Flat Owners - Advice

Due to a recent spate of burglaries targeting apartment blocks, residents of such properties are strongly encouraged to fully lock communal doors. If available, Chubb style locks should also be used as this will greatly decrease the criminals chances of successful entry.

The method of burglary appears to be for the suspects to break the glass in the main communal door, then reach in from outside to open the Yale style locks which are generally not deadlocked themselves. These burglaries would be made far more difficult to complete if residents ensured that extra precautions were taken in locking their communal doors. Ensuring that the key to the building is not visible or within reaching distance inside the premises will also serve as an effective preventative measure. Obviously care must be taken to ensure fire escape.

Don’t allow your neglect of these issues to result in a burglary taking place.  If you are in a ground floor flat/apartment, a wireless alarm might be a sound investment as you can take it with you when you move and thee is little decor damage for the landlord to worry about.

Landlords are recommended to re-glaze where appropriate and install CCTV that could be linked to communal TV aerials.

Squatting to be made illegal

The Alarming Man has completely stand alone equipment that can prevent squatting by immediately reporting intruders and videoing their activity.  Call now 08456387585 for details

Reported in The Daily Telegraph

The Justice Secretary is to make squatting illegal for the first time in England and Wales in a bid to end the menace of the home occupiers.

And those who still force their way in to empty properties will face a prison sentence.

The new law will end the “nightmare” of home owners having to fight lengthy legal battles in the courts in order to evict squatters.

Instead the police will be able to force entry and arrest anyone who has occupied a property.

There are an estimated 100,000 incidents of squatting every year with victims including Guy Ritchie, the film director.

A senior Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph Mr Clarke has made changing the law a priority because he is sick of seeing cases of law-abiding people fighting to regain possession of their properties.

The source said: “Ken has had enough of seeing hard working home owners battle to squatters out.

“He is determined to use the full force of the law to save people from the nightmare of having to fight to get their houses back.

“The days of 'squatters’ rights' will be over.”

Squatting is not currently a criminal offence in England and Wales and instead it is up to the owners to use the civil courts to enforce their rights, which can turn in to lengthy and expensive legal battles.

They must also prove to the courts that they are either a ''displaced residential occupier'' – someone who has returned from holiday to find squatters in their house – or a ''protected intended occupier'', who is intending to move into an empty property.

In contrast, squatters are also protected by other laws, including the Criminal Law Act 1977, which prevents a home owner forcing their way back in because it makes it an offence to use violence to gain access when there is someone on the premises who is opposed to entry.

They can also take advantage of the controversial law on "adverse possession", which can allow someone who has occupied a building for 10 years to claim ownership of it.

One squatter group, known as The Really Free School, has occupied a series of properties in London, including a building in Bloomsbury Square belonging to an antiques expert and a £6 million house owned by Mr Ritchie. Then they took over an empty pub near Oxford Street before moving on to another near Leicester Square.

Earlier this year, businessman John Hamilton-Brown was reduced to begging through his own letterbox for squatters to leave his £1 million home.

In 2009 squatters moved into David Blunkett's former grace and favour mansion in central London while others took over a £33 million house close to Nigella Lawson's home in Eaton Square, central London.

Officials are now drawing up plans to such property invasions illegal with a likely maximum penalty of a custodial sentence.

Squatting is already a criminal offence in Scotland and someone guilty of it could be sentenced to 21 days in jail.

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor at The Daily Telegraph  6:30AM GMT 18 Mar 2011

Access Control

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