Argus attack on Squatters
Steve Bassam | 10.05.2009 22:58 | South Coast
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4357250.Wrecked_by_squatters/ 10:30pm Sunday 10th May 2009
Online networks are helping squatters to find and occupy empty properties in Brighton and Hove.
They are providing groups with guidelines for where to look for places, how to get in, what to do once they are there and telling them what legal rights they have. The situation has been revealed after squatters caused about £20,000 of damage to an empty house after breaking in within days of new buyers taking ownership.
When they were evicted, faeces were found in every room of the building in Eastern Road, Brighton.
Staircases and windows had been smashed and graffiti vilifying the owners was scrawled over the walls.
Owner Steve Thorley said the occupation had been well planned and executed and timed “as though they had been tipped off”.
Mr Thorley said: “I have subsequently heard through police officers and others that there are networks in this area helping to guide squatters to places. I’m extremely angry.”
Several websites have been set up in Brighton and Hove giving advice to squatters.
One, Brighton Freespace, has set out a plan to squat in any and all buildings vacated around the London Road area to try to block development proposals involving Tesco.
Brighton-based direct action website SchNews carries a guide to squatting which includes sections titled “finding a place” and “dealing with the boys in blue”.
The Brighton and Hove Service Search website directs anyone looking for advice on squatting to weekly Welfare Rights Advice sessions at the Cowley Club, a libertarian centre in London Road, Brighton.
Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner said: “It is not entirely surprising that something like this exists but it is not very laudable.”
Mr Thorley, 44, of Chailey, near Haywards Heath, bought the house trashed by squatters in March after it had been empty for two years. He and partner Janet Nunn planned to convert the three-storey Victorian property into flats to be let through Brighton and Hove City Council.
He said: “I grew up in Brighton and it makes me sad to see all these empty houses.
“We were trying to do something good here and have had it thrown in our faces. I’ve had to pay £2,000 in court fees to have them evicted and they’ve been able to do £20,000 damage while we had to wait for the order to come through.”
Ms Nunn said the group of ten squatters had been well organised, moving in within days of the couple taking ownership and sticking a sign on the front door setting out their legal squatters’ right.
They used knowledge of power company regulations to have the electricity turned on. Mr Thorley said he had an amicable conversation with the squatters when he discovered they had moved in. He offered them some of the cash he would be spending on legal fees to move on, but they refused the approach.
They promised not to damage the house. But when they were evicted on Friday he discovered they had not kept their word. They had strewn three skiploads of rubbish through the house, scrawled aggressive graffiti on walls and torn down banisters to use as barriers to block doors.
He found large pools of dried blood in one room.
Mr Thorley said: “It was vile in there. Disgusting.”
Maria Caulfield, Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet member for housing, said the city did not have a widespread problem with squatting and had good teams in place to help people who did squat to find legitimate homes.
She said: “I think most do it for idealistic reasons.”
A volunteer at the Cowley Club said it did not hold any formal meetings about squatting but said several members were knowledgeable in the area and willing to help others.
He said most of the squatters he knew of were ethical people who would not target private homes or want to commit damage. He said: “People want somewhere nice to live.
They’ve got nothing to gain from making it a mess.”
andy.chiles@theargus.co.uk
Steve Bassam
Comments
Hide the following 20 comments
question
11.05.2009 00:28
if the property is all locked up etc, how do the squatters gain access with being blatant breaking and entering. And if they do, how can they claim legal rights to stay?
I mean, whats the precident for this? If i go to the stops and find a squatter had broken into my flat and put a notice on the door, is there nothing i can do? Just sounds like the law is protect the offender and punishes the victim.
poloo
Answer
11.05.2009 01:29
Also, you'd be a Displaced Residential Occupier, which means you'd be within your legal rights to break back into your own home in order to evict the squatters, and the police would almost certainly help you if you asked. Squatters occupy empty otherwise empty buildings or land, not people's homes.
Sometimes there is criminal damage to get in to unused properties, but if the squatters are serious about wanting to live somewhere then it will be minimal and hopefully quickly repaid. Other times there are ways in without doing any physical damage. The right to a home has to trump the right to keep a building empty, although unfortunately it very rarely does it the courts.
Ex Squatter
how occupation works
11.05.2009 02:43
ex squatter
Poloo
11.05.2009 08:29
As ex-squatter above points out, no one squats occupied property. Apart from the fact it is legally impossible to squat an already occupied property, that it'd make no sense as you are just setting yourself up for a load of unnecessary hassle, it's just plain morally wrong. So, I have never heard of it happening.
Squatters normally make a point of checking out properties over a period of time before "breaking a squat". After a while you get a fairly good nose for what is occupied and not. It's really obvious: dirty windows with no curtains; piles of mail behind doors; no refuse being put out; generally poor state of (dis)repair... and the dead cert giveaway: "steel curtains" (i.e. Council metal shutters and doors).
Most of the places we squatted in my day in London were places owned by local borough councils. Most often these places were perfectly serviceable properties flats that the council had just sealed up either for budgetary reasons or because the areas were so shitty only the odd isolated/vulnerable refugees would be dumped in massive decaying blocks.
The properties would usually have been vandalised deliberately by people employed by the council to smash up all the bathroom fittings in a pathetic attempt to dissuade squatters. In reality- you don't have to be a genius to drag a toilet out a skip and plumb one in.
Often, we'd find that councils may start renovating the properties we were in and we'd be gradually or en masse moved on, and that the builders renovating the property for the Borough councils would tell us where nearby empty council property was.
There were just a few squats in private property around, but usually they were listed as being owned by absentee landlords abroad and obviously only buying property as a speculative investment with no intentions of letting anyone live there.
Oh, and I have no clue whether 'breaking a squat' constitutes burglary or b&e. I suspect it doesn't so long as the property in unoccupied. The worst that ever happened to any of us was to get our tools confiscated and threatened with made up charges of criminal damage or something equally as stupid (and the police wonder why people fucking hate them?)
When the Lavvy Breaks
the post mayday backlash
11.05.2009 09:20
the week before last we had
1. anarchists to bus in more anarchists for mass anarchist demo
2. anarchists publish map of places place to smash up and violently attack pedestrians
3 anarchists to invade city and cause chaos
in the week so far we have had
1. anarchists scared my children on bank holiday monday
2. anarchists threw missiles at ambulance men
3. anarchists danced on my roof and damaged my cafe signs
4. anarchists squatted my house and shat in every room
look out for further episodes in the next week
squatter
Squatter
11.05.2009 09:37
The Argus is obviously just another little parochial shitrag in the pocket of local business and politicians.
When the Lavvy Breaks
£20,000?
11.05.2009 11:23
As for Poloo you are just plain ignorant.
Why bother even posting this bollocks?
Mainstream media says nasty thing about people living alternative lifestyles! Where would we stop?
dodge
and another thing...
11.05.2009 13:42
squatticus
toadie?
11.05.2009 14:05
billy bob
squatticus
11.05.2009 18:44
Though we could invent the new class of 'defactive noun'?
When the Lavvy Breaks
worst in the country
11.05.2009 19:40
ScrewTheArgus
Ex-squatter sellout
11.05.2009 19:45
The encouraging thing is I don't see too many careerists progressing from today's squatteriat to the
house of lords. Could be something to do with not being wankers playing at being ever so wadical to shock their middle-class parents.
This whole story smacks of the campaign of media lies against squatters which was waged in the mid-70s. Every one of those stories was investigated and shown to be complete bollocks. Be good if some Brighton folk did a bit of digging on this one, tried to contact the squatters involved, and let the rest of us (not to mention Schnews) know the real facts.
It doesn't cost £2,000 to evict squatters. About £250 is nearer the mark. The rest is down to solicitors on the make.
Stroppyoldgit
Corrections
12.05.2009 00:19
The dried blood has been found, on close inspection, to come from the sacrifice of babies and puppies which regularly happens in anarchist squats. Hence the large pools in every room.
It is not necessary to do structural damage to incur 20,000 costs. It is simply necessary to have a brother in the insurance company which estimates the damage.
Now, please tell us: if squatters are allowed to go around taking over empty buildings, how are MPs to get away with claiming expenses for supposedly living in those same buildings? You are trying to bring down democracy!
Yours sincerely,
The Brighton Argus
Brighton Argus
don't confuse reality for politics
12.05.2009 08:04
Let's face it, in Brighton, many of the squats are fucking disgusting shitholes, and many of the people squatting are fucking scum bags, who take advantage of soft-as-shite lefty types and the mentality of activism to get a free ride, invading people's space, battering people, selling smack, crack and K, ripping people off, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
Activists and anarchists in brighton get your fucking shit together and let's put these scumfucks into retreat, how the fuck can you justify droning on about 'community' this, that and the other, when it is just a fucking load of wankers who drink/drug from morning to when they pass out pissing themselves. Wake the fuck up.
It is time to stop pretending that the UK squat scene in general isn't in the fucking gutter, drowning in rat piss, high strength lager/cider and ketamine. This scene in the Argus is regular as fuck, and it is no wonder that regualr people are pissed off about it. I'm sick of all the fucking shitbags in brighton, they need proper stabbing up and leaving for dead.
OG brighton squatter
parasiticcus
12.05.2009 17:28
i think this is due to the current weakness of the anarchist movement in UK in general, which has historic reasons, as well as being caused by more recent police repression against squatters in brighton and the property situation with many empty properties but few neglected for long periods - this will probably change, however, even in a property hotspot like Brighton as repossessions continue to rise and more properties are left empty for longer. The rise of companies like Camelot who 'protect by occupation' has also created fewer opportunities for squatters.
another brighotn squatter
It's not a scare if it's accurate
12.05.2009 17:29
"1. anarchists to bus in more anarchists for mass anarchist demo"
Which was true.
"2. anarchists publish map of places place to smash up and violently attack pedestrians"
Errr. The map was published on here. And Indymedia's been full of pictures from people boasting how they... erm... vandalised McDonald's and HSBC, both featured on the map. The Argus didn't say anything about pedestrians being attacked in that article. So the article turned out to be true
"3 anarchists to invade city and cause chaos"
Which depends on your definition of chaos. But they warned of clashes with police, streets being closed off and so on - and that's precisely what happened.
Norvello
Out of touch
12.05.2009 18:19
"It is time to stop pretending that the UK squat scene in general isn't in the fucking gutter, drowning in rat piss, high strength lager/cider and ketamine."
It was only ever the case if you had a very narrow, ghettoised and unaware view of the squat scene. Nowadays, those insignificant rat-piss ketamine fringes are much smaller and even less significant than they used to be. So the huge numbers of Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian people squatting in London over the last 7 or 8 years aren't part of "the squat scene", I suppose? Three years ago there was 40 or more of them for every K-head and you could be forgiven (though it would be an over-generalisation) for characterising that scene as focused on jobs and babies. No cider but amazing energy and improvisation to make derries into homes. Main problem = everyone at work so nobody to hold the house against council or thugs during the day. OK, the main "jobs & babies" scene may have now moved back to Poland or the Baltic states, but those still here include loads of well sorted, practical and up-for-it squatters and nice people who don't look like they're going anywhere and are making a great contribution.
You should look at the whole scene (including cities like Bristol), not one smelly little corner. If that's what you perceive the scene in Brighton to be, that's a shame, but there's a much bigger world of squatting and a lot going on at the moment.
Stroppyoldgit
for the old bastard and any others still in doubt
13.05.2009 15:34
'Negotiating' with the landlord, allowing his security on site, there was no resistance at all, leaving when the landlord asked, the whole media game played with 'spokespeople' speaking to the mainstream press(!), it was not even part of the perspective to question this for most of the people there. The comrades in Europe are laughing at the bullshit that is occurring in the UK, and with good reason, it is a pathetic joke, an illusion.
Even the cops know that these bristol squatters are nothing to worry about, why? because FUCK ALL is happening there with them, that's why, other than the same old routine. That's why they didn't give a fuck about that conference or the plethora of other miscreant centres which have about as much teeth as a rotten old sow.
As for economic migrants who only squat because they don't want to rent, yes very nice to idealise these salt-of-the-earth 'proper workers' foreign people, but it also means absolutely fuck all if they do not take part in the struggle, which most of them do not. So no, I don't see them in terms of 'our scene', even fascists can fucking squat, it means NOTHING to just squat and live your miserable existence living hand-to-mouth. Is it successful that lots of people are squatting? Not in my opinion, it is simply a condition of capitalism that should be destroyed along with everything else.
Unless these free spaces become real points of communication and rebellion there is nothing to see, other than bad food & drink out of a fucking bin, poor hygiene, rubbish everywhere and 'kids spaces' that I'd never take my kids to.
Sorry, you can try to make shit into gold but I'm certainly not going to, having had enough of this bullshit, and you making it out that I'm just 'not informed enough' or some shit takes the biscuit.
Fuck off and live in your fantasy land. I bet you live in a fucking housing co-op or are renting.
OG Brighton Squatter
the point of squatting
14.05.2009 15:48
Sadly many UK activist squatters I know have left for the 'scene' in Europe or further afield whilst European activists generally come over here to work and save up money rather than participate in radical activities. The fact that they are such an integral part of the UK anarchist scene merely says a lot for the state of homegrown activism. How many young 'activists' have bemoaned the state of activism here before heading off to Germany, Spain or Italy in search of 'real activism' instead of trying to sort things out here.
It is however unclear what the state's role is in this dynamic, re. the use of informers and undercover agents to keep the scene weak. This was exposed by the SHAC informer and also the agent provocateurs at G20 but this could just be the tip of the iceberg. That isn't to say we must be paranoid, which is what the system wants and ultimately self-defeating. There are already too many paranoid types in the scene and the difference between careful and paranoid is huge.
political squatter
OG's account...
15.05.2009 10:22
'One half of the people there fucked all day and night'
Did they now? when's the next one?
Arf arf!
tapphts