BBC News - Guide to stop squatters published online
8 November 2010 Last updated at 07:15 ETGuide to stop squatters published online
Landlords can find evicting squatters is a problem
A guide for homeowners, aimed at stopping squatters "invading" their property, has been published online.
Housing Minister Grant Shapps says he wants to end the "anti-social, undesirable and unfair" practice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Squatting is a crime in Scotland.
The guide outlining people's rights is a response to websites set up to help squatters get round the law.
The Advisory Service for Squatters said Mr Shapps was "scaremongering".
Changing locks
The new advice highlights that people can apply for an Interim Possession Order, requiring squatters to leave their property within 24 hours or face up to six months in jail.
Owners may need to provide evidence that the property is theirs.
Mr Shapps told the BBC: "Squatting is anti-social, undesirable, and unfair on homeowners who find they have their homes taken over.
"This government is not prepared to stand that situation continuing, and in particular we're keen to provide better advice for people who find that they are victims of squatters as well."
He said it was a "huge issue" for families who found squatters had invaded and said it could be very difficult for landlords to remove them.
Mr Shapps took aim at the ASS, which according to its website "provides legal and practical advice to squatters and other homeless people".
He said: "Surprisingly, there's an awful lot of advice out there for squatters, including a squatters advice line - an office almost acting as an estate agent for squatters... but actually very little help for people who find they're the victim."
"Ask someone to look out for your property if you go away," he advised.
"It shouldn't be that the squatters get the upper hand - that's happening far too often at the moment and the government is determined to put people back in charge of their own property."
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Having had a buy-to-let property squatted while empty for one week between tenancies I feel very strongly that squatting should be criminalised.
I had the expense of losing rent, paying for alternative accommodation for the rightful tenants, replacing beds, carpets and redecorating.
To cap it all I had to pay for the gas and electricity used by the squatters as well as the council tax while the place was "empty".
After then paying £3,000 to get them out in the courts, they wandered across the street and broke in to another house.
They were seen doing this and the police were called but they just said that the door had been left open and the police left them to it.
Simon Gould, Landlord, Brighton
But Katharine Hibbert, a former squatter who works informally for the ASS, said Mr Shapps was scaremongering as squatters "do not and cannot invade [people's] homes".
She told the BBC: "It's really unnecessarily alarmist to talk about people's homes in this kind of context.
"You have to find a place that's empty and the law as it stands does protect homes that are in use as homes."
A squatter living in a pub in London told the BBC he could not afford rent in the city while he looked for work.
The Latvian national, giving his name as Jason, said there were lots of empty properties around.
"I just walk around the area I want to live and then I find houses which look empty and I check them over a period of time and see if they're really empty," he said.
"It's better than people living on the street. I mean most squatters live, like, normally, not like damaging stuff."
In Scotland, squatting is a criminal as well as a civil offence but in England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is a civil offence only.
In Scotland, owners can evict squatters without notice and they could face a fine or a prison sentence.
I'm a fan of home-sharing for people who like to live transiently, and home-borrowing for people who like to travel occasionally. Last I checked, some months ago, there were fifteen million vacant full-time homes and five million vacant vacation properties in the US, with no numbers on how many homeless individuals and families we have. I'll bet most if not all of them could be housed in those properties. In fact, many of them were living in those properties before being evicted in favor of a bank who would let it sit vacant (i.e. prone to squatting) until an investor bought it.
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