A little bit of legal advice please.

[nickyboy]

@Markymark advice is spot on

Step 1....try to do a deal to leave the sign where it is. There will be a figure that will keep the sign there, it's just whether it's acceptable to you or not. You can, I think reasonably ask them to keep the sign in situ while you conclude negotiations

If it's not acceptable, Step 2 is remove the sign yourself and put it either on your land or the land of someone else who is willing to have it on their land (again maybe for a fee)

If it was me I would never have allowed the sign on my land for free in the first place. You've had a pretty good run no matter what the outcome

 

[Arjimlad]

Without having paid any rent for locating the sign there's no tenancy applicable to it (Street-v-Mountford lists the bare requirements of a tenancy).

However, the landowner is a "voluntary gratuitous bailee" of your sign and has a duty not to damage it unnecessarily, I would suggest. You might remind them of this.

They should also bear in mind the Torts (Interference with goods) Act 1977 and not remove the sign without giving you reasonable notice. Whether 7 days is reasonable.. possibly.. 14 days would be more like it..

I once had a case about a client's valuable and large industrial machine left on a site with the manager's permission which was later moved & sold we know not where, by a new manager..without giving notice. It made for an interesting battle.

 

[Mugshot]

Or as someone else said, park a branded bike/trailer but that always looks a bit unprofessional to me, plus there's the issue of parking/obstructing.

Have you looked elsewhere? If people are being referred to you then does it matter where you are? How many customers a month do you think intended to visit your competitor but (either willfully or by accident) came in to your shop instead? If not many, I'd say that's a good argument for not staying where you are.

The obstruction would be the issue with parking our van there, perhaps more importantly I'd have to drive in rather than cycle in the too!!
We're not going to move, we've invested lots of money and time into the showroom, to do that again elsewhere is absolutely not an option. It's really tricky to say how much of an effect they have on us, on the one hand we do know that there are people that have come looking for us and ended up with them, but on the other hand there will also be customers that come to them and then come in to us who may not have come to us at all otherwise.

 

[Arjimlad]

Get a blimp !

https://www.blimps.co.uk/

 

[Mugshot]

Without having paid any rent for locating the sign there's no tenancy applicable to it (Street-v-Mountford lists the bare requirements of a tenancy).

However, the landowner is a "voluntary gratuitous bailee" of your sign and has a duty not to damage it unnecessarily, I would suggest. You might remind them of this.

They should also bear in mind the Torts (Interference with goods) Act 1977 and not remove the sign without giving you reasonable notice. Whether 7 days is reasonable.. possibly.. 14 days would be more like it..

I once had a case about a client's valuable and large industrial machine left on a site with the manager's permission which was later moved & sold we know not where, by a new manager..without giving notice. It made for an interesting battle.

Yes, that was kind of what I was thinking, although didn't have the specific knowledge you have. I'm not looking to make a battle over it far from it, life's too short, but I wasn't keen on the threating tone.

 

[Smokin Joe]

This is what we have currently, mine to the right, their's to the left;
View attachment 147643

If you look at the Google streetview HERE you can see it's pretty easy, and a regular occurance too, to have people drive straight past our turning.

Hey, I think I bought some tiles from you a couple of years ago.

 

[Pale Rider]

"voluntary gratuitous bailee.

Anyone who can incorporate that phrase into a post gets a thumbs-up from me.

I agree they should be reminded the sign remains the OP's property and they should not damage it.

Practically, if they rip it out and chuck what remains of it in front of the OP's shop, there's not a lot he can do.

Suing for damages would surely be more trouble than it's worth.

Best to sort this amicably if possible.

 

[Mugshot]

Hey, I think I bought some tiles from you a couple of years ago.

Really? Thank you very much!!! I don't recognise you from your photograph though.

 

[Mugshot]

Get a blimp !

https://www.blimps.co.uk/

Funnily enough next door used to have a blimp (and a wavy man like Marmion posted) I think the reason they stopped using the blimp is because of the astronomical cost of the gas.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Really? Thank you very much!!! I don't recognise you from your photograph though.

I had my sunglasses on that day.

In fact either my shower enclosure or it's base came from you earlier this year, I can't remember which.

 

[Mugshot]

I had my sunglasses on that day.

In fact either my shower enclosure or it's base came from you earlier this year, I can't remember which.

It may be because we don't allow smoking in the showroom.
Well thank you for your continued business, I guess you saw our sign.

 

[mjr]

Practically, if they rip it out and chuck what remains of it in front of the OP's shop, there's not a lot he can do.

Suing for damages would surely be more trouble than it's worth.

Best to sort this amicably if possible.

Yes, better to sort amicably, but it's not completely sure that it's more trouble than it's worth, because it sounds like @Mugshot is a small business and the other is a chain. As long as they're structured as one big company (not local area companies or franchises), taking them to court would probably escalate it to their HQ, incur solicitor and executive costs that may get attributed to the branch, draw HQ attention to an underperforming branch that's now causing extra work, and so on... and that's before you start playing the "hardworking local entrepreneur's longstanding sign attacked by faceless chain store thugs" card in the local media. Don't warn them that card's coming and don't overplay it by saying anything untrue, though.

I've had a bigger business cave in and pay a bill once they realised that I was serious about heading to court because it would cost them much more than me... but I'd check the potential costs in time and money because these things change over time and it might not be worthwhile at the moment for a particular type of dispute.

 

[Mugshot]

[QUOTE 4576714, member: 9609"]@Mugshot - so how as it all worked out ?[/QUOTE]
Well all the signs and the horrible plastic barriers that they had put there when they first moved in have gone, they've given their building a fresh lick of paint and cleaned up all of their weeds and shoot. So the corner now looks rather nice and tidy, although my neighbour won't let me tidy the opposite corner so that's still looking a litte tatty. I'm waiting delivery of my new larger, brighter, bolder sign to replace my little A board and we'll see how things go from there

 

[Mugshot]

[QUOTE 4576714, member: 9609"]@Mugshot - so how as it all worked out ?[/QUOTE]
BTW, thank you for asking

 

[Globalti]

If that purple sign is yours, it's too dull and too small compared with the other two. It took me a minute or so to spot it, looking at that picture. Can't you negotiate with next door to put a bigger sign on the brick wall above it?