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, a squat held in the old hospital.]] Squatting is the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or Building that the '''squatter''' does not Own, Rent Or Otherwise Have Permission To Use . Squatting is significantly more common in Urban areas than rural areas, especially when Urban Decay occurs. According to author Robert Neuwirth , there may be as many as one billion squatters globally, or about one of every seven people.Neuwirth, R (2004) ''Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World'', Routledge ISBN 0415933196 OVERVIEW , Spain of the international squatter's symbol.]] In many of the world's poorer countries there are extensive Slum s or Shanty Town s, typically built on the edges of major Cities and consisting almost entirely of self-constructed housing built on terrain seized and occupied illegally. Whilst these settlements may in time grow to become both legalised and indistinguishable from normal residential neighbourhoods, they start off as squats with minimal basic infrastructure. Thus, there is no sewage system, drinking water must be bought from vendors or carried from a nearby tap and if there is electricity, it is stolen from a passing cable. To squat in many countries is in itself a Crime ; in others it is only seen as a Civil Conflict between the owner and the occupants. Property Law and the State have traditionally favored the property owner. However, in many cases where squatters had '' De Facto '' ownership, laws have been changed to legitimize their status. Squatters often claim rights over the spaces they have squatted by virtue of occupation, rather than ownership; in this sense, squatting is similar to (and potentially a necessary condition of) Adverse Possession , by which a possessor of Real Property without Title may eventually gain legal title to the real property. Colin Ward states that "Squatting is the oldest mode of tenure in the world, and we are all descended from squatters. This is as true of the Queen the United Kingdom with her 176,000 acres as it is of the 54 per cent of householders in Britain who are owner-occupiers. They are all the ultimate recipients of stolen land, for to regard our planet as a commodity offends every conceivable principle of natural rights."1 Besides being residences, some squats are used as Social Centres or host Give-away Shop s, Pirate Radio stations and cafés. In Spanish-speaking countries squatters receive several names, like ''okupas'' in Spain or Argentina (from the verb ''ocupar'' meaning "to occupy"), or ''paracaidistas'' in Mexico (meaning "paratroopers", because they "parachute" themselves at unoccupied land). In Argentina there was even a popular TV show under that name. Eventually, ''okupas'' tend to form tiny but solid communities . AFRICA There are large squatter communities in Kenya such as Kibera in Nairobi . A BBC News report described it as follows: "The first thing that hits you here is this rich stench of almost 1 million people living in this ditch - in mud huts, with no sewage pipes, no roads, no water, no toilet, in fact, with no services of any kind." Living amidst the rubbish of Kenya's slum An estimated 1,000 people live in the Grande Hotel Beira in Mozambique. In South Africa, squatters tend to live in ''informal settlements'' or ''squatter camps'' on the outskirts of the larger cities, often but not always near have also been occupied by squatters. Property owners or government authorities can usually evict squatters after following certain legal procedures. In Durban there has been sustained conflict between the city council and a shack dwellers' movement known as Abahlali BaseMjondolo . ASIA India In Mumbai , there are an estimated 10 to 12 million inhabitants and six million of them are squatters. The squatters live in a variety of ways. Some possess two or three story homes built out of brick and concrete which they have inhabited for years. Geeta Nagar is a squatter village based beside the Indian Navy compound at Colaba. Squatter Colony in Malad East has existed since 1962 and now people living there pay a rent to the city council of 100 rupees a month. Dharavi is a community of one million squatters. The stores and factories situated there are mainly illegal and so are unregulated, but it is suggested that they do over $1 million in business every day.Pages 110-114 Neuwirth, R (2004) ''Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World'', Routledge ISBN 0415933196 Other squatters live in shacks, situated literally on a pavement next to the road, with very few possessions. Activists such as Jockin Arputham are working for better living conditions for slum dwellers. AUSTRALIA In . In a more modern context the term's meaning in Australia, especially in an urban context, is identical to the British usage. In rural areas of Australia, however, the term 'squatter' is still used to describe the owner of a large landholding. EUROPE In many European countries, there are squatted houses and large squatted projects where people live and work. Examples of the latter include an old leper hospital outside Barcelona called Can Masdeu and former military barracks such as Christiania in Denmark and Metelkova in Slovenia. The eviction of Ungdomshuset in March 2007 received international news coverage. In Italy, there is Bussana Vecchia , a ghost town in Liguria which was abandoned in 1887 following an earthquake and subsequently squatted in the 1960s. In France, there is Collectif La Vieille Valette , a self-supporting squat village which has been active since 1991. Germany After the German Reunification , many buildings were vacated due the demise of former state-run enterprises and migration to the western parts of Germany, some of which then were occupied by squatters. In Berlin , some are nowadays in desirable areas such as Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg . Before the reunification, squats in Berlin were mostly located in former West Berlin 's borough of Kreuzberg . Netherlands In the Netherlands , if a building is not in use for twelve months and the owner has no pressing need to use it (such as a rental contract starting in the next month), then it can be legally squatted. The only illegal aspect would be forcing an entry, if that was necessary. When a building is squatted it is normal to send the owner a letter and to invite the police to inspect the squat. The police check whether the place is indeed lived in by the squatter — in legal terms this means there must be a bed, a chair, a table and a working lock in the door which the squatter can open and close. In cities there is often a ''kraakspreekuur'' (squatters' conversation hour), at which people planning to squat can get advice from experienced squatters. In Amsterdam, where the squatting community is large, there are three ''kraakspreekuur'' sessions in different areas of the city and so-called 'wild' squatting (squatting a building without the help of the local group) is not encouraged. Wiegand E. (2004) ''Trespass at Will: Squatting as Direct Action, Human Right & Justified Theft'' (LiP Magazine) There are many residential squats in Dutch cities such as Leiden, Rotterdam, Groningen, Nijmegen, Haarlem and Amsterdam. There are also some squats in the countryside such as a squatted village called Ruigoord near to Amsterdam and Fort Pannerden , near Nijmegen. Fort Pannerden (a military fort built in 1869) was evicted on November 8 2006 by a massive police operation which used military machinery and cost one million euros.http://www.nu.nl/news/878312/10/Politie_hervat_ontruiming_Fort_Pannerden.html The squatters then resquatted the fort on November 26 and have since made a deal with the local council which owns the fort.http://www.nu.nl/news/900535/10/Fort_Pannerden_voorlopig_niet_ontruimd.htmlhttp://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2006/12/41302.shtml Sometimes squats can become legalised. This is the case with the Poortgebouw in Rotterdam, which was squatted in 1980. In 1982, the inhabitants agreed to pay rent to the city council and they are still living there in 2007. Well-known squats include the OT301 and ASCII in Amsterdam, the Slaakhuis in Rotterdam and De Blauwe Aanslag in the Hague, which was evicted in 2003. In June 2006 two ministers from the Dutch Government ( Sybilla Dekker and Piet Hein Donner ) proposed a plan to make squatting illegal.http://www.nu.nl/news/750453/11/Kraken_wordt_strafbaar.html Other ministers, such as Alexander Pechtold , were not in favour of this plan. Representatives of the four largest Dutch cities wrote a letter stating that it would not be in their interest to ban squatting.http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=742490&c=11 Squatters nationwide made banners and hung them on their squats in protest.http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2006/06/36908.shtml Switzerland The RHINO ("Retour des '''H'''abitants dans les '''I'''mmeubles '''N'''on-'''O'''ccupés"; in English, "Return of Inhabitants to Non-Occupied Housing") was a 19 year long squat in Geneva . It occupied two buildings on the Boulevard des Philosophes, a few blocks away from the main campus of the University Of Geneva . The RHINO organisation often faced legal troubles, and Geneva police evicted the inhabitants on July 23, 2007. Eviction of squatters from SwissInfo United Kingdom .]] England and Wales In England and Wales , the term 'squatting' usually refers to occupying an empty house in a city. The owner of the house must go through various legal proceedings before Evicting squatters. Squatting is regarded in law as a Civil , not a Criminal , matter.Anonymous, (12th edition, 2004)''Squatter's Handbook'', Advisory Service for Squatters ISBN 0950776955The squatter legally occupies the house and then the owner must prove in court that they have a right to live in the property and that the squatter does not, whilst the squatter has the opportunity to claim there is not sufficient proof or that the proper legal steps have not been taken. In order to occupy a house legally, a squatter must have exclusive access to that property, that is, be able to open and lock an entrance. The property should be secure in the same way as a normal residence, with no broken windows or locks. The legal process of eviction can take a month or longer, perhaps even years. This is what happens when the property is owned by a Council or a Housing Association . Private landlords have been known to use various intimidatory methods to convince a squatter to move out or indeed, to pay squatters to leave. Local Council planners, facing rising court costs when evicting squatters, often resort to taking out the plumbing and toilets in empty buildings to deter squatters. To show that the occupier of the squatted building is in fact in physical possession of the property, squatters often put up a legal warning known as a 'Section 6', a copy of which is often displayed on the front door. The Section 6 Legal Warning Doing so affirms that there are people living there and they have a legal right to be there. It also makes clear that anyone — even the technical owner of the property — who tries to enter the building without permission is committing an offence. Some properties are still occupied by squatters who have resisted eviction for 20 years. Squatters have a right to claim ownership of a dwelling after 12 years of having lived there if no one else claims it, by . In effect, after 10 years of actual physical possession, a squatter must apply to the Land Registry to have their title recognised as the owner in fee simple. The original owner of the property will receive notification from the Land Registry and will be able to defeat the application by simple objection. Obviously, this will seriously curtail the ability of squatters to claim adverse possession. In London, a group called the Advisory Service For Squatters runs a volunteer service helping squatters. It publishes the ''Squatters' Handbook''. The most empty homes in the UK are in Birmingham (17,490), Liverpool (15,692) and Manchester (14,017). The North-West area of England has the most empty homes (135,106), which is close to 5% of its housing. The least empty homes are in South East England and East Anglia , but there are currently thousands of empty homes in London, as house prices are soaring above the level of income that most people earn. =History In 1649 at Saint George's Hill, Walton on Thames in Surrey, Gerrard Winstanley and others calling themselves The True Levellers occupied disused 'Common' land and cultivated it collectively in the hope that their actions would inspire other poor people to follow their lead. Gerrard Winstanley stated that "the poorest man hath as true a title and just right to the land as the richest man".2 While the True Levellers, later more commonly known as the Diggers, were not perhaps the first squatters in England their story illustrates the heritage of squatting as a form of radical direct action. More recently there was a huge squatting movement involving ex-servicemen and their families following World War II . This involved thousands of people occupying sites as diverse as former military bases and luxury apartment blocks in West London. 3 The 1960s saw the development of the Family Squatting Movement which sought to mobilise people to take control of empty properties and use them to house homeless families from the Council Housing Waiting List. This movement was originally based in London (where Ron Bailey and Jim Radford were instrumental is helping to establish family squatting campaigns in several London Boroughs) and several local Family Squatting Associations signed agreements with Borough Councils to use empty properties under licence (although only after some lengthy and bitter campaigns had been fought - most particularly in the Boroughs of Redbridge and Southwark). In the early seventies Ron Bailey and Jim Radford were closely involved in founding the Family Squatting Advisory Service which promoted and provided information for Family Squatting Associations and direct action Housing Campaigns. However, there was a growing conflict between the original activists of the Family Squatting Movement and a newer wave of squatters who simply rejected the right of landlords to charge rent and who believed (or claimed to) that seizing property and living rent-free was a revolutionary political act. These new wave squatters (often young and single rather than homeless families) were a mixture of Anarchists, Trotskyites - the IMG being especially prominent - and self-proclaimed hippy-dropouts and they denounced the idea that squatters should seek to make agreements with local Councils to use empty property and that Squatting Associations should then become landlords (or Self Help Housing Associations as they were sometimes styled) in their own right and charge rent. Scotland Squatting is a criminal offence in Scotland , punishable by a fine or even imprisonment. The owner or lawful occupier of the property has the right to eject squatters without notice or applying to the court for an eviction order, although when evicting they cannot do anything that would break the law, for example use violence.http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-2624.cfm Spain Squatting became popular in Spain in the 1960s and 1970s, as a result of the shortage of urban accommodation during the Rural Exodus . It was revived in the mid-1980s during the Movida , under the name of the ''okupa'' movement, when thousands of illegal squats were legalized. Influenced by the British Levellers , the movement's popularity rose again during the 1990s, once more due to a housing crisis, this time related to the 1992 Summer Olympics and the concomitant urban regeneration. Property Speculation and house price Inflation continue to catalyze ''okupa'' Activism .http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/node/224 Related to the movement. In 1996, during José María Aznar 's presidency, the first specific legislation against squatting was passed and became the prelude to many squat evictions. In the barrio of Lavapiés in Madrid, the Eskalera Karakola was a Feminist self-managed squat, which was active from 1996 to 2005 and participated in the nextGENDERation network . As of 2007 there were approximately 200 occupied houses in Barcelona. At least 45 of these, as Infousurpa , a collective event calendar mentions, are used as social and cultural centers – so called "open houses".''Infousurpa – Butlleti setmanal de contr@informació des del 1996.'' Nr. 486, 11 to 17 July 2007 (collective, weekly updated event calender of 45 occupied houses in Barcelona; hanging out in occupied houses) A number of popular Rock Group s have been borne of this kind of venue, such as Sin Dios in Madrid and Ojos De Brujo in Barcelona. |
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