How to keep squatters out of your home

What if you came back from holiday to find squatters in your home? Rita de Brun checks your rights

IMAGINE coming home from holidays with the sinking feeling that something is wrong. On arrival, you take out your keys and try to let yourself in, only to discover that the lock has been changed. Hammering on your door, you wait for someone who oughtn’t to be there to answer. Seconds later, the door swings open and you’re faced with a couple who calmly advise you that it’s their home now and you may go elsewhere.

While this is the stuff of nightmares, it’s also the stuff of reality. In the summer of 2011, two sisters in their 50s came home from a two week holiday to find a family living in their £500,000 London home. The squatters refused to move out. While the owners were away, neighbours became concerned when they saw strangers throwing bags containing the sisters’ possessions out their windows. On enquiring what was going on, the neighbours were wrongly informed that they were the new owners as they had bought the property.