Everything you need to know about the new squatting law | Alex Johnson | Independent Property Blogs

Everything you need to know about the new squatting law | Alex Johnson | Independent Property Blogs

A new criminal offence of squatting comes into force on September 1, writes Ed Cracknell, Associate at Russell-Cooke LLP. But there are misconceptions about the state of the law and doubts about how the new law will operate in practice.
What is the current law?

The current law, which remains unchanged by the new offence, has several strands and can be summarised as follows:

* Where someone has broken into a property, a criminal offence may have been committed such as criminal damage or burglary. But it may be difficult to prove if there is no evidence of a break in.

* Broadly summarised, section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 makes it a criminal offence to secure entry to a property by force where someone (even a squatter) is there at the time who is opposed to that entry.

* So unless the police are willing to make an arrest, the owner must usually start court proceedings to evict the squatters. Proceedings can take as much as three months to conclude.