Trespassers will be prosecuted
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Trespassers or “squatters” can present major issues for owners of commercial land and buildings. A trespasser is a person who enters or remains on land without the owner’s licence or consent and is applicable to a variety of people and groups, including for example:
travellers with caravans, trucks and vans on large parcels of land;
protestors, such as the ‘Occupy’ movement or persons opposed to “fracking”, nuclear power or animal rights issues;
groups such as bohemians, drug users, illegal raves or the homeless occupying buildings as a home.
Issues caused by trespassers can go far beyond the land owner being unable to access their land. The presence of trespassers can prevent land owners from proceeding with construction and re-fit works, which often results in significant delay and costs penalties being incurred. There is also a high risk of damage being caused to property or land, including the risk of fly-tipping and the associated clean-up costs. To put this into perspective, the cost to land owners to clear sites following an unlawful occupation has been known to be in excess of £100k per site.
Land owners should also be aware that they could be liable in the event that a trespasser is injured whilst occupying their land/property.
Types of land and property typically targeted by trespassers include car parks, playing fields, construction sites, vacant offices, warehouses, factories and even art galleries. Land owners should therefore take measures to secure these high-risk properties from the risks of unlawful occupation.
It is important for land owners to know their rights to remove trespassers and to follow the eviction process correctly, otherwise they could be subject to both civil and criminal sanctions.
Definition of a trespasser
A trespasser is a person who has no right to occupy land or property. They do not have licence to enter or remain. They may have been let into property by somebody else, or they may have let themselves in whilst the property was empty, unoccupied or unsecured. This might be a criminal offence, but proving that a trespasser broke in is very difficult. A person who enters a shop has licence from the owner to do so. If however that licence is withdrawn the person is trespassing. There is no legal definition for squatter, but the terms are often used interchangeably.
Is trespassing a criminal offence?
On 1 September 2012, trespassing in residential properties became a criminal offence under section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, although that only applies to someone that entered without consent. A licensee of residential property holding over does not commit the criminal offence of trespassing. Trespassing on commercial land is however not a criminal offence and trespassers will not be prosecuted save in some limited circumstances, for example where a trespasser threatens an occupier with violence to gain entry to the property.
Several sources indicate that since squatting in residential property became illegal, trespassers have focused their attention on commercial property, resulting in calls to criminalise all trespassing.
However, as it stands, commercial land owners experiencing problems with trespassers must seek alternative remedies.
Prevention methods
No land owner wants to encounter trespassers and as a starting point should consider all possible deterrents.
Traditional means to discourage trespass was to build a moat or a wall around property or land. Nowadays owners also use other deterrents such as large concrete blocks to prevent vehicles accessing land, or steel shutters over entrances and windows or “property guardians” (which itself is a risk) or sophisticated security systems and CCTV or the good old fashioned security guard. A land owner should consider carefully what deterrents may work to protect their land or property, as a small investment when property becomes vacant could save significant costs of removal, clearance and repair at a later stage.
However, and despite the best laid plans, land and property are often targeted by trespassers who move from site to site and always know where the next vacant land or building is. In those circumstances, there are various options available to the land owner to remove trespassers.
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