Advisory Service for Squatters

being all volunteers and needing more people, and needing to retrain ourselves often, we’re planning another session of office training on Sunday 26th May.
contact us if you’re interested for more info

9.30am Monday April 22 at Brighton Magistrates Court, Edward Street Brighton, BN1 0LG

The trial begins Monday 22 April of the three people arrested last year in a building on London Road in Brighton. The men were originally charged with squatting in a residential premises (under s144 LASPOA 2012), obstruction of a police officer, and abstraction of electricity, however the abstraction charge has already been dropped due to lack of evidence.

….. see http://rooftopresistance.squat.net/press-release/

Dear Argus

Mike Weatherley MP’s response in your paper to the news of the death of Daniel Gauntlett shows how out of touch with reality he is.

Daniel Gauntlett, a 35 year old homeless man was unable to find shelter in an unused bungalow, due for demolition, and died of hypothermia sleeping outside it.

Weatherley is proud to be responsible for a new law criminalising people living in otherwise empty residential properties, a law which apparently local police threatened Mr Gauntlett with.

Weatherley says “It is true that some of those who are homeless have squatted but this does not make them squatters”, clearly a false distinction when it comes passing laws against an activity. As was explained in many of the responses to the “consultation” of the government prior to this law change, many homeless people do what this law makes a crime, in order to survive. No notice was taken of these responses.

He also says “If squatters really cared about the homeless then they would help them access council services, not scare them into believing that they would be arrested.” Clearly it was the police who scared Mr Gauntlett into not taking life-saving shelter, on the basis of Mr Weatherley’s law. The Advisory Service for Squatters has been advising squatters and other homeless people for 38 years and has been happy to help people get council housing, but this is increasingly difficult. We would also love not to scare people into believing that they will be arrested but Weatherley’s law makes this more difficult too. It is not clear to us which of the few surviving council services Mr Gauntlett might have got access to.

There are a number of confusing statements about the law. He states that “Trespassing has been illegal in this country for hundreds of years” which is clearly untrue, and would have made his law unnecessary. He confuses the 1977 Protection from Eviction Act,  protecting tenants, with that part of the 1977 Criminal Law Act which protects others from forcible eviction without lawful authority.

Most importantly Weatherley makes a false distinction between those who squat because they have to and those who might have a certain amount more choice, both of whom are criminalised anyway. Those that he considers as squatters (as against those he considers mere victims) are those who are angry at the fact that property rights are more important than people’s lives, that social housing is under sustained attack while the property tycoons who sponsor Weatherley’s political campaign are responsible for thousands of empty properties. We hope that squatting will continue to provide shelter for people like Daniel Gauntlett, space for social protest and community activity like the Barnet library saved by occupation, and for other expressions of resistance and experimentation against the domination of private property and money. It isn’t squatters who are “society-hating” it is those like Weatherley who can only understand society and human need in terms of money and profit.

our friends, colleagues and ourselves wearing different hats are stepping up the campaign to defeat this government’s attempts to stop people housing themselves and making use of empty properties.

SQUASH (Squatters Action for Secure Homes) are working on a number of plans, and have set up a petition to repeal Section 144 at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44597  Check out their link down the page a bit.

and Squattastic are having their first gathering of the year this Sunday 17^th with practical and legal workshops 2-6 and people’s kitchen from 7. Text 07591 415 860 to get details, and check their link down below.

Plenty more stuff coming up soon, keep your eyes and ears peeled….

Since the introduction of the new anti-squatting legislation on the 1^st September conditions have obviously got more difficult for those trying to house themselves or make other use of empty properties.

The law (S144 LASPO 2012) makes it a criminal offence to be trespassing in a residential property with the intention of living there.

Some people have been arrested and a few imprisoned for the crime of trying to house themselves. There is no evidence that the properties they were in have been put to use since, nor that any more affordable and accessible housing has been produced. In fact housing costs, particularly in London continue to increase and benefit caps affect increasing numbers of people.

Some people have moved out of their homes, many who had been living in them and looking after them for years after the owners had abandoned them. Other people remain in their homes despite the new law, determined to resist for as long as possible.

People who know about the law change are generally now squatting in non-residential buildings, pubs, offices, warehouses …… These require people to be more organized, and to able to work in groups, so excluding some of the more vulnerable people who have in the past been able to fall back on squatting. They are also more likely to put people into confrontations with owners and their agents who do not know or care about the law. However many on-residential properties can be made into perfectly good homes, and social spaces, and some owners can be made to understand the benefits of properties being occupied and looked after.

The police have acted in a fairly arbitrary manner, in most cases waiting for someone claiming to be an owner to come forward, and then most often accepting their statements even if their version is challenged. On other occasions police appear to have made up their own mind that the occupiers were trespassing (against whom not always being clear). Some police have somehow not understood that a funeral parlour is not residential, have threatened people with arrest who were not living or intending to live to live in the property and many police are confused about the part of the law which says that people who have had a licence are not committing an offence. Advisory Service for Squatters and Squatters Legal Network intend to follow up on these abuses and will be encouraging those affected to sue.

Some parts of the government continue to put on pressure to make things worse, by criminalizing squatting in non-residential properties as well. This is despite the fact that their campaign was previously based on the false idea that people’s homes were being squatted and that this needed to be stopped. [in fact legislation in existence since 1977 made this illegal already]

ASS, along with Squatters Legal Network, SQUASH (Squatters Action for Secure Homes) and others, will continue to struggle for people to be able to house themselves, and to put empty property to use.

WHATEVER THEY SAY, SQUATTING WILL STAY!

We will resist the squatting ban by any means necessary.

The Squatter’s Network of Brighton is calling for a Mass Squatting Action on October 13th to resist the new anti-squatting laws. This act is draconian, unworkable, an attack on our way of living and some of the most vulnerable in our society. We will not take it lying down.

Around the UK, while increasing numbers are forced to sleep on the streets, hundreds of thousands of properties are lying empty, decaying and derelict. We watch property tycoons, speculators and corrupt landlords get richer, whilst housing benefit is cut and rent goes up.

The UK is facing a massive housing crisis only made worse by the Tory government, and we – the homeless and insecurely housed – will not stand for it any more.

As both the birthplace of the bill, and as one of the places where affordable houses are most difficult to come by, Brighton and Hove has a special significance in the national and international struggles for the right to home.

They take our houses, so we’ll take their city!

Everyone to the streets!

Oct 13th, 2pm

Victoria Square Gardens, Brighton

SNOB: www.network23.org/snob
Twitter: www.twitter.com/snobaha

The new law on squatting (s144 LASPO 2012) came into force on the 1st September 2012.

Not everyone who is squatting, or considered by others to be squatting, will be affected by the new law, but people will need to be prepared to explain, quite forcefully at times, why they are not affected.

The wording of S144 starts:

(1)A person commits an offence if—
(a) the person is in a residential building as a trespasser having entered it as a trespasser,
(b) the person knows or ought to know that he or she is a trespasser, and
(c) the person is living in the building or intends to live there for any period.
(2)The offence is not committed by a person holding over after the end of a lease or licence (even if the person leaves and re-enters the building).

So Squatting is still legal in non-residential properties. A building is defined as ‘residential’ if it is “designed or adapted, before the time of entry, for use as a place to live”.

You are also not committing an offence if you have, or have had a tenancy or licence to live in the property, if you are not living or intending to live in the property, or if you don’t have any way to know you are a trespasser (in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading this).

Tenancies and licences do not have to be in writing, but if people have reason to think they may be accused of breaking the law it would be best to collect as much paperwork as possible. Tenancies and licences can also have been granted by a tenant of the owner, or by an agent, possibly without the owner’s knowledge (but they can check and return).

Any police officer would need to have reasonable suspicion that you (or anyone) have committed a crime, to force entry and to carry out an arrest, so it can be in your interests to explain otherwise. Explaining through a closed door or upstairs window is always preferable to letting them in.

Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 still applies against those trying to force entry without lawful authority. The problem is that the new law gives further lawful authority to the police to enter if they suspect the offence is being committed.

ASS press statement 27/9/12

Today is a sad day. A young man has been jailed for living in an empty property.

Presumably, like many thousands of people trying to live in London, he couldn’t find somewhere more secure, or couldn’t afford it.

The new law, Section 144 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012 criminalises homeless people while doing nothing about the speculation, inefficiency and greed that lead to thousands of properties remaining empty and unused.

According to the Evening Standard one man has been jailed for 12 weeks, a woman is awaiting sentencing and a third person was fined £100. They had been living in the property for some time and the owners had taken normal civil procedures to get the property back, and had not felt the need to involve the police.

The new law was brought in against a background of media myths. The Evening Standard today is saying “The law was brought in amid a squatting crisis in London as organised eastern European gangs and other squatters targeted family homes”.

Squatters never target people’s homes, they move into empty properties. Even before the new law was brought in it was illegal to try to squat a property where somebody was living or was intending and needing to live.

The word “home” was used by the media in new and strange ways, meaning buildings that had previously been somebody’s home but had been rented out to other people since.

If the stories printed by the press had been true the police would have intervened and charged the people involved. This did not happen.

Squatting has been widespread in England and Wales, particularly in London, since the late 1960s. It happens throughout the world, including in countries where it is illegal. There is no reason to think it will be going away.

The new law only criminalises trespass in a residential property for the purpose of living there. There are many circumstances where people will be able to squat, to arrange licences with owners, and otherwise find ways to live in properties that would otherwise be empty.

The Advisory Service for Squatters has been in existence for 37 years, advising and supporting squatters and other homeless and vulnerably housed people. We expect to be around for some time to come.

If you are having problems with the police, the following are questions we need answered so we can keep on top of things and help each other.

• Address of property involved?
• How long have the occupiers been there? Any kind of licence or authorisation?
• Who has acted against them? Someone claiming to be an owner? Someone else?
• Police involvement? Names and badge numbers of any officers? Which police station?
• Who does own it? Or have rights to possession?
• Is it wholly residential?
• When did the incident happen? Date and time?
• Any other people involved?
• Was anyone arrested? Do we know who/ what for?
• Exact time/ arresting officer?
• Contact details for any witnesses to the arrest?
• Has anyone been charged? If so, with what?
• Have they been granted bail or kept in?
• Have any solicitors been contacted/ taken on the case? Contact details for them?
• How do we (eg ASS/SLN) contact the occupiers themselves?
• Alternative contact details in case they lose their phone?
• Any other helpful witnesses who we may want to contact later?
• Any other issues/ support needed? (eg reclaiming possessions, filing complaints etc)