A householder fed up with receiving flyers from a firm of estate agents has won his court battle to have them banned, in what could be a landmark ruling.
He successfully argued that there was no right to use his path to deliver the leaflets.
George Arkless, who already had a “No Flyers” notice on his front door, was so incensed by the leaflets coming through his letter box from local agents Kings Group that he applied to a court to have them stopped.
As a result, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the agent has been told it has no right of access to deliver the flyers.
Arkless, a retired teacher, won the case after arguing that the junk mail posed a security risk when he was away and the judge agreed that the flyers, which were often left hanging out of his letterbox, alerted people to the fact he was out.
He also successfully argued that people walking down his path to deliver the estate agent’s flyers were trespassing.
He said: “It’s one of those irritations of daily life that got to me on this occasion and I wondered if there was anything I could do about it. And there was.
“It’s a bit of a hammer to crack a nut but I’m so fed up with these people. I’ve got a notice on my door saying ‘No Flyers’ but they still come through anyway and that’s what irritated me.”
Arkless contacted the Kings Group estate and letting agency a year ago to complain about its leaflets left sticking out of his letterbox and asked them to make sure they were pushed through the door.
However, the deliveries continued as before, and he applied to Edmonton County Court in north London to ban the company from his home in Waltham Abbey, Essex.
Arkless said: “I emailed them and asked them to stop and they didn’t.
“Then I sent them an email which said you don’t have permission to use my footpath to my front door.”
Kings Group were ordered to pay £200 damages and £50 costs to Mr Arkless.
He said: “It’s fairly clear the law is on my side. Anyone who owns property has a right to restrict access to it.”
Kings Group boss Karl Knipe told EYE this morning: “I understand that a member of the public has made a claim against one of our franchisees because marketing leaflets were delivered to his house.
“I can’t comment on an individual court case but obviously Kings Group has no wish to distribute leaflets to people who don’t wish to receive them. As a company we are very much part of the local communities in which we operate.
“If it has not already happened, therefore, I will ensure that an apology is sent to the individual who has made this complaint.
“We immediately instructed the marketing company acting on our behalf to under no circumstances deliver anything to the said address and being a reputable and professional company who we have used for a long period of time and never have had any issues previously, expected our instructions to be carried out.
“Across the Kings Group we use only reputable and responsible distribution agents and we do our very best to target our advertising and marketing at people within the local community who may wish to use our services. I’m very sorry if, on this occasion, leaflets have been given to somebody who objected to receiving them.
“We will accordingly be reviewing our marketing promotion going forward.”
http://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/you-could-see-far-less-696398
Comments (13)
Does he take the local pizza take away/Chinese/Indian takeaway to court too as I’m sure they post menus/offers?? Maybe he should get a hobby?
Dealing with people who expose me to risk is my hobby – I just hope it helps others. I would take on the others but they do not consistently leave the flyers sticking out of my letterbox. I offered the estate agents the chance to donate to charity rather than go to court – they chose not to do this.
Maybe the notice that he didn’t want leaflets should be a large sign on the gate NOT the front door. After All the poor leaflet deliverer has walked all the way up the drive to find the notice on the door. Mr Arkless should have considered that before taking the estate agent to court.
The agent was asked several times to put things right, they failed to do so or to take me seriously hence the action. Don’t feel to sorry for the delivery people (with whom I have sympathy) my path is less than 3 metres long!
we all get pd off with junk mail be it taxis, pizzas or estate agents….
remember posting some myself a few years ago and getting bit by a dog sat behind the door!!
Got a YOPA letter through the door – funnily enough nowhere was it mentioned that their fee is payable irrespective of whether you sell or not….
Fair enough…
I’m an estate agent and get ticked off by the avalanche of estate agency leaflets through my own door – but to be fair, I do look at the adverts and either:
1. Laugh
2. Cry
3. Facepalm
4. Nick a good idea…
As you might have guessed, I do not live in the same area as I work..;-)
I think my favourite was one I found in an empty property of ours that included a teabag so that we could ‘have a drink on (xxxx) whilst deciding to move agents’. There was no name or anything on the letter so I opened it to see what it was.
Really couldn’t decide if that was utter genius or the stupidest thing I’d ever read… Tea bag was bit grotty looking too…
‘a retired teacher’
And?
Retired teacher…58 and with 2 kids…i wonder who’s tax is paying for him to spend his idle time on moral outrage. Surely he shouldn’t be retired until 67!
I am seeing so many of the idle retired spouting anger at the world whilst they are no longer contributing. Don’t get me started on the medics..I have one client who’s day job is head of A&E which has just failed its inspection, but has a huge contracting and property portfolio doing very nicely……
Nice to jump to conclusions – it may be due to ill health or a number of other reasons which is not the point. Its not like he went straight to this action repeated requests were ignored
Just to make it clear, I am the retired teacher in the article. I am in fact just about to be 69, there was an error in the article. I spent over 40 years trying to give youngsters a better start in life working in the Further Education sector.