Squatting in a residential property becomes a criminal offence from Saturday in England and Wales.
The maximum penalty will be six months’ prison and/or a £5,000 fine.
Trespassing will be where someone knowingly enters a residential building as a trespasser, and is either living there or planning to live there without the owner’s consent.
There will no longer be a requirement for the property owner to ask the trespassers to leave before being able to involve the police.
Police will have a specific duty to enter the property to arrest anyone suspected of squatting, and can ignore ‘squatters’ rights’ notices.
The new offence will make it harder for trespassers to claim trespassers’ rights, because their occupation will be a criminal act.
Squatting as a criminal offence will not apply to residential tenants who continue to stay in a property, despite paying no rent. They will still be subject to the normal eviction proceedings.
Nor will it apply to people who think they had permission to live in a residential property. Government guidance specifically gives as an example a situation whereby a bogus letting agent encourages an unsuspecting tenant to occupy someone else’s property.
The offence will not apply retrospectively, so people already squatting in a residential property by September 1 will escape prosecution.
The offence is part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
At Affirmed Choice Letting, the Chichester Letting Agent, we are passionate about the principles of personal customer care, and our guarantee is to provide a unique 'Peace Of Mind' property management service to tenants and landlords. Click here to find out how we help landlords to protect their investment.
Thousands of families are set to receive warnings from the Land Registry that they could face large bills to repair their local church, after parishes were ordered to enforce a land law passed after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.
Because of the way land was carved after the dissolution of the monasteries, the owners of many houses sited near historic churches have a legal obligation to contribute to repairs, even if they have never attended it, reported The Telegraph.
The archaic rights will see people living in more than 5,000 parishes in England subject to the historical “Chancel Repair Liabilities”, which affect properties built on former monastic land.
Most take out a form of insurance against the liability but many so-called “lay rectors” are entirely unaware of the obligation as it is rarely enforced.
The Telegraph described how the issue has reached a head in the 12th Century Cotswolds parish of St Eadburgha, Glos, where 30 villagers, many of them elderly, have now received letters from the Land Registry warning them of their unexpected legal obligations and giving them just two weeks to lodge a legal objection.
The local vicar, the Revd Michelle Massey, who is trying to secure a legal exemption for her parishioners through the Charity Commission, has described the letter as “vicious” and the law as “unchristian”. She warned that many other parishes are set to follow suit.
Tory MP Peter Luff has described that the row is “the tip of the iceberg” and is likely to be just the first act in a drama set to affect villages across England. He added that he was aware of other parishes already moving in a similar direction and warned, “This could be replicated across the country, that’s an awful lot of people whose lives are about to be blighted and their homes unsaleable.”
After an attempt by the last Government to tidy up the 500-year-old law in the wake of a high profile court case in 2003, parishes have been ordered to trawl through land records dating back hundreds of years to clarify exactly who is liable.
The decision of the House of Lords in PCC of Aston Cantlow -v- Wallbank in 2003 sent shockwaves through the property world and the legal profession, and had the effect of highlighting the need for the law to be clarified. When Aston Cantlow church billed Andrew and Gail Wallbank at Glebe Farm, Warwickshire, for almost £100,000 in repairs, the case dragged through the courts for years, racking up considerable costs.
As a result the last Government ordered parishes to register all houses liable for the ancient charge by late 2013. The Land Registration Act 2002 (Transitional Provisions) (No 2) Order 2003 covering (inter alia) was made, a right in respect of the repair of a church chancel.
The ten-year legal deadline imposed by the last Government will meet its watershed at midnight on Saturday 12th October 2013 and local parish bodies have been warned they could be legally responsible if they fail to comply.
At Affirmed Choice Letting, the Chichester Letting Agent, we are passionate about the principles of personal customer care, and our guarantee is to provide a unique 'Peace Of Mind' property management service to tenants and landlords. Click here to find out how we help landlords to protect their investment.
