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Comment by echelon_musk | Hacker News Reader

> "The occupation of a person’s non-residential property without their permission is not a crime in England, though police can take action if crimes are subsequently committed, including damaging the property or stealing from it."

> "...if you want to get us out you will have to issue a claim for possession in the county court or in the high court."

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/13/squatters-yo...

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I worked for a top tier bank back in the day and I remember when squatters took over a neighboring building that (I think) the bank owned but was empty. It took months to get the squatters evicted, and we were reminded weekly to not disturb the squatters. I found the whole situation quite absurd.

You could equally find it absurd with current rent/property prices that a building is empty. Don't get me wrong, if I was a property owner, I'd probably argue the other way. But I'm very worried nowadays whether my kids will ever have affordable housing when they become adults.

I fail to see how taking up residence in the property without a lease or paying money to the owner isn’t stealing.

How do other business in England prevent this? When a store closes in the evening, what is stopping someone from breaking in and claiming occupancy? It doesn’t seem like society can function like this.

I normally don’t advocate for violence, but in cases like this, it seems necessary.

Property rights are human rights.

https://www.gov.uk/squatting-law/squatting-in-nonresidential...

I'd expect that both "causing damage" and "not leaving when they’re told to by a court" are doing the heavy lifting in practice.

If what they're doing, as they claim, isn't illegal then let the courts decide it and set precedent for others. You can't go arbitrary advocating violence outside the bounds of the law, of it's against the law they should be kicked out, if it's not against the law let property owners get the laws updated.... I'm sure as a class they've got plenty of sway in the UK.

This is happening more in the U.S. (or at least being reported more). Getting these people out can take weeks to months using the court system. If the police aren't willing or able to evict trespassers, I suspect that people who can't afford to have their property tied up for that long will resort to . . . private eviction services.

This already happens in Spain. It is very common that the private eviction services negotiate rather than force them out. And the negotiation is basically a piece of the payment, say, they might split 2.5k/2.5k and both squatter and evictor go home happy, and the owner is 5k worse off.

They obviously often know each other, but as far as I known, they have never found them being explicit accomplices.

> I suspect that people who can't afford to have their property tied up for that long will resort to . . . private eviction services.

Are they itching to spend time in prison?

One I saw has the owner rent the house to someone, who then moves in with the squatters. Since the renter has rights to be there, the squatters can’t really do anything, and then eventually get annoyed and leave. Once they are gone, cancel the lease and you have the house back.

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