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If you discover that squatters have occupied your property the first thing you need to do is establish if they are prepared to leave voluntarily. If they are not going to leave of their own accord you have four basic options to recover your property:

1. A process called “common law” eviction where there are no buildings on the land
2. Interim possession proceedings in the County Court
3. Trespassers possession proceedings in the county court
4. Possession proceedings in the High Court provided you can show certain criteria which demonstrate to the court the seriousness of the situation

If the common law applies the squatters can be removed without the need for an Order for Possession. This service is available via Sherbond Limited (see www.sherbond.net) and an instruction can be made via the website by clicking on How To Instruct Us. Their highly trained TEAM will plan the removal of squatters or trespassers using experienced officers, police back up where this can be given and the right tools to do the job!

In seeking an Interim Possession Order the squatters will be required within 24 hours of the service of the Interim Possession Order in the event that a District Judge makes such an Order by the county court bailiffs. If the squatters do not leave the property within that time they are committing a criminal offence and the police can be called to remove the squatters. The proceedings will be issued in the County Court and a hearing date will be set to decide whether such an Order is to be granted. There will be a further hearing to decide whether the Interim Order is to continue. This process is quick though the County Court process is not as quick as the High Court route.

We find that for a number of our clients the issue of proceedings in the High Court is the most appropriate course of action because these can be expedited and heard far more quickly than in the County Court. The Order for Possession can be obtained and a High Court Writ of Possession issued within 2 weeks of the issue of the Claim for Possession. The High Court Writ of Possession can then be enforced within 48 hours of its issue and possession of the property will be returned to the landowner. High Court Enforcement Officers will be used, and they will come to the problem of eviction with a level of expertise many lawyers have not seen before. They will carry out a full Risk Assessment, not to the point of paralysis (!) but to the point of getting the trespassers removed safely and with the support of the police. They will also turn up with the right kit such as climbing equipment for working at height, PPE short for Personal Protection Equipment which is needed when walking through you know what or handling “sharps”, and sledgehammers and locksmiths where entry has been locked or barricaded. Whatever the problem these guys have the right level of response.

So whilst you may feel this is a very difficult situation for you and your clients, help is closer at hand than you may realise. For more information on how to handle any trespasser/squatter or unauthorised traveller problem please contact Sherwins either by phone on 0845 890 9210 or by email at enquiries@sherwins.net and visit our website at www.sherwins.net. We can then help manage any legal questions as well as putting you in touch with colleagues in the enforcement arena who get to do the practical work of evicting whoever needs to be removed.

A couple of corrections and amplifications.  In case you are wondering, the firm I worked at before I set up on my own was the excellent Cozens Hardy LLP (although it was Cozens Hardy & Jewson in those days).  A very good firm and recommended for work I do not do ;).

I have not actually set up a special site for tenants, although there is a tenants section on my Landlord Law site.  I think the journalist must have meant my new Lodger Landlord site which caters for people renting a room to someone in their home.

It is true that I am looking to re-launch Landlord Law.  We are just at the start of a long development process, and the new site it not going to become live until June.  It is possible that the new site may have a totally separate tenants area, this is one of the things we are considering, along with some other new ideas.  To be kept up to date with developments you need to subscribe to my Landlord Law newsletter.

I hope that this site and the kit will prove useful to land and property owners who have problems with squatters.

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Like most solicitors I have had a fair amount of experience in dealing with squatters and understand the anguish that they can cause to landowners.

There is one self help route that is available to the owner of land (not buildings) which has been occupied by squatters. In most cases this happens where a travellers encampment appears on a field, car park, or other open space. The landowner has a common law remedy of self help which entitles him to use reasonable force to remove anybody from his land if they do not leave after being given reasonable notice. We have a firm of bailiffs in Bedford who were the pioneers in developing this into an appropriate cost effective response on behalf of landowners. They are called Constant & Co and a link to their website is to be found at www.constantand.co.uk.

Whilst not wishing to do you out of any potential kit sales (or me out of a job!), I have to say that I think the best advice that can be given to somebody whose land has been occupied by travellers is to ask Constant & Co to evict them using this process. Their experience really is second to none and they work nationwide on behalf of landowners and local authorities. In most of these cases the key is speed. Quick action will minimise the amount that the landowner has to spend in site clearance afterwards (which can be in many respects a very unpleasant, hazardous and costly exercise).

How the system works is that Constant & Co will give notice to the travellers requiring them to leave. What amounts to a “reasonable” period of time depends on all the circumstances. Often this means that they serve notice one day requiring the travellers to go by 9.00 am the next day. In some cases it doesn’t even have to be overnight. Notice can be given in the morning requiring the travellers to leave by the afternoon.

If, having received the notice, the travellers don’t go, Constant & Co will then evict them. There is no delay and they do it when the notice expires. In many cases this doesn’t actually happen because the travellers know the score and know that if they don’t leave voluntarily the eviction process will follow. It is likely that the Police will be called to supervise the eviction and travellers tend not to want to be exposed to Police or Social Services involvement. Neither are they keen for their vehicles or vans to be damaged by Constant’s tow trucks.

So what does it cost? That is something that anybody who is affected will obviously have to discuss direct with Constant & Co but there are a number of pricing structures which they operate including a fixed price scheme. I am not on a commission(!), but an average eviction costs about £1,000. In many respects it depends upon the number of vans involved and the number of men who have to be engaged to move them and they can always give a prior estimate of costs having been provided with the relevant information

I can’t recommend this service highly enough. In terms of achieving what the landowner wants, we, as solicitors (and indeed one of your kit purchasers), could never hope to achieve such a swift result using the court process.

The last time I dealt with this, I had a call from a client about 11.00 am one morning who had discovered travellers encamped in one of his fields. A quick call to Constant & Co meant that the notice was served that afternoon and the travellers disappeared overnight.

I stress that this self help remedy can only be used in the case of trespass to land. However, I expect that your kit makes it clear as well that where a squatter occupies premises, a County Court Possession Order can be enforced using the High Court Sheriff. It is a fairly simple procedure to transfer this Possession Order up to the High Court (the fee is £50.00) and the Writ of Possession can then be enforced straightaway. Constant & Co are also High Court Enforcement Officers and using their expertise in evicting travellers they also offer this as a very swift service to affected landowners.

I am sure that Bryan Lecoche at Constant & Co would be happy to speak to anybody who might be thinking about evicting squatters from land, and I am happy to recommend him.

Although my main specialism is landlord and tenant law (and my web-site Landlord Law), I have done a quite few squatter evictions in my time.  And I have always felt that the process is fairly straightforward, it is the time it takes to do everything which pushes the price up, in squatter eviction cases.

If you are reasonably organised, don’t mind spending a bit (well a lot, probably) of time on it, and are willing to give it a go, there is no reason why you should not get your Court order for possession, doing the work yourself, with this kit to help you.

Of course the site is really misnamed.  It says evicting squatters without a solicitor, whereas of course you will have access to a solicitor – me! I can help out from time to time with questions on the evicting squatters kit forum, and the kit comes with three support telephone calls.  Although you will probably find that the kit is largely self explanatory.  I have tried to make it as clear as I can.

This section of this Evicting Squatters site, I hope to use to post up any relevant news items I come across, plus hopefully also  your stories about how you evicted your squatters!  If you have any to share let me know.

But I am afraid I will not be giving out any legal advice.  So if you need help and advice on your situation, you will need to hop over to my Landlord Law web-site where I have a fixed fee advice service.  Although it is possible that I may be developing other advice services in due course, in which case I will let you know here.

If you decide you don’t want to do it yourself, and would really prefer to have a solicitor evict your squatters for you, try clicking the square icon ‘Are you looking for a solicitor’ on your right.  This will take you to our referral service, who will talk to you about your case and will refer you on to someone suitable.  Much more expensive than the Evicting Squatters kit, but perhaps less stressful!

Please read around the rest of the site, and I wish you all the best.