Unauthorised camping or caravans on public land

Private landowners must deal with encampments on their land.

As a council, we must follow a set legal process to deal with unauthorised encampments.

Dealing with encampments

• we have to find out who owns the land
• if we own the land, we then check to find out if those camped on the land have any specific issues we need to consider
• if there are no specific issues we need to consider, we will serve a direction to leave
• if the people camped on the land stay past the date and time given in the direction to leave, we will apply to the courts for a possession order
• a summons is served on those camped on the land to attend court
• if the courts grant an order to remove the encampment, the person or people camped on the land are served with notice of this
• if they remain on site after the order is served, we contact bailiffs to carry out an eviction

Evictions

Evictions may involve council staff, Surrey Police and bailiffs. They will be carefully coordinated so that the eviction is safe for everybody, including those on the site and those living nearby.

It usually takes between 8 to 14 working days to complete an eviction process. This can depend on the circumstances of each case and the time taken to get a court hearing.

Gypsies and Travellers

Many of the unauthorised encampments in our borough are by groups of people, such as Gypsies or Travellers. They follow a nomadic way of life, travelling the country, stopping off for a time, then moving on.

Gypsies and Travellers, are protected from discrimination by the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Human Rights Act 1998. This is applied to all groups who have a particular culture, language or values. It is not illegal to roam, and people cannot be prevented from roaming.

By law, we do not have to remove those who illegally camp on our land, we try to move those who have, as quickly as possible.