Unoccupied Property Insurance – The Danger Of Squatters
Perhaps you are not fully aware of the full dangers that can face you as a landlord in today’s market? Well the aim of this post is not to criticize your ability to provide a fair and professional service to tenants or to teach you about how to conduct your business as a property investor or landlord. Instead this is purely to inform you of a most unwelcome threat to your property, the squatter. Squatters can be a landlord or property owners worst nightmare, not just because they enter your property illegally and usually by forced entry, but because of the legalities that need to be put in place before intervention can be established, removing squatters can be a time consuming and costly business.
Not only this but the added stress and anger only fuel the situation even further, finally resulting in court costs and legal bills that could easily exceed several thousand pounds. That is before you take into account the loss of income and the all too familiar reports of excessive damage to your unoccupied property and subsequent costs and work necessary to put the property back to an inhabitable state. You can see why unoccupied property insurance is a worthwhile investment. It is one disturbance to certain landlords that is becoming somewhat of a problem, especially in built up inner city areas and suburbs around the UK’s major cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. In these areas are many opportunities for squatters to inhabit properties. Especially in houses that are leased out to students throughout the academic terms and lay empty for months in between student terms such as the summer and festive holidays.
Squatters taking over vacant commercial properties, often the seasonal business premises are a large concern due to the sheer effort and legal red tape involved in property owners and landlords removing them, often spending large amounts of time and money obtaining specific documents or court orders such as IPO’s or Interim Possession Orders. Often by this time the squatters may have already moved on leaving you out of pocket by a substantial amount and with the possibility of having to spend further amounts putting right any damage to the property. There are certain measures that can be taken to avoid the threat of intruders, squatters, and the vandalism of unoccupied property of which we will discuss in upcoming posts.
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