For
all landlords – commercial or residential –
one of the biggest fears when it comes to letting a
property is what happens if it becomes vacant.
Shergroup, as one of the UK’s largest High
Court enforcement agencies, sends this advice to its
clients and stakeholders on how to remove squatters
quickly and professionally, and lists the steps landlords
should take to prevent it from happening in the first
place.
Once a building falls out of use, whether it is an
old warehouse, a luxury home in one of London’s
smartest suburbs or a disused hospital building, it
becomes fair game to squatters and vandals, keen to
proclaim their rights from the rooftops, with loose
slates falling to the ground in the process.
So what can you do to stop this happening in the
first place? In addition, what steps can you take
once the squatters have moved in?
Ken Somerville from Shergroup’s Security division
says the priority once a building has become vacant
is not to leave it at the mercy of trespassers –
because you will end up with a far greater bill for
clearing up and repairing the property or site in
the end.
“Squatters are very canny,” he says.
“They know their ‘rights’ and that
they can’t be evicted without a court order.
They like proclaiming they’ve found a property
that was sitting empty and they are just alleviating
the homeless problem by putting it to good use.
“They like to engender a sense of community
and make people feel that being a capitalist or an
investor is wrong, but that couldn’t be further
from the truth. For many people, being a landlord
is about dabbling in property to make a bit of extra
income; they don’t have huge sums of money to
spend on evicting squatters and clearing up the mess
they have left behind.”
The starting point, he says, is to invest in high-quality
security measures and make sure that all doors and
windows and any potential points of entry are secured.
“Many squatters enter a property because they
have found a weakness in security such as a door or
window unlocked, not because they have broken in.
“Consider steel window shutters and doors to
prevent panes of glass being smashed and to preserve
the fabric of the building. Whilst this may not be
appropriate in residential areas where neighbours
are likely to complain, it is far more suited to large,
high-value, high-risk industrial sites, where travellers
or eco-warriors may move in and set up camp.
“You also need to think about perimeter fencing
and manned guarding, as well as security cameras.
Our own security guards are nearly all ex-military
personnel who have to follow very strict security
industry association guidelines; it’s not something
you should leave to an inexperienced security company
who are more used to providing, for example, concierge
services.”
What happens if squatters do get in?
Once those unwanted visitors have entered –
and invited all their friends – it is a lot
harder to get them out. It’s long been a source
of contention that the law seems to be more on their
side than on the landlord’s. However, there
are steps that can be taken – as long as intervention
is swift.
Shergroup Chief Executive, Claire Sandbrook, who
celebrates 30 years of working in the enforcement
industry in July 2010 and has seen squatters in all
sorts of situations, says: “Once people have
obtained an Order for Possession from the County Court,
they then wait for it to be assigned to a County Court
Bailiff, which can take as long as three to four months
in some parts of the country because they are so busy.
“By instead transferring it up to the High
Court for enforcement, a Writ of Possession is then
issued, enabling High Court Enforcement Officers to
undertake the eviction. With Shergroup, we can do
this within two weeks – and we give our clients
a timeslot so they can be present at the eviction
if they wish.
“It may cost a little more to go through the
High Court, but you get your property back far quicker
so that you can start renting again and getting the
income from your investment. It’s far more cost-effective
in the long run.”
She adds that, with Shergroup, the service extends
far beyond the eviction itself. “We’ve
seen properties left in the most horrendous state,
completely unhygienic and uninhabitable.
“We can bring in our heavy-duty industrial
cleaning equipment to put things right, using people
who know the health and safety risks. Often squats
will be full of drugs paraphernalia and sharp needles,
all of which has to be disposed of safely.
“We can then make the building secure with
shutters and screens, to stop these unwelcome visitors
coming back.”
Call for changes to the law
So why do squatters have legal ‘rights’?
Moreover, why are landlords left counting the cost?
It’s a question that Mrs Sandbrook continues
to raise with Ministry of Justice and HMCS officials.
“Landlords are being denied their rights because
of a lack of resources. Everything takes too long
to enforce in the County Courts. As a result, landlords
are losing thousands of pounds in income and having
to pay for the dilapidation of their property. It’s
not fair and we are calling for something to be done
about it.”
She also praised those individuals who try to navigate
the court system on their own. “Many landlords
don’t realise they can transfer their order
for possession to the High Court or that they can
instruct us online via our website at www.sherbond.net.
“But the reality is that if they have a tenant
that has trashed the property and left the garden
to grow wild or the site in a mess, they just want
to get those squatters out as quickly as possible.
To do that, they really need to consider High Court
enforcement as the quickest and most effective solution.”
Forcible removal of trespassers
Shergroup’s team, which operates across England
and Wales, works with the police to remove trespassers
forcibly, following very strict health and safety
procedures and ensuring there is no breach of the
peace. This is allowed under statutory powers in Section
99, Schedule 7 of the Courts Act 2003, paragraph 5.
Shergroup also has access to specialist contractors,
including climbers who will scale buildings, trees
and even industrial chimneys to prise eco-warriors
and protestors from their vantage points. The team
also includes people used to working in confined spaces.
“We’ve seen everything, from people burying
themselves in tunnels to encasing their arms or legs
in concrete. Once people get on the rooftops of semi-derelict
buildings it can be very dangerous, so we leave nothing
to chance,” says Claire.
On the other end of the scale are the landlords who
haven’t been paid the rent, perhaps because
their tenants have lost their jobs during the recession
or their businesses have gone bust. In such cases,
you may not need a court order, but instead use enforcement
remedies such as levying distraint (seizing goods
to pay commercial rent arrears) or commercial forfeiture
(peaceful re-entry) for a speedy and effective resolution.
Many landlords don’t realise there is a whole
range of solutions and advice available when it comes
to recovering land or money owed. “The most
important thing is to act quickly and with confidence.
The longer you leave it, the worse it will get,”
adds Claire.
Who uses High Court enforcement?
As well as supporting both private and commercial
landlords, Shergroup – which adheres to the
National Standards for Enforcement Agents –
also works with solicitors, commercial property agents,
accountants, insolvency practitioners and local authorities.
Among those to benefit from using High Court enforcement
is one of the largest housing associations in the
country, Metropolitan Housing. Ian Davis, Acquisition
Manager for the Trust, has recently started using
Shergroup’s High Court service. Once he understood
that he could use the High Court system for the enforcement
of his orders for possession to remove squatters forcibly,
he took full advantage of Shergroup’s offer
to combine fast enforcement with security services,
Manned guards have been staying in properties subject
to eviction, in order to keep out further intrusions
by squatters trying to enter the property.
