Housing lawyers attack ministers over "misleading" statements on squatting law

A group of legal academics, solicitors and barristers who specialise in housing law have strongly criticised MPs and ministers, including Housing Minister Grant Shapps, for giving "misleading" statements to the press on the law on squatting.

In a letter to national newspapers, the signatories said they were concerned about the significant number of recent media reports stating that squatters who refused to leave someone's home were not committing a criminal offence and that a change in the law – such as that proposed by the government – was needed to rectify this situation.

The letter said the reports were legally incorrect, as guidance issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government in March had made clear.

“We are concerned that such repeated inaccurate reporting of this issue has created fear for homeowners, confusion for the police and ill informed debate among both the public and politicians on reforming the law,” the signatories added.

In relation to statements made by MPs and ministers, the letter cited as an example a comment by Shapps on the World Tonight that “the police don’t act [over homes being squatted] because the law does not support the police acting”.

It also criticised quotes attributed in the Daily Mail to Conservative MP Mike Weatherley, who has campaigned in support of the government’s proposed change in the law.

The signatories, who act for tenants and landlords, said: “By making misleading statements and failing to challenge inaccurate reporting, ministers have furthered the myths being peddled around squatting.”

The letter clarified the correct position on squatting, namely that it is already a criminal offence for a squatter to occupy someone’s home, or a home that a person intends to occupy, under the Criminal Law Act 1977.

High-profile cases such as that involving Dr Oliver Cockerell and his wife, or of Julia High, “could and should have been dealt with under existing criminal law”, it suggested. The group said: “If they were not, it is likely that this was due to a lack of understanding of the law on the part of the homeowners or the police, who apparently considered these to be civil law matters.”

The police told the Cockerells they were unable to help when squatters entered their Hampstead home before they were about to move in.

The letter accused ministers of failing to make people’s existing remedies clear when giving interviews or quotes for prominent articles. The government’s proposals would make “very little or no practical difference” to cases such as the Cockerells’, it added.

The existing law provided a range of options for immediate or rapid possession for those with trespassers in their homes and those seeking to regain possession of vacant property, the signatories insisted. “But newspaper articles have frequently misrepresented this, stating that homeowners face weeks of civil proceedings to regain their homes and that the trespassers have ‘squatter’s rights’ in occupying a home.”

The signatories warned that a proper debate over the value and effect of the new proposals to further criminalise occupation of buildings was “threatened by widespread distortions of the current law”.

They added: “As the proposals would have far reaching consequences for many vulnerable people, there is a need for informed factual discussion rather than a response based on sensationalist misrepresentation.”

The signatories included Andrew Arden QC of Arden Chambers and Justin Bates (vice-chair of the Housing Law Practitioners Association’s executive committee).

In a response via Twitter, Grant Shapps claimed that the lawyers were “sadly out of touch for believing that taking ‘a few days’ to clear squatters is a reasonable outcome”.

In a separate statement the minister also said: "The guidance I published earlier this year makes clear to homeowners where the law stands on squatters, however commonsense suggests there should be quick and tough sanctions available when someone's home is squatted, without the homeowner necessarily needing to bring a civil case.

"That's why we're consulting on making squatting a criminal offence, to shut the door on so-called 'squatters rights' once and for all, and end the misery and expense that homeowners can endure. And to tackle the blight of empty homes, which can also attract squatters, we're making £100m available to help bring them back into use, with extra funding available for councils that house people in former empty homes through the New Homes Bonus."