Removing Squatters - Part One

First things first, if your tenant decides not to leave when he should -say after the expiration of a section 21 notice - he’s not a squatter, he’s just a former tenant who won’t leave.
For tenants like this you’ll have to use normal court processes to get them out. You must not rely on your own “self help” measures. If it’s an eviction of an assured shorthold tenant following non-payment of rent or because they have not left at the end of the tenancy and after the appropriate correct notices have been served, you can follow the simple court procedures yourself without having to pay for the services of a solicitor.
Real squatters are people who have no right to be in your property, either because your tenant has let them in (and they are not on the tenancy agreement and there has been no agreement by you to allow them to sub-let), or, they could be a third party who has simply let themselves in, while the property was left empty, unoccupied and unsecured.
In effect they are trespassers. (In fact there is no legal definition of squatter!)
I’ll look at what you can do to get rid of them in part two later this week.
Finally, if you are in London tonight don’t forget to come along to my networking / seminar event. For more details on this event see the main site www.lettingfocus.com or go straight to the Events page. http://www.lettingfocus.co.uk/enews/enews.html
Copyright David Lawrenson 2007