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If you have commercial or personal property, you will want to make sure that it is very well secured. One of the biggest threats to the property is that of trespassers and travellers settling on and around your land or inside a property that belongs to you.
Both run-of-the-mill trespassers and travellers can, in a very short period of time, cause many thousands of pounds worth of damage to your property; if your property is not fully secured, many insurers will not even pay out, leaving you even further out of pocket.
The first thing you should consider when you are dealing with trespassers is your own personal safety and that of any staff who may also be harmed. No matter how tempting it may be to confront a trespasser or a traveller intruding on your property, it is best to not get directly involved without the help of a trained and accredited security company or the police.
Removing Trespassers and Travellers from your Land
Security companies will be able to advise of the legal procedures in the UK to deal with travellers and trespassers and many of these companies can offer security guard and dog handler services to deal with these problems effectively.
There are many steps you can take to prevent any of these potentially dangerous and harmful situations from ever arising at all, and undertaking these steps will greatly reduce the chances of harm befalling your property and possessions.
Use Plant Screening, Physical Barriers and Fences
You could plant borders so that no one can see into your property. The more a potential intruder or trespasser can see into the property and its land, the easier it will be to work out just how, when and via which access points they can trespass on your land.
You could even use a combination of trees, shrubs and warm-season perennial grasses. If you have a larger budget, you can contact a specialist to erect physical barriers around your land. Having a barrier in place, from perimeter fencing options like Heras fencing to concrete barriers, will serve as a visual as well as a physical deterrent. Barriers and fencing will stop people from attempting to trespass as it appears far more effort than it is worth.
Manned Security Options
Having security guards on site will ensure your property is fully protected. Despite all the innovations of CCTV and alarm systems, there is still no comparison to the level of security which is offered by having security guards in place. Having an individual or security team present on your property can act as a deterrent for trespassers and travellers in all circumstances.
If you have manned security in place, it will help to physically stop any unauthorised access. Whether it is the case that people are deliberately looking to cause damage or if they cause it as a result of entering the property illegally, a manned security guard will almost certainly deter vandals and potential break-ins, both by physical presence and visual deterrence.
CCTV and Alarm Systems
Whether or not you choose to have manned security in place, you should always think about having some sort of CCTV or alarm system installed to complement other security options. Manned security cannot provide video or audio evidence of a break-in, but CCTV can.
In terms of CCTV, there are a number of different types to choose from and some are more advanced than others. You can get temporary solutions or more permanent solutions, ones that capture better quality than others and ones which can be linked to a personal device so that you can review what is happening remotely.
Prevention with Alarms
When it comes to alarms, it is a similar situation to CCTV, where there are a number of different solutions to choose from. You can have a simple alarm that will simply sound when it triggers, alerting those within a certain distance and hopefully putting off any trespassers.
You can also have a more sophisticated alarm solution that can be linked to other devices. It can trigger a CCTV system to turn on, send an alert to one of your devices; these more sophisticated alarm systems can even be linked directly to the police who can in turn respond to deal with the trespassers.
CCTV and alarms which are visible will act as a further deterrent for trespassers and travellers wanting to enter your property and land.
What Can You do if Travellers Settle on Your Land?
If you are not putting yourself in danger, you can make clear that this is your land; it may be wise to have ‘no trespassing’ signs up. You or a police officer can ask them why they are there and how long they are planning to stay.
If you need to reclaim possession of your land, contact Secure Site. We can advise you on what is best to do and can start the proceedings and processes to seek possession through the civil courts under Part 55 of the Civil Procedure Rules. This is likely to involve:
- Asking the travellers to leave (landowner’s responsibility)
- Issuing and serving a court summons
- Seeking a possession order in a court of law
- Serving the possession order, and, if necessary-
- Executing a warrant for possession with county court bailiffs
In most cases, once the order has been served then the travellers will vacate independently. You can seek the help of private bailiffs to remove unauthorised occupiers without a possession order in more complicated and difficult cases too.
