Squatting

[Rotty]

you may be big (if referring to you) but squatters still have rights. Id feel the same way if some randoms were chilling out in my front room, but the law would still be on their side if you smashed their knees in

you are correct, doesn't stop the law being an ass though

basically if someone is in property they do not own then the owner ought to be able to just call the police nad have them removed

 

[geeza]

basically if someone is in property they do not own then the owner ought to be able to just call the police nad have them removed

which is where the laws for squatters comes in. about being an unsecure property and all that. (remember to lock your door next time you go on holiday!)

 

[Raymond Lin]

which is where the laws for squatters comes in. about being an unsecure property and all that. (remember to lock your door next time you go on holiday!)

They only have the right after 12 years with no objections. Staying in my house when i am on holiday will get you arrested for trepassing and probably breaking and entering along with theft (no doubt they've eaten food and used electricity)

 

[Rotty]

which is where the laws for squatters comes in. about being an unsecure property and all that. (remember to lock your door next time you go on holiday!)

I always do , morally though if I own a property then that should be then end of the story , anyone who enters without permission should be liable to arrest

 

[Westyfield2]

If they squat in any of my houses then they have the right to a late night visit from a load of blokes of dark clothes and for their gear to be donated to the local bonfire fund

Ditto

 

[GSXRMovistar]

Squatters rights

If it's not yours and the owner wants you out, **** off

 

[Sequoia]

I certainly would never resort to violent methods but sometimes squatters can get visited by a group of big blokes entirely unrelated to the pwner of the property, totally conincidental but it does happen sometimes

Indeed.

I did hear of a case where squatters were offered a cash sum to move on, and it was apparently pointed out they that were changing their residence one way or the other. The cash would allow them a hotel room while they found somewhere. The alternative was hospital. Either way, they were moving. It was also pointed out, of course, that in the even of a recurrence of such occupation in the expectation of a further cash sum, plan A would not be on offer, and plan B would be implemented forthwith.

Personally, I would never condone anything like that, of course.

you may be big (if referring to you) but squatters still have rights. Id feel the same way if some randoms were chilling out in my front room, but the law would still be on their side if you smashed their knees in

The law wouldn't be on their side, exactly. It's supposed to be blind and impartial. But using violence to evict, in the absence of a court order, would certainly ensure the police were seeking the people responsible. All they then have to do is identify those individuals .... and prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt - which is not necessarily going to be easy.

Even if the police know who did it, they still have to prove it. The law does, after all, offer that basic protection to all - innocent until proven guilty.

 

[wasc]

This thread is something I myself am very interested in. When my solicitor called me to tell me we had completed (i.e. my new house I was buying was now legally mine), the first thing I did was take 2 hours off from work from the advice of my manager at work to change the locks because of squatters rights.


Now interestingly enough here's a hypothetical situation. Lets assume a landlord sold a property that was rented in the past (so someone other than the owner of the property had the key). This sort of thing is fairly common. Lets assume that this person then let themselves in to the empty unfurnished building that had no one living in (as it was being sold). They haven't committed a breaking and entering offence so how would the new owner get on in this situation?

 

[Rotty]

Personally, I would never condone anything like that, of course.

.

absolutely not

 

[Sequoia]

They haven't committed a breaking and entering offence so how would the new owner get on in this situation?

Interim possession order from a court, probably. Takes a few days and costs a little bit. But armed with that order, squatters either leave or they will be arrested. It is then not just a case of tresspass, but effectively contempt for or defiance of the court order - and courts tend not to like that. It's a good way to test out prison food.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Now interestingly enough here's a hypothetical situation. Lets assume a landlord sold a property that was rented in the past (so someone other than the owner of the property had the key). This sort of thing is fairly common. Lets assume that this person then let themselves in to the empty unfurnished building that had no one living in (as it was being sold). They haven't committed a breaking and entering offence so how would the new owner get on in this situation?

trespassing.

 

[Sequoia]

absolutely not

Anyone seen my halo? I seem to have mislaid it. It was here a moment or two ago. Where's the pesky thing gone?

 

[geeza]

heres something else. I still have the key to my old house. If my landlord ****** me off i could get a key cut for my mates and they could all chill out there for a bit until he went to get a court summons, then they would have to leave. that or a swift call to his cavalry!

 

[Kol]

heres something else. I still have the key to my old house. If my landlord ****** me off i could get a key cut for my mates and they could all chill out there for a bit until he went to get a court summons, then they would have to leave. that or a swift call to his cavalry!

Unless he does what landlords are supposed to do and get's new locks fitted. I thought it was common practice for a landlord to change locks every time a lease is up? Or is that wishful thinking?

 

[geeza]

Unless he does what landlords are supposed to do and get's new locks fitted. I thought it was common practice for a landlord to change locks every time a lease is up? Or is that wishful thinking?

yeh he probably will (when my mates fixed the smashed up door)

 

[steinooo]

Wow, that seems awfully wrong to me, I'd never even heard of squatting before. If I came home and I'd accidently left a window open and some ***** were sat in my living room they would be straight out after a good hiding

Are you mick-taking with your sig? If not - you're my brand new favourite forum member!

 

[Westyfield2]

Squatters rights

If it's not yours and the owner wants you out, **** off

GSXRMovistar For PM / King

 

[Dreadi]

i know of people that squat in a village close to me, went to college/school with most of them.

i really cant understand it.

9 out of 10 of them have a nice family home they can go to but no, they'd rather squat, main reason being its basically a drug den now where people just go and get messed up whatever going, i really dont know why they havnt been raided yet.

altho someone did put the windows through for them one night with bricks

 

[laissez-faire]

We had some squatters on the edge of our land but we couldn't seem them, they were about 10 minutes walk from the house. They never really caused any trouble to be fair, at first we were pretty upset that they had moved a load of caravans onto our property, but after about 6-8 months we finally got a court order to make them leave. However they didn't leave so much as move 15 feet, just off our land onto someone elses. Apparently they do this, minimises moving expenses....

But the chap who owned that land was not even in the country so it took about 18 further months for them to be evicted from there, but they didn't leave when ordered to and the Police didn't seem to care. In that time they actually managed to get basic services to their 'campsite' and registered the land with Royal Mail as 'Ramblerest'. Just taking the utter ****. If you do a search for our postcode it is still a registered 'property'. In the end, a developer who purchased the land next to ours bribed them with some cash to leave. He has now built a £5 million mansion where they were. Would be funny if they laid claim to that!

 

[Visage]

In England and Wales, 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. The owner must prove 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 isn't sufficient proof or that the proper notice hasn't been given.

In order to legally occupy a house you need to have exclusive access to that property, i.e., change the locks and keep the place secure like you would in a normal home. This is covered in a legal document known as Section 6, a copy of which is often displayed on the front door. There has to be no sign of a forced entry; meaning broken windows or door locks. This would prove that you have illegally broken into the property. The legal process of eviction can take a month or so, or even years, so the squatter has the time to find somewhere else to live. This is what happens when the property is owned by a council or a housing association. Private Landlords have been known to use various means of intimidation to convince a squatter to move out.

Local Council planners, who are facing rising court costs when evicting squatters (because their resources can not stretch to renovating their own properties) often resort to taking out the plumbing and toilets to deter squatters.

To show that the occupier of the squatted building is in fact in physical possession of the property, squatters often put up a section 6 notice or even multiple copies on different sides of the building. Doing so shows that there are people living there and they have a legal right to be there. This also makes clear that anyone - even the technical owner of the property - who tries to enter the building without permission is committing an offence.

Some properties are still occupied by squatters who have resisted eviction for 20 years. Squatters have a right to claim ownership of a dwelling after 12 years of having lived there if no one else claims it. St. Agnes Place in London had been squatted in for 30 years until the 29th of November, 2005, when the Lambeth Council evicted the entire street.

Wouldnt it have been easier to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting

???

Cutting and pasting without attribution is *not* cool.