"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Saffy" writes:
| "Mike" wrote in message
| ...
|
| If fruit drops onto a neighbours land it is theirs to keep. How come
the
| football coming onto their land isn't?
|
| I read recently that windfall apples belong to the owner of the tree
even if
| they fall on someone elses land. You are not obliged to let on your
land to
| pick them u however but you can't legally keep them yourself.

That is supposed to be so, and the police are exceeding their powers
when they order people to hand things back. However, because you
are not allowed to keep your neighbour's things that fall on your
land, you can't even pick them up!

A reasonable compromise to an excessive number of balls flying over
is to refuse to stop what you are doing to return them or enable
access, and to tell them to come back at a time of your choosing.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Nick is entirely correct here I have a book on household laws, and the
later mails showing the law on theft do not apply case law shows that you
Do NOT have to return the ball until you touch it. They have committed
trespass on your property by putting the ball on it and they have no right
of access or return of the ball. What we did when we had the same problem
was to give them a time several hours later at which they could return to
collect the balls. We also had a Border collie who liked to sink his teeth
in to footballs which helped...

The Q