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Your Commercial Property and Squatters Rights by Pritpal Chahal

 

Squatting is when someone deliberately and knowingly enters property without permission and lives there, or intends to live there. This is sometimes known as ‘adverse possession’. A tenant who enters the building with the permission of the landlord is not a squatter.

Squatters Rights and the Law
Commonly, people refer to the term ‘squatter’s rights’. However, although squatter’s do not technically have rights, they do have the right to not be threatened or have violence used against them when the property owner is trying to enter the property (The Criminal Law Act 1977).
This legislation was introduced to prevent landlords from using violence to evict tenants but bizarrely it also applies where the person in occupation is a trespasser. It is also important to note that unauthorised occupiers may also raise arguments under the Human Rights Act 1998 such as freedom of assembly.

Is It a Criminal Offence for Squatters to Enter a Commercial Property?
Following public concern about the harm that trespassers can cause, new legislation was introduced on 1st September 2012 in the form of Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act.
It is an offence when a person occupies a residential building having entered it as a trespasser; the person knows or ought to have known that he or she is a trespasser and the person is living in the building or intends to live there for a period. The legislation seeks to protect residential property owners and local authorities who discover trespassers living in residential buildings that they own or control.
Surprisingly, the above legislation does not extend to commercial properties and thus it is not a criminal offence for squatters to enter a commercial property. Clearly, the legislation simply shifted the problem on from residential properties to squatters seeking out commercial buildings rather than face arrest for occupying a residential property.

How Can You Protect Your Commercial Property?
There are a number of useful preventative methods that you can take in order to protect your commercial property, particularly the following:

  • Turn off and disconnect utilities;
  • Remove any articles of value internally and externally;
  • Check on the property regularly to see if there are any signs of attempted entry; and
  • Ensure unoccupied buildings are secured and alarmed.

How can Askews help you?

Askews Legal LLP has a dedicated team of Property specialists who can assist with any commercial property issues. For further advice or to obtain a quote, please contact Kuljeet Sandhu, Head of Commercial Property at Askews Legal LLP

E: KSandhu@askewslegal.co   T: 024 76 231000

For advice about any other legal matters, please Click Here to enquire or call us on 02476 231000. Confidential Quick service assured.

 

Askews Legal LLP – Solicitors Coventry.