Criminals operating in the waste industry impact us all as they cause damage to the environment and undercut legitimate waste businesses.
As a land or property owner, you are at risk too. Waste criminals may offer you cash to store waste on your land or in your property, promising to remove it later. Or they may just dump it illegally without your knowledge. Figures from Defra’s annual report on fly-tipping show that in the past year alone, local authorities across the country have dealt with more than 1 million incidents.
Dumped waste causes contamination and is a major fire risk. You will have to pay for its lawful removal and your insurance premiums may increase. You may also have to pay HMRC Landfill tax, currently £102.10 per tonne and possibly a fine and/or face imprisonment.
How to protect yourself
Check your empty land and property regularly to make sure they are secure and follow these steps to check out prospective tenants before renting out your land and property:
1. Carry out rigorous checks on prospective new tenants:
- Make sure you see adequate identification documents and secure a down payment from a traceable bank account.
- Use freely available information such as Companies House Beta https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
- If you are renting to a newly formed company, make sure you meet and initially deal with the Company Director.
- Investigate the status of the new company’s finances to ensure they are strong.
- Check if the new company has a website and look to see if contact details match those you have been given.
- Ensure you know what business they intend to carry out on your premises.
- If it is a waste business, the operator must have the right environmental permits from the Environment Agency / Natural Resources Wales. If you plan to carry out any waste activities yourself, you will also need to have the right environmental permits for your land to be used in this way gov.uk/guidance/waste-environmental-permits or https://naturalresources.wales/permits-and-permissions/waste-permitting/. You will also need planning permission from your local council: gov.uk/find-local-council
- If they are moving waste, they need a waste carriers’ registration, which you can check on the public register. https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers or https://naturalresources.wales/permits-and-permissions/waste-carriers-brokers-and-dealers-public-register/?lang=en.
- Be cautious if your prospective new tenants arrive on foot and not in a vehicle.
- Make sure you check out the details of any witness to the lease agreements, to be sure they are plausible and traceable.
2. Regularly check tenants are operating properly
- Any of the following could indicate that tenants are not operating the business they said:
- More lorry movements than you would expect for their business.
- Activities on site at strange hours of the day and night.
- Evidence of unusual odours and/or pests.
- Complaints from adjacent tenants about their new neighbours.
3. Report suspected illegal activity
- If you discover anyone in the act of dumping waste on your land or in your property, do not approach them as they may be dangerous. Call the Police on 999.
- If you are approached to store waste for someone else, discover waste has been dumped in your property or on your land, report it to the Environment Agency incident hotline number: 0800 80 70 60 or Natural Resources Wales: 0300 065 3000 (24-hour services).
