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Squatters' "rights" in the UK

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Prompted by a newspaper article in my native language, I used google to confirm it, and I came across these two articles:

Article 1

Article 2

Besides the information found in them, the original article referred to laws that allows squatters to occupy "abandoned" properties (even though, in this particular case, the owner had not yet moved in as he intented to renovate the place beforehand). The property is said to be occupied by a group of 30-something eastern Europeans, including Latvians, Romanians and Swedes.

Either way, my question would be is there really such a legislation in place in the UK that just expropriates private property based on need and with little regard to the right on which it stands? :huh:

Seems the the UK is even more socialist than, say, France or Germany at this point...

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I regret to inform you that Britain is not the exception in Europe. Here in the Netherlands we had legal squatting for decades. This law was only recently repealed, but squatting continues as the law of the EU is not quite clear on the matter. Apparently squatters are considered legal residents under EU law and cannot be evicted.

Unfortunately, socialism is still dominant on the European continent. Take for example the European Parliament, the biggest parties are the 'Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats' and the 'European People's Party'. (The latter are socialists in disguise.)

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I can confirm that these laws do exist, much to the annoyance of property owners.

It seems to be consensus opinion amongst intellectuals here (of course, I disagree) that squatters rights are an important part of property rights.

The argument goes that all land in its past has been acquired illegitimately. For example, you may have bought land fair and square, from somebody who had it for generations, but somewhere down the line it was expropriated by a king or something - in fact, most land here would have been marked out under the feudal system. Given this, it is said that it is important to have certain release mechanisms which decrease the friction of land ownership.

There are lots of books on it.

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