Can you complain about neighbours dumping rubbish in the garden?

If your tenant is asking, ‘can you complain about neighbours’ rubbish?’, the answer is yes – in many cases, you can, and sometimes you should. When neighbours are dumping rubbish in the garden or around your rental property, it can become a legal as well as a neighbourly issue.

Most landlords and tenants hope for good relationships with neighbours – but sadly, not all neighbours become good friends. Some can be less-than-friendly in their actions, which could impact you and/or your tenants.

One example of such potentially problematic behaviour is the dumping of rubbish. Dumped rubbish is undesirable for obvious reasons. Chief among those is that it’s an eyesore and that it can attract vermin and become a safety issue for those living nearby and passing, particularly families with children who may play outside.

So, if you become aware of rubbish that has been dumped by someone living near your property, or your tenant contacts you with concerns to seek your advice, what are the best courses of action?

Can you complain about a neighbour’s rubbish?

If your tenant is fed up with neighbours dumping rubbish in the garden, you are within your rights to complain. In some situations, it’s the best and most responsible thing to do. As a landlord, you’re not expected to solve every neighbourhood dispute, but you do have an interest in protecting your property and helping your tenant live safely and comfortably.

Rubbish dumped on or around your tenant’s garden is a problem. It can:

• Attract rats and other pests
• Create smells and mess that make the garden unusable
• Damage fences, walls or shared areas
• Put off future tenants and affect the value of the property

So, yes, you can complain about a neighbour’s rubbish, but the right route depends on how serious the problem is.

What counts as neighbours dumping rubbish in your garden?

For landlords, it’s important to be clear on what’s just ‘messy’ and what looks more like fly-tipping or a health risk. In most cases, you’re dealing with ‘dumping’ if the neighbour’s waste is ending up on your tenant’s side or in shared spaces. For example:

• Bags of rubbish are thrown over the fence into your tenant’s garden
• Rubbish is piled directly against a boundary, so it’s leaning on your fence or spilling through
• Shared alleyways, side paths or rear access routes are used as a general dumping ground
• Front gardens are used as a tip, with bags, broken furniture or old appliances
• Bulky items such as mattresses, white goods and black sacks left on the edge of your tenant’s garden or in a communal yard.

What constitutes a minor rubbish issue?

Neighbours dumping rubbish in the garden might be considered on the minor side if it is more messy than dangerous. For example, neighbours leaving rubbish bags next to their bin or letting recycling pile up.

In these instances, you should encourage your tenant to speak to the neighbour calmly to raise concerns, if they feel safe doing so. This could either be face-to-face or, depending on what contact details they have, they could also call, text or write to them.

Ask them to explain how it is affecting them; maybe they feel they cannot use their garden or feel embarrassed to have visitors. With any luck, the neighbours simply won’t have realised how bad the situation looks from the other side of the fence.

Whether it is you or your tenant who communicates with the neighbour about the issue, first raise concern about the effects the dumped rubbish is having and how the neighbour could help resolve the problem. In some cases, this alone might be a sufficient step to make the neighbours realise the errors of their ways. If not, it might be time to consider the legal angle.

When to escalate the rubbish issue

If the problem is ongoing or if neighbours are dumping rubbish directly into your tenant’s garden, it’s reasonable to take things further. You or your tenant can potentially complain to the neighbour’s landlord if they rent. If the neighbour is a council, housing association or private tenant, there’s usually a clause in their tenancy about anti-social behaviour and waste disposal. A simple email or letter to their landlord, with photos and dates, can prompt action.

If neighbours are dumping rubbish in a way that affects your tenant’s health or seriously impacts their ability to use the garden, the council may treat it as a statutory nuisance and serve an abatement notice requiring it to be cleared.

If the rubbish is building up, attracting vermin, causing strong smells or blocking access, your tenant can report it to the local council as fly-tipping, a waste issue or a possible statutory nuisance. Provide as much evidence as possible, in the form of photos, dates, times and a brief note of how the rubbish affects day-to-day life at the property.

If someone is deliberately dumping bags of rubbish or bulky items in your tenant’s garden or alleyway, this can be treated as illegal dumping, otherwise known as fly-tipping, which is a criminal offence. Councils can issue fixed penalty notices of up to £1,000, and serious cases can be prosecuted in court, where offenders face fines up to £50,000 (or unlimited in the Crown Court) and even imprisonment.

The council may investigate and take enforcement action. The police could even get involved if there is threatening or harassing behaviour alongside the dumping.

Anti-social behaviour alongside neighbours dumping rubbish in the garden

It’s likely that the neighbour’s dumping of rubbish could be classed as anti-social behaviour, given the nuisance and annoyance it can cause to people living around them. If you know who the neighbour rents from, you could talk first to their landlord. If you don’t know who their landlord is, or they own their home, you can complain directly to the council about their anti-social behaviour.

When you or your tenant reports the issue, details may be requested such as the neighbour’s address and name, how frequently it happens, how it is affecting the tenant, what has been done to try and resolve the issue, and who else the problem has been reported to.

What if you aren’t pleased with the council’s response?

It’s not the end of the line if you aren’t happy with how the council has dealt with your complaint. If yours isn’t the only report about the problem, it may be possible to get the issue looked at again – this is referred to as a ‘community trigger’ and there should be details about it on your local council’s website.

If you’re still unhappy with your council’s handling of the complaint, you’ve also got the option of using their formal complaints process – which, again, should be detailed on their website. Finally, you might consider going to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who will look at your complaint and determine whether the council should act to resolve the issue. In the event that the problem remains unresolved, contacting your nearest Citizens Advice is another possibility so that you can receive advice on what to do next.

A landlord’s role in neighbours dumping rubbish in a garden

You might not feel keen on getting involved as a landlord. Remember, you’re not expected to act as an enforcer, but it can be within your best interests to help your tenant resolve the issue by getting involved.

If you want to help but don’t want to get involved with the neighbour in question yourself, you can support your tenant by acknowledging their complaint and keeping a note on your records. Advise your tenant to log incidents with photos, dates and times and ask them to keep you updated with these incidents.

You can make a complaint yourself to the council or the neighbour’s landlord, especially if your tenant is nervous about doing so. Follow up if the situation is damaging your property or making it hard for the tenant to live there.

If you’re still wondering ‘can you complain about neighbours’ rubbish?’, remember that supporting your tenant and raising the issue with the council or the neighbour’s landlord is often in your best interests.

Check out our guide on how landlords can mediate neighbourly disputes.

For more guidance on tricky topics such as neighbours dumping rubbish, visit our advice centre. You’ll find endless amounts of useful advice regarding the screening process, property access issues, finances and more.

Neighbours dumping rubbish is just one of the many issues that a landlord may have to deal with. Theft, property damage and fire are all unfortunate circumstances that can leave landlords out of pocket. Protect your investment with landlord insurance. At CIA, we compare the whole market to find you the best policy for your needs, at the best price. Get an instant quote now.