From talking to my British friends I think squatting happens over there quite often with the associated “squatter’s rights”. It is quite a danger in the UK and I personally know landlords who have had troublesome squatters to remove and other’s who wont own IPs as it is a very real danger there.
I am not aware that we have those rights here. I have heard it is simply trespassing and dealt with accordingly.
Does anyone have any experience of this in the Australian context?
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Personally I feel sorry for the sad individual that wrote the piece – how he sees everyone else in the world as ‘greedy’, ‘out for profit’ and nasty landlords ‘holding places empty to drive up rents’. It is indicative of a poor education and no grasp of the world they live in. If they just applied their ‘fixing skills’ to a cheap reno they’d have their own place to live.
I know in the UK they have companies which provide low cost housing to ‘guardians’ – people who legally live in the property but are not ‘tenants’ under the law. This covers everything from houses to warehouses to CBD buildings awaiting demolition. The guardians get basic services, guaranteed time of occupancy and dirt cheap rent. All this to stop squatters getting in because once a squatter is in your house it is as difficult if not more difficult to get them out. I even read of a family living in a squatters home in Islington (same suburb as Tony Blair) for 10 years, establishing legal ownership rights just by squatting for a long time, then selling for £500,000 or so. That’s over a million Aussie dollars.
I haven’t heard of the same things happening in Australia, probably because of less poverty and higher supply of housing.
Back on the topic to getting squatters out – just wait for the latest protest to hit the streets of your capital city. Be it globalisation, G8 meetings, whatever. Drop around to your house and change the locks then – the squatters are almost guaranteed to be protesting at the time!
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