Squatting

[PAH]

Read somewhere that they are supposed to be addressing this issue. About time if so.

Yep. Dave is sorting it out, making it a criminal offence. He must have had his holiday home overrun recently.


BBC News - PM wants to make house squatting a criminal offence


I can sympathise to some extent with squatters though considering the high cost of housing and the number of holiday/second homes sat empty for large parts of the year.

Maybe if they're addressing the squatting issue they should also address the ridiculous amount of property left empty or inefficiently used. e.g. An extra tax on property left empty for more than a few months in a row.

[xoggoth]

An extra tax on property left empty for more than a few months in a row

Add without good reason, eg somebody working abroad for a year, and I tend to agree. That might take sensibly drafted legislation of course.

[thunderlizard]

It's so that people who haven't got anywhere to live can have somewhere to live. The law thinks they need more help than people who have so many houses that they don't need to live in all of them.

I have met a few squatters and a few buy-to-let landlords and the former are by far the nicer and more deserving bunch.

[vetran]

It's so that people who haven't got anywhere to live can have somewhere to live. The law thinks they need more help than people who have so many houses that they don't need to live in all of them.

I have met a few squatters and a few buy-to-let landlords and the former are by far the nicer and more deserving bunch.

The squatters can afford to be nicer than the landlords. They are living for free on some other poor sods livelihood.

Landlords tend to lose their sense of humour when the third tenant leaves owing months of rent which they have to fund by cutting their own outgoings and borrowing from the bank.

If someone who was poorer than you emptied your bank accounts and put you in debt would you smile & laugh?

If they got themselves hurt on a property you were converting that they broke into and sued or forced you to spend thousands of pounds evicting them because they felt they had a right to abuse your property?

Yes there are a few very rich people who have more than one house and can afford to subsidise swampy on benefits but a lot are people just trying to make a living.

If there are houses left empty there are ways to deal with that via council tax and second home / empty commercial property taxes, some doley crackhead taking over other people's property is NOT the way.

I'm surprised the law has let them get away with it so long, its taking the law into their own hands - should be stopped. Except of course they are criminals and difficult to deal with so the police do nothing.

[xoggoth]

I agree with Vetran. Anyone involved in letting will know that a significant proportion of tenants are just awful. They stop paying rent, smash up the place, make unauthorised and really bad changes. No idea what the breakdown is but many landlords have only a single property, it's their retirement savings

[thunderlizard]

I don't like doing this point-by-point rebuttal style of response as it always comes off far too tetchy and defensive, but I'm short of time...

The squatters can afford to be nicer than the landlords. They are living for free on some other poor sods livelihood.

The "other poor sod" is almost certainly a considerably richer sod. It's his speculative business venture, versus somebody's requirement to have a roof over their head.

Landlords tend to lose their sense of humour when the third tenant leaves owing months of rent which they have to fund by cutting their own outgoings and borrowing from the bank.

It happens both ways. Tenants lose their sense of humour when the landlord keeps the deposit for spurious reasons. And again, it's a business risk that they could have thought about before overcommitting themselves.

If someone who was poorer than you emptied your bank accounts and put you in debt would you smile & laugh?

No. Nor if somebody poorer than me stole the proceeds of my international crack cocaine empire. But it wouldn't make it any more morally defensible.

If they got themselves hurt on a property you were converting that they broke into and sued or forced you to spend thousands of pounds evicting them because they felt they had a right to abuse your property?

The hurting-themselves-and-suing sounds more like a Daily Mail horror story than a common occurrence. And the eviction process is pretty quick by legal standards if it's done properly

Yes there are a few very rich people who have more than one house and can afford to subsidise swampy on benefits but a lot are people just trying to make a living.

They are "just trying to make a living" by sitting back and letting interest rates and rising house prices do the hard work for them. Fair enough if you can get it, but I don't think that deserves legal protection to trump a homeless person trying to get a roof over his head.

If there are houses left empty there are ways to deal with that via council tax and second home / empty commercial property taxes, some doley crackhead taking over other people's property is NOT the way.

That would be a step in the right direction, but still only really if the government spent the money on building more council houses.

I'm surprised the law has let them get away with it so long, its taking the law into their own hands - should be stopped. Except of course they are criminals and difficult to deal with so the police do nothing.

It's had most public support in both post-war periods, when there weren't enough "homes for heroes"; and after WW2, lots of bombed-out families too.

[minestrone]

Watched one of these rip off Britain type shows where people (illegals) were breaking into houses if the owner was away for the night, forging a lease contract and nothing could be done for months.

reminds me of this tale...

dickensian times

[vetran]

TL I worry about you, you should become a permie in the public sector.

Actually its a self fulfilling prophecy the worse the tenants get the worse the landlords get.

Decent landlords get screwed over and they leave the business, bad ones enter and control the tenants by force, capitalism only works where there is a choice.

So you don't have any shares pension etc? you sit back while big multinationals make people redundant or employ under age third world labour so the shareholders get a return on investment? You filthy capitalist! Lets take your shares & pension?

Landlords = Cocaine dealers you been trying some product?

Landlords can be monitored and controlled there are quite sophisticated schemes in place for this and legal protection for the tenant. Including the quite excellent idea of holding deposits in escrow, probably badly administered as all these things are.

Sounds like sour grapes to me, did a landlord withhold your deposit because you ruined the carpet and thought it was their responsibility to clean up after you? After all you have a right to a roof over your head?

[mudskipper]

There's been a daytime TV show on about empty properties - every council apparently has an empty property officer, and if a property remains empty the owner can be forced to sell.

[lukemg]

See - These are the very reasons why I have no interest in investing directly in BTL etc. 'Someone pays your mortgage', 'great pension'. Not for me, running sore, illiquid, maintenance needing headache.
If you want to invest in property, buy a property investment trust, it will rise with any increase in house/commercial values and likely pay a dividend on the way. Stick it in an ISA and its tax free too.
Chap I know had a house rented to a single woman, rent stopped and the bloke who wasnt supposed to live there threatened to kill him if he came round again.
It took months to get them out.....