I’m never moving to England.
Mutualists. Despicable. http://blog.mises.org/5194/mutualism-a-philosophy-for-thieves/
shakes head If it was my house, I would bring some people together, and kick em out! I would not take them to court though, they would have to pay fees, which they probably could not afford. If I was rich I would give them some money to find a place to stay. What dbags.
Whats up with the ninja in the one photo? lol (unless its like a burka or something and im just not seeing it right)
And I wonder why the neighbors would say no one had been there in 2 years if they guy just left a week ago…
What a strange law… like I could see squatting in vacant houses being a civil not criminal offense (which would still be a little strange)… but in a house being used as a primary domicile? wtf
My mother owns a flat in Madrid, and fortunately it has never been squatted. However, if it was to be occupied by squatters it would be virtually impossible for me to force them out and move in myself. The process takes several months, and by the time they leave they could have completely destroyed your flat (with little repurcussion).
While I lived in Spain (moving frequently between my flat and my grandfather’s house in the countryside), I honestly felt as if the best option (if I were forced into those circumstances) was to own a shotgun and kick the squatters out yourself.
And of course the squatters are the usual Italian “students” (read “lager louts”) so common in London. They always have the money to get drunk but never to pay the rent.
So police is powerless to intervene because it’s a civil but not a criminal offense? You have to love how property rights are upheld in London.
I wonder how authorities would have reacted if, instead to a normal person, the property belonged to a Russian magnate or a Hollywood star.
I wonder what people would say, for instance, if a Palestinian was at work… and then an Israeli moved into their house during the day.
“You weren’t here. Sorry.”
Of course, this happens. And people rightfully consider it wrong.
They would probably shoot the Palestinian (and his kids) and say something like “I defended myself”.
A friend of mine inherited a flat in Tenerife from her paternal grandfather. She was delighted as she was planning to sell the property and get the cash. When she arrived in Tenerife she had the surprise of her life when she discovered the flat had been squatted. She angrily remarked to me that the lawyers she turned to told her very bluntly that evicting a squatter on Spanish territories by lawful means is “nigh on impossible”. Luckily the squatter died (of natural causes) last year and so she was able to finally sell the property.
Thank God, in New Jersey you have to be on the property for 30 years. If you give the person squatting permission to stay, you tell them no, or prevent them, they can’t retain the property at all. But if you acknowledge their existence and do nothing, and 30 years passes, bam, they have a right of possession.
Property rights in Spain are horrendous (depending on the situation). In the small town my grandfather lives in, El Provencio, I remember hearing a story about an elderly man who was jailed for shooting a gypsy who had smahed in through the front door of his house, with a large group of fellow gypsys behind him. (I don’t mean to single out gypsys; replace “gypsy” with whatever you’d like.) There is little concept of self-defense.
Culturally-middle-class parasites. The worst kind.
Come on, be fair. No mutualist would consider that leaving a house empty for one week constitutes reason to consider its unowned property.
It’s funny that they changed the locks.
We get to take over property and be squatters. But you can’t!
It’s funny that they changed the locks.
We get to take over property and be squatters. But you can’t!
That’s a good point. It leads me to wonder if it’s a lack of stomach to just “squat” the house back (and I don’t mean it as a bad thing). It’s likely that all the “students” go out at the same time at night, or there is at least some period of time in which none of them are in the house. What’s stopping anybody from breaking the lock, replacing it with a new one, and sitting in the house until they come back? You risk retaliation, but it’s better than passively losing your house until the squatters decide to leave.
This means that the injured party could probably “squat back” his property, so to speak. Seeing how there are supposedly 15 of those scumbags occupying his property, he’s unlikely to find all of them gone at any given time.
On a more general note: when I read the line “Police are powerless to intervene because squatting is a civil rather than criminal offence.”, I couldn’t help myself but to swear loudly. I don’t expect much sound policy to come from the UK (more so than most other Western governments), but that shit is just bizarre.
They would probably shoot the Palestinian (and his kids) and say something like “I defended myself”.
I just mean that a lot of times hippies realize the problem of displacing the native americans or Palestinians. Whereas for a random dude – not so much.
Ha ^ good point
Maybe it’s me - but this is the most disturbing story I have read in a long, long time.
So if I understand this correctly - if you leave your hosue for work someone can break the locks and take over the place? Good Lord what a Lewis Carol-ian world that is.
BRB - gotta go drop by my house to check on it.
In a British system you can make a claim of right and use appropriate force. The snag is who judges what is appropriates.