Elaine Dobson, residential property partner at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP welcomes the wide reaching Government consultation which aims to make squatting a criminal offence and believes that those charities involved with the most vunerable in society such as the homeless, mentally ill, financially disabled and or disenfranchised must take an active role in the consultation.

"The consultation will look at the options for dealing with squatting, but initially it must define what squatting is. With up to 20,000 squatters in England and Wales at any one time, it's a problem that must be considered from every angle and how it may affect the most vulnerable homeless people.

The 'offence' of squatting needs to be defined in the proposed legislation and charities may hold the key to helping define what constitutes squatting.

Charities that work with the vunerable and or homeless should provide feedback to the consultation, especially if they feel that those persons may be disadvantaged by a change in squatting laws. Its not necessarily the case that squatters are homeless it is possible that a squatter has been forced into squatting for a raft of reasons - and the consultation will work to ascertain this, but its important that charities should be involved," explains Elaine Dobson.

"The consultation will try to provide evidence of the numbers of squats, the number of people squatting and the nature of it; including the demographic profile of squatters, whether properties were empty or already in use when the squatters moved in, whether the property is in residential or commercial use and whether squatting is more prevalent in certain areas.

Once these things have been considered, then it will be possible to define what is squatting. For example there is a clear difference between someone who has been granted access to a property to live there but has then outstayed their welcome, someone who lets themselves into a property to squat there and someone who believes it is their right to occupy any property no matter the consequences of their actions.

"It's time that the law protected law abiding property owners from squatters who let themselves into buildings, damage the property whilst there and drag the property owner through the court system to evict them. The cost to those property owners who have been a victim of squatters taking occupation of their property not only in monetary terms but also in anxiety is out of proportion to the squatter's rights to remain under the curernt law. I welcome the move to make it a criminal offence and to bring England and Wales into line with Scotland. However the offence must be tightly defined and as such I encourage all those parties who have an interest in ensuring the vunerable in society are protected to be involved in the consultation process."

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.