Possession of land at Heathrow Airport

In March 2025, we were instructed by the owner of land within Heathrow Airport, next to the Eastern Perimeter Road.

The owner had leased the land to a company who then sublet it to another company. The land was a muddy field being used for valet parking by passengers using the airport.

The landowner was concerned about the legitimacy of the sub-tenant operating the valet parking and wanted them removed.

The rising number of rogue parking operators at airports

These “rogue” valet parking operators are causing issues for car owners at many UK airports, as you can read in this BBC article about rogue parking at Gatwick Airport.

The BBC investigation found holidaymakers having long waits for their cars, some of which were damaged, at the hands of third-party car parking operators. A spokesperson for West Sussex Trading Standards said that in extreme cases cars were being "left in fields and on local highways".

The possession and the Torts Act

Working under a writ of possession, our team went on site to take possession of the land to return it to the owner. As part of this work, the cars that were parked there became the responsibility of our client, who became the involuntary bailee under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977.

This means that the landowner then had an obligation to take care of the goods (the vehicles parked there) and make reasonable attempts to trace the owner to return the goods.

To achieve this, we took a full inventory of the vehicles and liaised with Heathrow Airport to speak to the registered vehicle owners as they arrived back at the airport to let them know what was happening with their car.

Supporting members of the public

There were some owners who came over to the site, where we briefed them on what was happening and suggested they wait in the neighbouring hotel until we were able to release their car. We kept everyone regularly updated with our progress.

There was a farmer from Derbyshire who urgently needed to get home to milk his cows and, so we did our utmost to facilitate that. When we did reunite him with his vehicle, he was very complimentary about how we had worked to support him.

Challenges of working at the UK’s largest airport

Airports are, as you would expect, critical national infrastructure sites and so you cannot block the perimeter roads and the operation needs to be carefully planned. We worked closely with the Metropolitan Police.

While we were securing the land and had removed the operatives who had been present, the director of the company arrived with an entourage, who then blocked the perimeter road and tried to force their way back in.

We turned them away and explained that they would not be allowed back in and the vehicles there were now the responsibility of the landowner.

The possession was concluded efficiently and within the same day, so that everyone was reunited with their vehicle as quickly as possible and our client regained possession of the site.