UKForge: Man Leaves For Vacation, Returns To Find 15 Weird Flatmates

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322246/Man-leaves-home-week-decorated-15-squatters-in.html

Squatter's Rights? What the fuck is this shit??? The guys should legally be able to go full Predator on these worthless vagrants and make soylent green out of their assholes. Is the whole world going crazy??

TL'DR version: Guy goes on vacation, and 15 jobless Italians move in. Now they have a right to be there.

Only in a country where the populace has been disarmed is ridiculous shit like that possible.

Yep! In my town this has happened several times with Mexicans squatting in a house. Only here they "squat" down to shit when the owner comes back and produces a large caliber weapon.

Seriously, I can't believe the police can't just run these people out of the man's home. I've heard of crazy laws, but come on! Talk about lunatics taking over the asylum! Regardless, they have to leave the house eventually. Can't they be areested then, even one squatter at a time?

Would any UKForge member mind addressing the legitimacy of this story?

Please, how about not turning this into a pathetic "its because you don't have guns" thread and look at the real issues here. As has been discussed before, owning a gun is not illegal in the UK, you just need a license.

Squatting should be criminalised. We are allowing this to go on because of the civil nature of the offense. These fuckers go from property to property because they know that they are free to stay there until the court says otherwise and once they are evicted there is no other penalty since even a costs order is unenforceable against someone with no fixed abode.

Criminalise it and make it clear that to squat could give rise to a custodial centence and this would stop overnight.

Squatting is avery real problem, especially in London.

Despite the link being from the Daily Garbage, it is an issue with which we have serious problems.

Chu, you should lead the charge against squatting wrongness in the UK. Who could possibly be more qualified?

Unbelievable. Why don't the home owners kick the squatters out?

So what are you suggesting, I should start petitioning MPs? Fuck that. I'd rather earn money.

It all goes back to an anchient common law idea know as adverse possession, and its something that exists in the US as well, so this is by no means a "British thing".

Basically, if a property has been left unoccupied for a considerable amount of time these fuckers move in and hope that if they stay long enough, without any action from the true owneer, they can, eventually, be considered the actual owners. In reality this very rarely happens. But since the concept is out there the court has to consider whether or not adverse possession has afford any ownership rights to the new occupier.....in other words it has to decide who actually owns the place! It that reason that the original owner can't just waltz in and turf them out on the street the day he finds out.

So if you go away on holiday and return to find squatters in your place, you can't do anything about it?

And you say that's the same way things are done in the US?

This all surprises me very much.

No. "It's because you don't have guns" is more fun.

Its disingenuous to say that you can't do anything about it. But you would have to make an immediate application to the court for an injunction.

Also, the article suggests that he had just gone away on holiday, distorting, in typical Daily Mail fashion, the suggestion that the property had actually been empty for 2 years and was not in a livable state. But I suppose because its a press report we automatically assume that the property owner is telling the neighbours and the squatters must be lying about the state of the property and the length it has been empty.

I'm not suggesting the squatters are in anyway in the right, but I think the article could potentially be misleading in its "I just went on holiday" line.

If the UK did pass Texas style Castle laws this shit would cease immediately.

I can certainly agreee with that last line. I take pretty much all media reports with a grain of salt, and the Daily Mail with a whole shaker of it.

But I still think this is disgraceful.


Edited to put in the quote to which I was referring because Captain J got in the way!

As for the US, I don't know what remedies exist there, but adverse possession itself exists. I found this though, which may be of interest.

^ That period of time is usually years, not a week. Nor does changing the locks constitute improvement.

That page provides an interesting suggestion: sending the squatters a note with permission to be there. Couldn't he likewise send them a note denying them permission to be there? Or, if that's not an option, go with the first, but with a hard and short time limit? They have, for example, permission to be there until the end of the week, or something like that?

Pfffttt.... You can't fight destiny. Sooner or later "El Chup" will be synonymous with "Squatting Wrongness" think of it as your true Native American name.

The police take a dim view of squatters anyway. To be honest if it happened at your house, the police would probably look away as you asembled a team of hard men to forcibly evict the squatters yourself (As long as you didnt kill them). Infact, a good few of the police I know would be only to happy to lend a hand.

The standards are a lot tougher in the US then in the UK. It also almost never happens because the owners keep track of their properties and abandoned properties usually get taken over by the government through the property tax system. Squatters rarely pay property tax. They're squatters.

Except your courts are flipping insane. In America they would have been ejected and arrested as soon as the cops showed up and told them to GTFO.

Do you know how I know he hasn't been gone for two years?

HIS STUFF IS STILL IN THE HOUSE!!!

Unless you're going to try and tell us that the stuff in the pictures, all of it, belongs to the squatters. The ones who said, "None of us have any money or jobs." The ones who said that if the owner wants his stuff: "If he wants his things he’ll have to wait."

And yeah we automatically assume the squatters are liars. They're the ones breaking the law!

Even if he was gone for two years they don't have the right to enter the property.

We haven't the same squatter problem as the UK, crap like this rarely happens. Our squatters have a little more pride than to simply lay claim to a single house. Our squatters lay claim to entire states.

Castle laws don't work in this situation.

You have to be in the house when they show up to squat in order for castle doctrine to apply.

I guess under Texas law you could shoot them for trespass and be legal since Texas has that law on the books but you'd be better off just calling the police.

And certainly in the other 49 states Castle Doctrine doesn't apply unless you're in the house at the time of the "squatting" and you can't shoot over the issue of property.

Its years for us as well, and the period of time the property was empty was alleged to be two years, not a week.

Anyhow, again, there seems to be some people in this thread who cannot differentiate between what the law's view is and the story reported. The assumption is that because these squatters have gone in they are afforded the right to be there and thus it is entirely different from the US position. It isn't. They are not entitled to be there and when the court considers the matter it will order their eviction.

My explanation is based on the fact that, as it stands to day, ownership of a property that has been left vacant for some time it a matter for the court to adjudicate on, both here and in the United States. That is why there is no immediate removal of the squatters.

I do not agree with this as I think these laws are centuries out of date, but I also do not agree with twats who distort the facts for their own overreactions.

England is done as a free country. When personal property rights are voided, you no longer have freedom.

Be that as it may, property ownership is a myth anyhow when I have to give the government an amount of $$$$ they decide on every year or they take it away.

Couple other observations:

1. If I ever find anyone squatting on my property I won't bother with the police or courts. Shoot, shovel, and shut up is oft-times the best policy. They'll get fair warning first, though.

2. El Chup isn't just a Muslim apologist, I see. He's another one of those scumbag lawyers of the type who will eventually need hanging if civilization is to continue in any rational sort of mannner.

How the fuck would you know what the standards are here? You think you are in a position to compare because you read a tabloid article about one incident?

How moronic can a person be?

Whereas your basis for assuming that it is happening routinely in the UK is?

You don't know shit about our courts, wheras I do, so please don't talk out of your arse.

Dude, when I moved in with my OH a couple of years ago my own place was left empty for 8 months, but still had a lot of my stuff in it. Its quite possible that he decided to use the place to store stuff. Hell, I rent a storage unit myself right now and let me tell you that if I had the chance to keep that stuff in a property I own instead of sticking it in the hands of someone else, I would have done.

So the fact that he had stuff there proves nothing.

Only a moron believes that someone who breaks the law in one area is incapable of telling the truth about any other subject at all.

Plus, what would your reasoning be for the neighbours lying?

No, they don't and the court will remove them.

But, as I have said above, it isn't about what you do once you've got squatters, the reform has to be in finding away to deter them in the first plac and to my mind, both here and in other countries that have this law, reforced entry without proof of ownership should be considered a criminal offence, whether the property owner is there or not.

You have exactly the same core law.

I didn't just read the article you stupid cunt.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/squatters.htm

http://www.squatter.org.uk/

This shit wouldn't happen in the US. If I came home to find squatters and I called the police it wouldn't be a CIVIL matter. It would be a criminal matter and they would be arrested for breaking and entering.

We know enough to know your country is fucked up. Your courts are fucked up. Don't try and tell us otherwise.

"They are also making use of his three leather sofas, sauna, hundreds of DVDs and television."

You're just hell bent on being against the owner living there.

People who break the law usually aren't very truthful.

Which neighbors? All I see is a SQUATTER saying the neighbors said two years. Show us where the actual neighbor said that.

Agreed.

The deterrence is simple. As soon as they show up the police arrest them. On the spot.

Tough talking on the internet. Don't you just love it.

Because he's pointing out what the actual fucking legal situation is (explicitly stating that it is not to his liking)?

It's either you're with us or against us, huh? And apparently anything more complex than "kill the fuckers" (be it muslims or squatters means) means he's not with you.