Squatters and UK law
- Thread starter Sem
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How did you chose which house to swat in? And how did you get in without causing any damage? Also how did you get into squatting, is it popular on the hippy / druggy / student scene?
As much as squatting annoys me I am genuinely curious as to how people get into this / go about doing it.
Typical Daily Mail. The majority of Squatting takes place in abandoned buildings where the owner is trying to force the building into a state of abandonment so that he can bypass planning laws to rip it down and turn it into something else. There is an issue here with a massive amount of money being paid to housing benefit, a massive homeless population and a large amount of people purposefully running existing property down.
There are laws in place to prevent squatting in habited properties, no one goes on holiday for a week to find their property overrun.
There are laws in place to prevent squatting in habited properties, no one goes on holiday for a week to find their property overrun.
I know people call others keyboard warriors and all this crap, but come on, if you came home from holiday (for example) one day and discovered your locks had been changed, a bunch of people had moved into your home and refused to let you in, you'd be utterly ****** off. If you wouldn't be, then you're lying.
I can't imagine it happening to my house, or what I'd do. I'm sorry if you think I'm a KB warrior or whatever, but I'd smash that door down and get every single one of them out of there by any means necessary.
I can't imagine it happening to my house, or what I'd do. I'm sorry if you think I'm a KB warrior or whatever, but I'd smash that door down and get every single one of them out of there by any means necessary.
Don't see how some people are actually seeing a positive side to squatters, having had my home once broken into, the sick feeling from just knowing a stranger ransacked your belongings... sigh.
Sorry if it's been posted, but here's another one Squatters-grab-house-as-owner-walks-dogs
Sorry if it's been posted, but here's another one Squatters-grab-house-as-owner-walks-dogs
I don't see the problem in just knocking down your own front door and then promptly removing all of the windows from the house. Sounds cheaper than going through the courts and certainly much faster.
A night in a house with no windows will make them very eager to find another house to squat in.
A night in a house with no windows will make them very eager to find another house to squat in.
From Wikipedia.....
In England and Wales, the term squatting usually refers to occupying an empty house in a city. The owner of the house must go through various legal proceedings before evicting squatters. Squatting is regarded in law as a civil, not a criminal, matter. However, if there is evidence of forced entry, then this is regarded as criminal damage, and the police have the powers to remove the occupants. If the squatter legally occupies the house, then the owner must prove in court that they have a right to live in the property and that the squatter does not, while the squatter has the opportunity to claim there is not sufficient proof or that the proper legal steps have not been taken. In order to occupy a house legally, a squatter must have exclusive access to that property, that is, be able to open and lock an entrance. The property should be secure in the same way as a normal residence, with no broken windows or locks.
The bit I put in bold annoyed me, If I came home to find Squatters in my house, I then have to prove to a court that it is my home and not theirs!! On a side note, cant I just wait for all the squatters to go out shopping (for example) then get into my house and lock them out. Or do squatters normally leave at least one person inside the house at all times?
In England and Wales, the term squatting usually refers to occupying an empty house in a city. The owner of the house must go through various legal proceedings before evicting squatters. Squatting is regarded in law as a civil, not a criminal, matter. However, if there is evidence of forced entry, then this is regarded as criminal damage, and the police have the powers to remove the occupants. If the squatter legally occupies the house, then the owner must prove in court that they have a right to live in the property and that the squatter does not, while the squatter has the opportunity to claim there is not sufficient proof or that the proper legal steps have not been taken. In order to occupy a house legally, a squatter must have exclusive access to that property, that is, be able to open and lock an entrance. The property should be secure in the same way as a normal residence, with no broken windows or locks.
The bit I put in bold annoyed me, If I came home to find Squatters in my house, I then have to prove to a court that it is my home and not theirs!! On a side note, cant I just wait for all the squatters to go out shopping (for example) then get into my house and lock them out. Or do squatters normally leave at least one person inside the house at all times?
There's over a dozen of them, so you can guarantee there will be at least one person in at a time.
You just need a recent bill in your name to the property. This is Daily Mail scaremongering. no one breaks into someones house when they are on their summer holidays because it is breaking and entering and has a custodial sentence. The court turnaround on this would be extremely short, and the Police would not be sympathetic to the squatters.
To mitigate the fact that Victorian landlords were buying up property and leaving it empty so they could charge a fortune for the few properties they did deign to let.
Guess you'd just have to smoke em out! Go round to the back, smoke machine through the cat flat (preferably not the smoke which smells of apples), swatters panic and think it's a fire and run out the front, you get back in, bolt the door, there we go, Robert's your father's brother - squatters removed!
Which is?
yet they are using all of his dvd's and televisions... hardly sounds like a house that hasnt been lived in for 2 years does it
Just out of curiosity can you think of anything else that would work?, that you are likely to have on you / can easily get without actually going into the house?
As bills etc that associate you with the house are in the house already.
A copy of the registry from library printers would solve the issue in court but otherwise...drivers licence and possibly bank statements printed from bank?
Go to your bank and ask them to print a copy of your recent statement? Go to the council and ask for a recent receipt for Council Tax? etc.
I've never squatted, but known many that have and they always always moved into commercial/residential property that was "abandoned" - i.e. unmaintained, because their would be a huge amount of grief with moving into occupied property. There is a whole industry based around finding cheap tenants to stay in properties so that it doesn't become "abandoned". If you have an office building or such, that you don;t want to be squatted then you let it to someone to live in and protect it for a nominal fee.
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actually, Natwest don't do this anymore. if you need a paper statement for some reason, the only way you can get one is to have one mailed to your registered address. the only thing they can give you in-branch is a detailed balance-sheet which has no account-number or address on it.