Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) will create a new offence of squatting in residential property. A date has not yet been fixed for the Act to come into force.
A squatter who enters and remains in residential property commits an offence and will face up to a year's imprisonment and/or to a fine of up to £5,000.
Unfortunately, as LASPO does not extend to commercial premises, it may be that savvy squatters will move away from using residential properties and towards squatting more frequently in commercial premises.
Criminal liability for squatting already exists under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 where failure to comply with an "Interim Possession Order" can result in similar penalties.
However, using the 1994 Act to remove squatters generally takes longer that the conventional civil route, not least because of the necessary involvement of the police, who generally do not see evicting squatters as their highest priority.
The civil route involves the obtaining of a "summary possession order". Once the proceedings are served on the squatters, the order can usually be obtained in a few days - assuming the property owner has followed the correct procedure.
The Court Bailiff will then evict the squatters. It used to be the case that the Court would deal with squatting cases as a matter of priority. However, the increase in the number of such cases and the reduction in the number of Bailiffs, has resulted in inevitable delays.
The new criminal offence of squatting will not affect the process or the timescale for recovery of possession. It remains to be seen whether it will be an effective deterrent.
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