Squatting will become a criminal offence at the start of September after legislation to protect homeowners was passed by Parliament today.
Under the change, squatters will face up to six months in jail and a maximum £5,000 fine if they move into a homeowners’ property.
It will be the first time that squatting has become a crime and follows a spate of cases in which residents have returned to find their homes occupied, and often damaged, by intruders who refuse to leave.
Charities and other campaigners have complained that the measure, contained in the Government’s Legal Aid and Sentencing Bill, will criminalise the homeless and add to the numbers living on the streets.
Justice minister Crispin Blunt insisted today, however, that homeowners needed more protection as he announced that the new law would come into effect from September 1.
“For too long squatters have had the justice system on the run,” he said. “Not any more. Hard working homeowners need and deserve a justice system where their rights come first, this new offence will ensure the police and other agencies can take quick and decisive action to deal with the misery of squatting.”
As well as making squatting a crime, the new legislation contains other changes intended to make easier for homeowners to prove that their home is being occupied unlawfully.
There will, for example, no longer be a requirement to show that a squatter has displaced a resident and that the victim has nowhere else to live in. Squatting has previously only been a civil offence. That has left homeowners facing potentially lengthy and expensive legal battles to remove squatters.
