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U.K. Squatters Will Be Moving Into Your House, Thank You Very Much

By Bruce Carton

Did you know that sometimes in the U.K., when you go on holiday and leave your £700,000, five-bedroom home triple-locked, squatters will enter the property and, upon your return, refuse to let you back in the home and basically tell you to get lost? The London Evening Standard reports that hotelier Connan Gupta moved out of his house in Camberwell for a week while it was being renovated. When he returned, he discovered "10 unwelcome visitors" -- Italian students who somehow got in and then changed the locks. The article reports that the squatters (four men, six women, plus two dogs) acknowledge that they are unable to pay living costs in London. They say that they are not leaving as "the property had been unoccupied and they had not broken in." Gupta has hired lawyers to try to force the squatters out, but he is learning that in the U.K., "squatting" is merely a civil offense. As such, the police will not help him. Gupta told the Evening Standard that "we just have to sit here and wait. It's as if the squatters have more rights than I do." He added that "it is really scary that you can go...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on October 21, 2010 (boomark / email).