YOU could be fined £50,000 and put in prison if someone else fly-tips rubbish on your property, experts warn.
Under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, if you become a victim of fly-tipping it is your responsibility to safely dispose of the rubbish – and pay for it.
You could be slapped with a £50,000 fine if someone fly-tips on your propertyGetty
This is because it is illegal to keep fly-tipped waste on unauthorised land, even if it wasn’t you who put it there.
If you don’t dispose of the waste properly, you could be fined up to £50,000 – or serve a jail sentence in some cases.
An investigation by The Sun has revealed the worst hotspots for fines under the rules in a nationwide “postcode lottery”.
In 2022-2023 Brits were slapped with a whopping £784,923 in Section 33 fines, it can be revealed.
Defra figures show that local authorities handed out 73,000 fines in the same time, down from 91,000 the previous year.
A Freedom of Information request by The Sun revealed that the largest fine handed out was in the region of £20,001-£50,000.
Wandsworth is the worst hotspot for Section 33 fines – with the south London borough handing out 5,236 penalties.
Brentwood in Essex is the most draconian council when it comes to fines, handing out an average of two for every Section 33 incident.
At the other extreme, Norwich council handed out just one fine despite recording 5,297 Section 33 breaches.
Hertfordshire man Andrew Watts has had to fork up thousands clearing up waste dumped on the farms he manages.
Andrew told The Sun: “Over the years we’ve had many, many incidents.
“Sometimes it’s builders coming from a kitchen job or someone dumping a fridge.
“But sometimes it’s truckloads of industrial-scale trommel waste that have been processed by skip companies.
“These companies might have gone bust or they might be unscrupulous.
“Either way, the landowner bears the cost, so we’ve spent thousands disposing of it correctly to avoid a fine.
“It costs up to £4,000 to clear up one 18-tonne truckload – and we’ve had 12.”
What are the rules?
This means that you could be fined or even jailed if rubbish is fly-tipped on your property and you dispose of it properly.
Your council is not responsible for clearing up the fly-tipped waste – even if it was someone else who dumped it on your property.
This means you may have to spend your own money and time finding someone with the right credentials to pick up the waste.
The rules may seem strange, but experts say it deters people from dumping waste on their own land and refusing to pay for clear-up.
Andrew added: “That would be a crippling cost for a small farmer in Hertfordshire.
“Our council’s disposal fund has already run out so we’re having to foot the bill.
“This is not a victimless crime. We’re the ones who have to pay thousands to avoid a fine.
“I’ve spent half a day finding the right person to phone up to take the waste away.”
Andrew said: “I’ve got enough to do – it shouldn’t be happening.
“It has to disposed of quickly too or else other fly-tippers will think it’s the perfect spot.
“The police are supportive but do they have the resources?
“Even if we spot a classic Transit tipper ourselves I wouldn’t want to approach someone who’s about to commit a crime.
“The council are sympathetic but they say ‘It’s not our responsibility, you need to put up CCTV and security gates’.
“One fly-tipper smashed open a gate I put up and I had to spend a day repairing it at my own expense.
“I’ve been here nearly 30 years and for most of that time there has been no need for barriers or gates.
“It makes the whole British countryside look less attractive.
“It’s waste of money and time – and it brings endless emotional stress.”
THANKS FOR THE TIP
Law Society expert Sebastian Charles told The Sun: “The main waste offence is targeted at fly-tippers and makes depositing controlled waste an offence.
“However, innocent landowners can get caught out too because it is also an offence to ‘keep’ controlled waste on your land.
“So you might be a victim of fly-tipping but also commit an offence if you don’t clear away the waste fly-tipped by others.
“It isn’t the council’s job to clear away waste from private land.
“It might seem harsh but the reason is obvious – it is really difficult to catch criminal fly-tippers in the act and prove who deposited unlawful waste.
“If it was the council’s responsibility to clear up unlawful waste everywhere, criminals might dump waste on their own land, then claim it was dumped by someone else.”
Sebastian recommends making sure that any gardeners or builders whom you hire take rubbish to a legitimate waste site.
You might be a victim of fly-tipping but also commit an offence if you don’t clear away the waste
Sebastian Charles
You should also take steps to secure your property against fly-tippers like putting up CCTV cameras.
Your council will normally take away the trash free of charge, although it has no legal obligation to do so.
Sebastian added: “Penalties for waste offences are harsh, but catching offenders, with evidence that will stand up in court, is not easy.
“Generally large companies that you have heard of are not the cause of the problem and pay large amounts in licence fees and inspections.
“The problem is that small operators often don’t have money to pay fines or prosecution costs, even when they are caught.”
FLY TRAP
NFU Vice President Rachel Hallos told The Sun: “Fly-tipping continues to be a huge problem.
“It plagues the lives of so many of us living and working in the countryside.
“Items such as worn out tyres, battered old fridges and bags of rubble are commonplace.
“But more and more our farms are being strewn with kitchen appliances, sofas and increasingly, industrial-scale amounts of rubbish such as builder’s rubble and hazardous materials.
“This is affecting farmers’ efforts to produce food and care for the environment but is also taking a huge toll emotionally and financially.
Ms Hallos added: “The onus is on the landowner to remove the fly-tip from their land.
“Rural crime must be treated as a priority issue.
“Farms, and wider rural communities, have increasingly become targets for criminals and this has left people living in the countryside feeling more vulnerable.
“It is good to see government launching initiatives to combat the issue.
“The NFU believes more can and should be done including better promotion of household duty of care.
“This would ensure the public are aware that their responsibilities for waste disposal is maintained to its final disposal point.
“We also want to see accreditation for all council enforcement officers to give them enhanced police-style powers to tackle fly-tipping and littering.”
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