diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 06ba3a2..b9f80f3 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -29,7 +29,15 @@ Usage
 >>> from send2trash import send2trash
 >>> send2trash('some_file')
 
-When there's a problem ``OSError`` is raised.
+On Freedesktop platforms (Linux, BSD, etc.), you may not be able to efficiently
+trash some files. In these cases, an exception ``send2trash.TrashPermissionError``
+is raised, so that the application can handle this case. This inherits from
+``PermissionError`` (``OSError`` on Python 2). Specifically, this affects
+files on a different device to the user's home directory, where the root of the
+device does not have a ``.Trash`` directory, and we don't have permission to
+create a ``.Trash-$UID`` directory.
+
+For any other problem, ``OSError`` is raised.
 
 .. _PyGObject: https://wiki.gnome.org/PyGObject
 .. _GIO: https://developer.gnome.org/gio/
diff --git a/send2trash/__init__.py b/send2trash/__init__.py
index 8a059a0..3a8c884 100644
--- a/send2trash/__init__.py
+++ b/send2trash/__init__.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 import sys
 
+from .exceptions import TrashPermissionError
+
 if sys.platform == 'darwin':
     from .plat_osx import send2trash
 elif sys.platform == 'win32':
diff --git a/send2trash/exceptions.py b/send2trash/exceptions.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4132a6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/send2trash/exceptions.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import errno
+from .compat import PY3
+
+if PY3:
+    _permission_error = PermissionError
+else:
+    _permission_error = OSError
+
+class TrashPermissionError(_permission_error):
+    """A permission error specific to a trash directory.
+
+    Raising this error indicates that permissions prevent us efficiently
+    trashing a file, although we might still have permission to delete it.
+    This is *not* used when permissions prevent removing the file itself:
+    that will be raised as a regular PermissionError (OSError on Python 2).
+
+    Application code that catches this may try to simply delete the file,
+    or prompt the user to decide, or (on Freedesktop platforms), move it to
+    'home trash' as a fallback. This last option probably involves copying the
+    data between partitions, devices, or network drives, so we don't do it as
+    a fallback.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, filename):
+        _permission_error.__init__(self, errno.EACCES, "Permission denied",
+                                   filename)
diff --git a/send2trash/plat_other.py b/send2trash/plat_other.py
index b61fe1d..624eb99 100644
--- a/send2trash/plat_other.py
+++ b/send2trash/plat_other.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+import errno
 import sys
 import os
 import os.path as op
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@ except ImportError:
     from urllib import quote
 
 from .compat import text_type, environb
+from .exceptions import TrashPermissionError
 
 try:
     fsencode = os.fsencode   # Python 3
@@ -134,9 +136,13 @@ def find_ext_volume_global_trash(volume_root):
 def find_ext_volume_fallback_trash(volume_root):
     # from [2] Trash directories (1) create a .Trash-$uid dir.
     trash_dir = op.join(volume_root, TOPDIR_FALLBACK)
-    # Try to make the directory, if we can't the OSError exception will escape
-    # be thrown out of send2trash.
-    check_create(trash_dir)
+    # Try to make the directory, if we lack permission, raise TrashPermissionError
+    try:
+        check_create(trash_dir)
+    except OSError as e:
+        if e.errno == errno.EACCES:
+            raise TrashPermissionError(e.filename)
+        raise
     return trash_dir
 
 def find_ext_volume_trash(volume_root):