Private landowner sends Lime an £8k bill as e-bike row escalates
A London property firm has invoiced Lime nearly £8,000 for removing, storing and returning dockless e-bikes left on its private land, Morning Wire understands, amid struggles to contain the capital’s bike clutter problem.
Russell Gray, director of property firm Shiva Ltd, personally returned around ten Lime bikes to the firm’s depot on Thursday, handing staff an invoice of £7,690 covering removal and return fees.
Gray told Morning Wire the bikes have repeatedly been abandoned on his property in Southwark, disrupting deliveries and forcing staff to monitor access points day and night.
“We’ve had enough”, he said. “Lime thinks they have carte blanche to leave their bikes wherever they want, and the council lets them. We deal with the consequences”.
Southwark currently allows users to end dockless e-bike journeys almost anywhere, a far looser regime than boroughs like Westminster and Hackney, where parking is restricted to designated bays.
Gray said it took Lime 11 months to fence off his land as a no-parking zone in its app, and even then, bikes continue to appear.
Rival operator Forest, which also allowed bikes to be parked on the site, paid £1,360 promptly after being invoiced. Lime did not.
Billing rows
This incident marks the second time this year the firm has returned Lime bikes. After the firm ignored an earlier £380 invoice for two bikes left in January, Gray pursued a county court claim – eventually instructing bailiffs to attend Lime’s depot to enforce payment.
Forest “spoke to their lawyers and were quick to pay the money they owed,” Gray said.
Lime said it was “aware of the concerns raised by the landowner”, and had engaged to reach a resolution.
A spokesperson said access to the area had been made a no-parking zone in the Lime app and that any riders ending trips there were breaching Lime’s user agreement and could face warnings or fines.
“We take responsible parking extremely seriously”, the spokesperson added. “We work closely with all London boroughs and private landowners to ensure any Lime vehicles are dealt with appropriately”.
The dispute comes as councils across London harden their stance on dockless bikes.
Westminster has begun issuing £100 on the spot fines to Lime and Forest for bikes blocking pavements, emailing over 150 penalties in a single week, a move it says could raise £1m a year.
Kensington and Chelsea has seized more than 1,000 bikes since January, charging release fees to operators.
London Councils warned that agreements with e-bike lenders are being “flouted”, leaving pavements obstructed in areas where firms lack permission to operate.
A regulatory squeeze
The row also comes amid rising safety concerns. Southwark is among the boroughs worst affected by e-bike fires, with London fire brigade data showing an e-bike or e-scooter fire occurring once every two days since 2023.
The brigade has called for tighter regulation of online battery sales, warning that modified bikes and non-compliant chargers are driving risk.
Meanwhile, some boroughs are experimenting with tighter controls. Greenwich has struck a formal agreement with Lime introducing parking bays and no-parking zones, while Westminster is fining operators directly, rather than impounding bikes.
Lime reported £111m in UK revenue last year, and dominates London’s dockless e-bike market.
The firm says record demand has outpaced available parking space, despite funding over 1,000 new bays across the capital.
“Councils in London are essentially selling their footpaths and highways to the highest bidder, which in this case is a complacent California tech company”, Gray said.
Morning Wire has approached Southwark council for comment.