WALTHAMSTOW: Police powerless over 'home invasion' case (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

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Home-owners in Walthamstow take squatters case to court

9:31am Thursday 19th January 2012 in News By Sarah May Hayes

A COUPLE face a decisive court hearing in their battle to evict squatters who invaded their home after police admitted they are powerless to act.

Janice Mason, 49, and husband Dave, 48, were about to exchange contracts to sell her late mother’s home in Manor Road, Walthamstow, when the property was broken into and taken over by a large family last month.

After being alerted by a neighbour the couple went to the house, only to discover a heavily pregnant woman who claimed to have a tenancy agreement.

Police then told the Masons they could not act as squatting is a civil matter and it was up to the owners to resolve the situation through the courts.

The Masons are now trying to obtain a court notice ordering the occupiers to leave and hope to get a decision on February 3.

But they have been informed by their solicitor that they could face a long and expensive legal battle to evict the squatters.

Mrs Mason said: “We are going through hell at the moment. We’re not eating, we’re not sleeping properly.

“I have had to inform my buyer that the house is now occupied by squatters and we cannot sell it to her. The salt in the wound is that I even have to pay for the electricity they use while they are in there.”

Mr Mason said: “I have paid my taxes all my life and abided by the law. But when something like this happens, the law is against me. To find out that it is happening more and more is really scary. It’s an awful position to be in.”

Mrs Mason has started an online petition calling for a change in the law to criminalise squatting and has written to Prime Minister David Cameron about their plight.

“The police are powerless and that is what is winding everyone up. The main thing I want to do is change the law and make it a crime,” she said.

Waltham Forest Police recently defended its record on dealing with the issue, which has seen a number of homes taken over in the borough, including houses in nearby Newport Road and one in Leytonstone.

Chief inspector Richard Munn said: “It's important the public know that if it's clear a crime has taken place, where we're empowered to act by law then we will.

“The difficulty is for the public to understand the complexities of the legislation in these cases and the issues around civil and criminal law. Each case has to be looked at on its merits. I'm confident we're doing everything we are empowered to do under law.”

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Comments(38)

driftingcowboy says...
10:19am Thu 19 Jan 12

Its an absolute scandal and what makes it worse is the 'officialdom' - the council, the police and social services are showing no urgency in working together to see if any existing legislation could be relevant or to bring in emergency legislation. This problem is going to get worse.

Could the owners turn off the power and utilities as a short term measure? The 'tenants' would surely then have to produce evidence to the utility companies as to who had given them a 'contract'!

Also, can't the council get involved and check who's paying the council tax and what other social services are these people receiving?

Let's get those 100000 signatures quickly but in the meantime lets lobby our wonderful council to do something useful about the situation.