Guardians or Squatters? The Former Might Prove Attractive, Insurance-Wise.

The Guardian’s Money/Property section recently disclosed a government consultation specifically on the so-called criminalisation of squatting.  Interesting, because not so many years ago, squatting by key workers  (as written about in a BBC News Blog.) was seen as viable, profitable and preferable to its alternative…the actual criminalisation of your property via theft and vandalism.

In the more recent news, Lisa Bachelor earlier this month wrote on how most property owners’ chief concerns have been that they have no idea if dealing with squatters is a civil or criminal matter.  So they hadn’t the slightest idea on how to approach those unwanted guests.

Additionally, squatters rights, by their very definition, means you can’t use force to evict.

Not a problem, you might be thinking.  There aren’t that many of them around anyway, right?  Wrong. There are, as of the latest government figures, about 20,000 squatters in the UK.  And “the real figure is probably higher,” notes Bachelor. 

 “If you are going to be away from a property for a number of weeks you should inform your neighbours so they can act as watchdogs,” Bachelor writes, quoting a Directgov site that lists tips on protecting your unoccupied property.

And “[o]wners of empty commercial property should consider hiring security guards.” 

Nick Martyn, a property litigation solicitor at Mundays Solicitors says:.  “Squatters can’t force their way into your property – they could then be arrested for causing criminal damage.”  However, forced entry can be hard to prove.  “[T]here are often practical difficulties in establishing exactly how they entered” explains Martyn, ” and it can be [hard] to prove a lock was not already broken if they argue otherwise.”

OK, let’s turn the clock back a few years, to 2003, when that BBC News blog reported that  workers-squatters known as Guardians  deterred non-key workers-squatters and, more important, damage.

 “Key workers like nurses and teachers, who cannot afford the high rents in London, are being helped by a new housing scheme,” noted the blog. It seems that, by paying low rents in these vacant properties, they had found a way to stay in the city of their choice.

The idea of Guardians started in Holland, where key workers had been placed in everything from banks to a mayor’s country retreat. It was such a popular concept in London that the waiting list grew to 500. Back then, Camelot Properties, the property management company operating the “scheme”, claimed that the people moving in were cheaper than security guards and tended to develop a proprietary air.

We read that Camelot’s Joost Van Gestel told BBC London: “People move in with their belongings and live there for the time it is vacant. “The signal to the neighbourhood is ‘property in use, please stay away’.”

Also, if there was anything that needed to be repaired, it was reported right away.

Back then, “low rents” must have been REAL low. And as squatters were “living” in these premises, owners even qualified for lower insurance rates.  A win/win situation.

Perhaps if you got to know your squatters—asked them if they’d promise to protect the premises and ensure good maintenance–the whole issue might be worth revisiting.  As the Guardian at the Emerald City Gates* once put it: “That’s a horse of a different colour!.…Come on in!”

 *”The Wizard of Oz” (1939).Unoccupied Property

Graphic  – Linda Nylind for the Guardian.

-David Slade

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