and the many non members who view the forum.
Its not a place to "have a go" at anyone.
The mods haven't had to use the "Edit" button for a while but it's still here  and so are we.

ETA, the Edit button has now been used, please don't make it necessary again. There's plenty to keep us occupied  trying to intercept the recent onslaught of Spammers.

[Silverleaf]

Just as an aside, I wonder what allotment committees would do if a plot holder deliberately cultivated weeds?

I don't have an allotment so this is entirely hypothetical, but since I got my new rabbits I've been really into growing and foraging wild plants for them. A lot of these plants are of course weeds, but I'm tending them as if they are a crop.

I guess if I'm harvesting them for rabbits to eat, they are a crop.

My hypothetical plot would be full of plants that others would dig out. Of course I wouldn't let them seed or otherwise spread all over the place onto other people's plots. But it would look like I was neglecting it, especially if I started growing grass for hay.

[pumkinlover]

Did you sow the cultivated dandelions from the seed swop?