Evicting travellers from private land – Manchester

The law around the eviction of travellers / trespassers from private land is covered either by:

• COMMON LAW – To be found in Halsbury’s Laws of England. Essentially that puts the removal in the hands of the person entitled to possession of the land. This is generally the freeholder or the tenant. They will usually instruct bailiffs / an enforcement company to carry out the eviction, as they are experienced and understand the process.
• COUNTY COURT – The landowner can instruct solicitors and obtain a Possession Order in the County Court. The client can then, as above, instruct a bailiff / enforcement company to enforce a High Court Writ of Possession and carry out the eviction.

At CEA Limited, we have dealt with two encampments recently, which were dealt with using the Common Law. One was, on eviction, escalated to a Section 60 Notice, as the travellers were not agreeing to leave. This type of notice requires them to leave immediately, makes it a criminal offence to refuse and, importantly, bans the travellers from returning to that same site for a period of 12 months.

Common Law Traveller Evictions

First our uniformed Enforcement Officers attend the site, take details of those in the encampment, undertake a risk assessment and take photographs, often including drone footage to check site from above.

They will also post Common Law eviction notices around the site and personally serve them on the travellers.  The visit will be reported back to head office who will immediately update our client.

Our operations team will mobilise an eviction unit to attend early the next day, along with one of our CEA Ltd branded towing vehicles.

On site they will liaise with the local police and arrange, if needed, their presence during the eviction. The travellers are given a reasonable amount of time, typically one to two hours to clear the site. If they do not agree to leave, we will physically tow the vehicles and caravans from the site.

Traveller evictions in bad weather

We recently attended a site where it had been snowing heavily. We took both a beavertail tow truck with winching capabilities and a Navara 4 x 4 tow truck to assist. Both were needed to remove the caravans from the verges and pavements and onto the highway, which had been ploughed and gritted. Agents were on site a total of six hours and successfully cleared the site.

On the second site, the travellers were not willing to leave immediately and the decision was made to serve the encampment with a Section 60 Notice. They had previously been served a Common Law Notice.

Once the conditions of that notice were explained to them, they realised they could be arrested if they didn’t leave. To enforce the notice, we had a branded tow truck on site along with bailiffs in full uniform. Within four hours of arrival, the site had been cleared. Our agents also provided traffic assistance to ensure the safety of everyone whilst the travellers left the site.

As an enforcement company we do what it says on the tin – we clear sites of illegal / unauthorised encampments.

Our Eviction Teams will be on site the same day we’re instructed, often within a couple of hours.

CEA Ltd can act within the Common Law or enforce High Court Writs of Possession, under the authority of our Authorised High Court Enforcement Officer (Sherrif) – Claire Sandbrook

For professional, legal and quick evictions call CEA Ltd on

0845 643 0635                                

0800 246 1473

0113 532 8350

Calls are answered 7 days a week, with a duty bailiff monitoring calls out of hours

We provide nationwide coverage and achieve results every time