The HATED Subculture of "Squatters"
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Today we explore the dark and sometime misunderstood world of squatters. Its history and how laws have been created to protect them otherwise known as Squatter Rights.
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2:33 You know that are the Bosnia and Herzegovina borders almost 1:1 .
Really appreciate Your vids, mate. Bravo & thanx a lot!
Great stuff. Why do communists ruin everything they touch?
“But if I don't steal it, someone else is gonna steal it” - Israeli Settler
calling squatters a "sub-culture" is like calling socialism an "economic theory"
We have squatters' rights laws here in America also and we've also experienced issues with squatters breaking into residential areas and the owners of said housing having to spend time and money in the court system to get them out. Especially after the covid pandemic happened. It's 1 thing if the chronically homeless move into an obviously long abandoned commercial space but it's another thing to break into another persons home and refuse to leave.
Don't you yanks have an easy solution? It's called a gun.
I've never heard of squatters breaking into someones home and just taking it over. I was quite shocked when he said that tbh as, like I was saying, I've never ever heard that as a or within a definition of a Squatter. It sounds more like the plot of a film or something.
Agreed.
Thank you someone finally makes the distinction. Squatting in abandoned commercial buildings owned by corporate landlords who are just speculating on land prices is always better than those maniacs who are just breaking into people's houses when they're on vacation.
@@joannaedssay5988 actually it happens and quite a lot
edit: more nuance in the matter. Here in Spain there’s a famous architect who got his vacation home intruded but well if you don’t like the fact that it was a secondary residence then my particular case resonates with a lot of individuals. My family bought a house that had to be refurbished (my parents wanted an old school solid granite house with garden and all that), so we bought one with no signs of someone having lived there in a really long while, so once the project got greenlit and my parents put the compulsory sign where the type of construction is specified, 2 weeks later we find out that it was ripped out and the door locked. Almost 1 year it took to get those waste of human beings and now we have to pay the bank a penalty for not using the loan within a specific timeframe
Squatter in London in the late 90s here. We only ever squatted municipal council buildings which had either been condemned or redesignated. Never private homes. The way we could tell was simply the Cytex over the windows, but we always checked with Council to make sure. We had lawyers on our side, and an army of young, motivated idealists to organize with. We never robbed or looted anything, in fact we would fix up the apartments very nicely. The problem as we saw it was mismanagement of housing resources on a massive scale, and while tens of thousands went homeless the Council had hundreds of thousands of perfectly usable, empty flats. So we took them, and moved in as many people as we could. All you ever saw on the news though, was a never ending stream of negative stories about the few exceptions and the tiny minority of squatters who had taken private homes over... Go figure.
On the whole, the squatters I met were some of the most creative, helpful people I have known in my life, and as a landlord now, I am forever indebted to that beautiful subculture.
Solidarity
Nice to read your answer. I totally agree as a former sqatters myselff even thoo more in esp/ita. Both for living purposes as well for rave party organizations. Never entered a working building and i never left them worst then before my arrival.
As in any culture we had our assholes too obviously but i feel to like this as the more profuctive and creative years of my life and met a lot of wanderfull crafty people.
Jimmy is doing great research job and nice videos but i have to say his PC attitude is a big barrier in topics like this one... He never clearly knew old time street life
What you say is rather ironic, because while you blame others for painting squatters with a broad brush, you do the same, albeit in a positive way. 'we never robbed or lotted anything'. Well and good, do you speak on behalf of ALL squatters? Were the bad squatters really a 'tiny minority'?
@@MotherOfGodsoOP Yawn
@@MotherOfGodsoOP hate to break it to you but noone really wants to hear about good squatters so the bad squatters got more attention. If you think about it for more than 3 seconds you realize that most of them didnt trash the places just like you and me dont trash our homes.
I know a group of squatters that occupied a pub for a while and they actually worked to fix the place up
Yeah! Tell this idiot Jimmie the midget to do some charity work or simply go meet the real people who weren’t born as rich as him! Disgusting individual! Screw him!
Yeah nah, unlikely. Maybe looked that way on the surface but no-man does well paid work for free. Especially when it’s likely you won’t be there for the duration.
@@darkwetntight910 nonsense
@@darkwetntight910 then you live in a very selfish bubble mate
I'm squatting at a bar and working on the trash and landscaping (it's a closed business)
Squatter's Rights are still a thing in most US states, and it's still very much a thing over here. My opinion on it is, given the circumstances and whether it's an abandoned building or not, or if you were wrongly evicted from a house you're renting or not, or any number of other reasons, is it depends. It depends on if it's right or wrong. Breaking into someone's house while they're on vacation/holiday and taking it over, pushing squatter's rights? Hell no. You were paying your rent on time in full, but suddenly evicted? Hell yeah! Take the landlord to court while squatting in the house you paid rent on. With holding rent due to the landlord breaking lease and refusing to rectify the problem, go for it. Stop paying rent and push squatter's rights, then take the landlord to court. Fully legal in my state, I don't know about any other state. Get kicked out of your house, have nowhere to go, break into someone's house while their gone? No. Homeless looking for a safe and sheltered place, find an abandoned building, break in and live there? Go for it. No one else is using it, it's just taking up space and costing the city money... with no use.
"abandoned" structures might just be shit holes, you really can't tell unless it's literally falling down, in which case...
Australia also. if you can live in a house for like 5-7 years. you can legally own it
You were paying your rent on time in full, but suddenly evicted? Hell yeah! ? wtf is wrong with you. I hope someone steals your car. "pays you a few times then takes it"
it bl00dly isn't yours simples.
gtfo. what if I buy the house from the people you rent from? wtf. it is now mine. what if they don't want you there anymore. just get out. I understand if they are pushing you out just to jack up rents. but hey this is why you do an agreement ;)
also I would get the "squatters out" if you are there illegally in the eyes of the law and courts you "were never there" ;) I would never say you were squatting. I would say I caught you breaking in. lol
Shut up Zack. Stop writing paragraphs.
Honestly I don't think there's anything wrong with squatters rights with abandoned properties. There's tons of abandoned structures within the USA that will never see their owners again and will most likely get leveled
Japan has a system in which you can legally take hold of an abandoned property, granted you pay taxes, inhabit, and maintain the property
I was a squatter in Borough, Sarf London, before it became 'posh'
There were dozens of us, mostly European folk in their 20's and lil ole 17yo me. We squatted empty council flats, paid our utility bills, worked and looked after 'our' homes. I even went to The Law Courts, armed with information and knowledge of our rights from Snow, the squatters group in Old Kent Rd. And 18yo, won my case. I would never have squatted someone's lived in home though. Great time of my misspent youth
Precisely, mate.
Cos you are a normal person.
This is common around the world: land is made to be used, not hoarded.
A squatter can only (usually) get private land if the lawful owner doesn’t take care of it for YEARS, doesn't protect it, doesn’t use it for anything and the squatter in question doesn’t have any other land prior to this.
I hope you learned your lesson.
@@CoasterMan13Official ??? what lesson, he won his case
@@billnyethespy3641 The lesson is "finders keepers" lol
@@SinlessJesus Sorry, I genuinely did not understand what you meant. Would you mind clarifying?
It's ok if you'd mind.
You can still claim land through adverse possession! Some land is unregistered, and previous owners have died with no family...find this land, look after it as if it was your own for 10 years documenting your upkeep over that decade, then apply for adverse possession - it gives the current owner 2 years to come forward and if they don't the land legally becomes yours!
Be a shame if you wasted 10 years on something you thought was permanent
Good luck!
Except, I think adverse possession is mainly for vacant land in remote areas.
@@jackesioto Not necessarily! Many disputes have happened over land ownerships in built up areas. If someone erects a fence beyond their boundary and maintains this stretch without owners permission they can apply for adverse possession - not saying to do it, but it has been done!
Yeah adverse possession is squatting, and I can’t believe this guy said “this is the country I live in” in an upset way as a response to this being allowed, like what’s wrong with someone being able to own somewhere if they’ve lived for 10 years and looked after it well after the place was already abandoned for years without anyone ever trying to remove them
If it takes you over 10 years to discover there are squatters, that is kind of on you.
Some live in the walls, got to be careful, you don't get rid of them, a colony can pop up
In my country of you squat a property for 10 yrs and nobody challenges you, and you can prove you have been there 10 yrs It Is now legally yours. It Is called "uso capione"
@@badrott8028 What state? alot of states have similar laws.
@@badrott8028 if you leave a house for a decade and someone lives there without you bothering to check for that long, you obviously don't care about it
@@arfumobiscali5571 thats a bullshit law for me
it blows my mind that someone can legally steal your home
They can't really. Someone can claim a property they have been in *unchallenged* for 12 years. No one's just taking someone's home.
@@brendanoprey762 oh much better
@@brollyhessianovskov-ph1jc I agree
They have to prove that they have been living there, this is usually done by paying bills for the property in their name. It is incredibly rare that an owner will not visit a property, realise someone is living there and evict them within twelve years. Quite often in the cases where it happens, the owner has died and no beneficiary has been notified, assuming there was one. Believe it or not, some owner are actually quite happy having squatters using a property, as the building is less likely to be destroyed by bored kids and become damp and rat infested.
it blows my mind you can legally buy up more houses then you need when their aren't enough houses for all the people, but then again I wasn't raised as a spoiled brat
I feel that if a house sits vacant for give or take a decade and a squatter comes along finds it, lives there not bothering anyone then i see no issue
Yes, the most reasonable answer is somewhere in the middle between squatter-ism and landlord-ism.
@quetzalpacheco precisely, they stole an apartment, made noise 24/7, made trash everywhere, destroyed the front door, the laws are too lenient.
I agree, there's currently a housing crisis.
If you own multiple homes and some of them are just sitting there vacant, you're not renting them, you're not using them, I have no problem with someone moving in and claiming it.
A person who multiple homes has social responsibility to do something with them. If you don't fulfill that obligation, i.e. contribute to the housing crisis, that's on them.
@@zackaryfrazier4036housing crisis is caused by nimbys blocking new development which would lower property values through increased supply, not absentee landowners
i agree
The recent "police bill" has changed trespass from a civil infraction to a criminal offence. The wording defining trespass is very broad, it can even include parking on the public highway.
I think a very general definition would be "being or doing something somewhere where you shouldn't be"
@@quetzalcoa where shouldnt i be tho
@@KysEcstacy if you even have to ask that question, then something's wrong with you.
@@KysEcstacy private property
Squatting makes sense, although I am a bit hesitant of it being used on someone’s first, and only, home. It makes sense for the squatter to gain control over abandoned buildings , apartments, and some rich guys 50th home, but it is ridiculous for it to apply to someone else’s primary residence(s).
how does it make sense to gain control of a rich guys 50th home?
he worked for it, he paid for it, its his. Why can someone else just move in and take it?
@@joshpollnitz1618 It depends, unless you are talking about an artist of some sort 9/10 people owning more than $500 million made their money through either inheritance or wage theft/underpaying employees. Even if this wasn’t the case, it makes no sense for someone to own more houses than they need or use when there are people who are not properly housed. Which means, imo, that housing should be a public resource given to the people who need it, at least to some extent, and not something bought by the highest paying bidder so they can resell it in 5 or so years for a profit.
@@E.C.GoMusicandMore kind of, but in that case you should put a restriction on how many houses one man can buy, so still if its a rich guys 50th home its not okay
@@joshpollnitz1618 Why should a person even be allowed to own that many homes when there is a housing crisis and so many homeless. Houses are a right, they are places to sleep, live, and rest, they SHOULD NOT be a speculation scheme for rich guys, and if we let it be this country will collapse
@@undefined69 no, you communist, no limits on ownership of anything. Itll just make the problem worse. Simple solution is edit the law so that a home has to be vacant and unkept for a year, and the squatter has to live in the home for a year before it can be legally taken
We have something kind of similar in Germany, the Hausbesetzung, but as far as my knowledge goes (which is VERY limited), it has been very much a political statement from the beginning, and while the "besetzte Häuser" (the houses occupied by the squatters) always looked (and often still look) uninviting and run down, the equivalent of the antisocial squatter mentioned in your video would probably rather be people who legally rent an appartement and then just never pay the rent, completely ruin the appartement and then move out just before they get evicted (which does take a lot of time apparently as there's all kinds of laws involved) and do the same thing somewhere else.
But with the "good" kind, the ones that only occupy stuff that is empty anyways, or abandoned office space or whatnot, I'd say I largely agree with what they do. Rent prices have absolutely exploded over the last decades, and still it seems to be more profitable to leave entire buildings to rot rather than rent them out for a low price. Or just own them as "an investment" (and I think those kind of people have the money and the connections to get you out of their property REALLY quickly, or just keep you from getting in in the first place, otherwise billionaires row in New York would be a good place to squat and that I would VERY MUCH agree to 😅).
As i mentioned in my other comment, i also made the experience that squatters (the leftist ones) build ruined placed they squatted back up into very nice places. In Hannover i saw an old school where some people had build a whole luxury bathroom and all in all apoartments that some people would pay 2/3 of their loan for. A lot of them where carpenters or just knew practical stuff. Also in Dürrohrsdorf-Dittersbach (where they bought a farm for 1 Euro after the fall of the USSR) and in Dresden and leipzig several times. Sometimes they indeed become a haven for all kinds of kaputt people, though, or the squatters dont really manage to run the place. i was part of one such project, if you could call it that. Just a group of homeless punks, half of them with psychological problems and drug addictions. we more or less just vegetated and partied there for 2/3 Weeks until the police came. Was still fun sometimes, though :D
Interesting! in Brazil we have two big organizations the MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto, Homeless Worker Moviment), more focused in cities, and MST (Movimento dos Sem Terra, Landless Movement), focused in rural areas.
The MTST focus on abandoned public buildings and prospection areas (buildings or terrains) inside the cities, were housing could be made were public transport and infra structure are available (Sao Paulo alone have more than 70 abandoned buildings). MTST already won an auction for constructing popular housing in Sao Paulo and made it cheaper and more efficient than other companies, using the people workforce to contruct (with legal working contracts and market standard salary).
The MST invade private non forest reserves (federal parks, indigenous areas, ambiental reserves like water sources and river coast) to get ownership of the area for dozens of families. We're talking about hundred of acres with no native flora used as investment. And MST linked organizations are the biggest food producers of the country (producing in familiar agricultural schema).
What is PROFIT for some is the LIFE of thousands. People over money is the only way to go!
@@RafaGmod wouw. That sounds well organized
In West London there used to be a big squat (Grow Heathrow). It was a big field with some small old buildings.
They made a stage in one and performers would come some days. And they even built sustainable houses, garden, there was 0p clothing store. (Basically you need shoes? Your size? Take them.)
But they leveled it with a ground to expand Heathrow Airport
@@tatiana4050 as it always (or mostly) goes if they dont buy the house, eventually : / Sounds nice.
I once had a dream about squatters in Leicester.
They weren't what you'd expect, they used an abandoned shopping centre as an E-Sports training ground. It looked like a post apocalyptic arcade.
That is so quirky.
Where in leicester was this? I just moved to Leicester and that sounds hilarious
@@lq3552 Highcross Shopping centre
that sounds cool
Nice!
I am a current active squatter living in a commercial building in England and have been squatting since I discovered it was legal to do so in 2016, and i dont think i would look back. There are apparently more than 1.000.000 empty buildings in the UK so I know I can find long term empty buildings that arent going to be regenerated and feel okay about claimimg it as mine/our own.
all of the residential houses that i've seen squatted were house left derelict and unoccupied by the owner as a means of speculation or desinterest. The image of squatters occupying a house someone lives in I think is a very rare and unusual thing.
And I think owning houses for profit in a world where people live and die on the streets is reprehensible and should be illegal.
This.
pathetic opinion
See in America it's real simple, we just use guns, problem solved
I was a Squatter in Lower East Side, NYC for 17.5 years. I left NYC in 1998, as laws changed against us. The mid 90's is when NYC shifted toward the gentrifyand hyper expensive NYC that we sadly have today. So cops evicted, killed and arrested many of us, and turned the laws against squatters. We had some intense stand offs with the authorities. However, sadly NYC only belongs to the rich nowadays.
The 80's & early 90's were amazing in NYC. The squatter community definitely shaped me in so many positive ways.
BTW, all the buildings that we squatted have been absolutely abandoned for many years, mostly for decades. So we would collaborate to turn them into fully functional residential homes for the homeless. The neighbors loved us, as we actually made the neighborhood safer and gave many families stable homes and a community. Many of us were in fields, such as construction, electrical, plumbing and such. Others would learn these skills as we all worked together to make these blighted buildings liveable. We also had benefit shows to get funds for supplies.. Those were the best days for me.
Reminds me of the documentary ‘dark days’, I think. About mole people living in Amtrak tunnels. Pretty interesting insight into a kind of humanity.
I was a squatter for about 6 months from 17-18 years old in the UK around 2013-14…. The best of times and the worst of times, but would do it all again.
We weren’t too extreme either with radical ideology, just a bunch of good souls trying to survive. I was just kicked out of home and could very easily have ended up meeting the wrong people.
So, forever thankful to the tribe that saved me and made me who I am today
@Confessions Of A Movie Freakin disused/abandoned buildings yes
You don't need to think radically. Behaving radically is good enough :)
@@Catthepunk cringe
@@electroskates2434 feel the cringe coming inside u?
I'm a law student from Canada, which has the same legal origins for "squatter's rights" though seemingly different laws. This comes up a lot. Merely breaking in to mess with people's stuff is clearly a cruel and unacceptable thing to do, but it is also unethical to impoverish poor people with insane house prices caused by investment properties, so a lot of radical young lawyers are using these historic laws and the overburdened housing tribunal (there is a special tribunal) to try and protect struggling renters. There is also an increasing public sentiment against investment properties (and a few weaksauce laws with the same intent), which I think is the real answer. I hope there will be much stronger laws against investment property (for example 10% tax on total asset value for residential buildings which are not registered as primary residences). That will free up housing for people while making sure that no one loses their home/cherished possesions to vandals.
You could also teach people to stop being, en masse, warts on society and actually learn to be industrious... But no, it's never the poors fault.
Filthy socialist thinking it's society's problem to care for life's failures.
Every rented out house is an “investment” property. If you tax landlords 10% and allow squatters not to pay rent than actual hard-working people that pay rent will end up eating the costs and everyone in the end will pay more for rent. The government in Canada intentionally made housing brutally expensive by restricting land use with their insane policies and controls while bringing in more people than they can build for.
I understand the situation but you shouldn't coddle people who will abuse the law,impoverished or not taking owned property Is immoral.
@Casper's Studio thats fair we can agree on that
Such an interesting subject, well done for digging to the roots of the rights! Would love to see a vid about some of the big euro squats
Haha keep dreaming
Leaving flats and apartments empty to drive up rents is just as foul or worse. I can't speak to other cities but at the height of the rental crisis: 2010, San Francisco had 1/3 of the rental space open ( postal records and land deeds compared).
I was raised in squats throughout the 90s and from my experience the communities that sprang up from this practice were on the whole very respectful and open. Providing a safe refuge from the streets. While I'm sure there were those who abused the system (as there always are) the vast majority of buildings were severely dilapidated and unused.
Not to mention that squatting communities provided services and support to the local area such as the beloved 491 gallery in Leytonstone. Which to this day is sorely missed.
The severe smear campaign against squatters rights that occured in the mid 2000's was simply a precursor to the atrocious austerity we suffer with to this day
Thank you so much for telling us about your experience!
It has to be based on the individual cases as was said, there's different types of squatters with very different outlooks.
Even if i am not an anarchist anymore, i am still pissed when someone uses the term so incorrectly like the conservative politician, and it stays there uncommented. Liked the ending, though.
@@quotenpunk279 - You're not an anarchist anymore? So what are you now, if you don't mind me asking?
@@oddcharacter6891 i dont mind :) i am somehow on the fence, to be honest, because i am a bit critical of basicially every leftist movement. Something between a democratic socialist, a folk punk listening fed up leftist, and a person that just has to much to do with sorting his own messed up life to be politicially active 24/7 (Jordan peterson would be proud). Anarchism still has a place in my hearth and our band played a lot to support squats in the last years. I just recognized that the answers of anarchists to some political situations are just too simple (everyone has to make anarchy and then all will be fine). Situations like the War in Syria or the middle east conflict. Or the working class of a lot of countries, which first has too stop picking on workless people and refugees all the time before you can even think about making a revolution with them. I think that councils or democracy is a good or even the best system for such large units like countries with millions of people. If you remove the capitalism that is destroying so much of it. Thanks for caring.
11:33 in fact, Anarchists (anti-authoritarian activists) where one of the most organized, careful and civilized squatters i ever experienced, next to other leftist people. They educated themselves about legal stuff beforehand for years, and sometimes built broken down places back up with their many skills. Political events and lectures took place, Homeless people or kids with abusive parents had a friendly place to stay, and new bands had a cheap place to play. I also was myself part of the other kind of squatters an eternity ago and don't deny the existence of that problem, but that's another story (we did not squat peoples houses though, just an empty barrack of a university).
As a communist I can say I'm proud of my anarchist comrades doing such good work that you described.
Squatters rights cause many squatter fights
So you better think twice before you go squatting without legal advice
@@PutsOnSneakers damn. Y'all got bars lmao
Don’t forget to bring squatting tights
This man would even call pick pocketers, burglars, and hitmen a subculture
Well, by definition, the groups you mention ARE subcultures, so....
yeh they are subcultures small ones. they have guilds and everything.
But those are exactly what subcultures are
You're not any better than a criminal
They kinda are
Someone did this to our house in the Philippines and then burned all of our stuff in there, elementary school notebooks, my parents wedding clothes, all our books and old toys, the works.
Took us 3 years worth of litigation to get it back. But since it was a drug dealer who did it, the house was pretty shit when we got it.
We never got a cent from them. And one time the squatter guy even tried to get me beat up when I visited friends there.
That being said, Philippine squatting is an entirely different ball game, with "pros" squatting on land and then renting it out. Or if they get relocated by the government they will rent out that new place and squat back on the original place if they still can or find a new place to do it in.
One ironic countermeasure that has been employed against them to drive them out though, is sometimes there will be fake renters who will look for a place within the squatter community, and then will start a fire in their house that will spread throughout the entire area.
Most people say that the fires are caused by poor wiring or a stove which isn't the most unbelievable thing since those are common.
yall got squatting landlords there?????????
the fire thing sounds less like a countermeasure and more like an excuse to hurt others and do arson
In the immortal words of Paul Bearer, “Squatters rights? I’ll give you a right, I’ll give you a left, and I’ll give you a kick to the fuckin head”
can't find that clip. In what context would Paul Bearer even say that?
@@klsecond5755 not the wrestler lol the lead singer of Sheer Terror
@@Aenima308 damn only know the wrestling manager, funny.
im not from the uk, but squatting is an important social movement in every city plagued by tourism, airbnbs and gentrification. It should be supported in every unoccupied building that has been so for 10+ years, private owned or not, there also should be laws that made the maintenance of the space mandatory. back in the day we used to squat this beautiful 5story house in lisbon, we took care of the place and built a home, the landlord came with paperwork to sell the building, saw how we kept the place, restored walls and ceilings and had the empathy to relocated us to another building a bit further without police involved or courts. but yeah not all landlords have souls and not all squatters are civilized.
for me this is would be the logical ideal agreement between landlords state and squatters to maintain a balance and people from the cities in the cities.
🎉 squatters should squat !
Had a squatter next door to me, they used to own my house, knocked through into the loft, bricked up and lived next door after a old lady passed away.
They moved the electric and gas meters inside
So utility companies couldn't disconnect them, they had kids so police couldn't break in and arrest them, all the while having parties daily till 5am, using powertools etc.
They lifted the side panel up of the fences to let their german shepard attack my 19 week old puppy.
Reported to child services as babies screaming for hours on end whilst they partied, police constantly turning up but unable to do anything.
So me getting arrested after 2 years of hell was well worth it. Had to deal with it myself after snapping mentally and the law prosecte me, they had the children taken into care but theyre still there to this day and we had to sell up and move taking a huge hit on value of the house.
I have my views on squatters ..
I've been looking for this tutorial! Thanks a lot!
I'm fine with vacant housing getting illegally occupied, especially if it's owned by oligarchs who have never even set foot in the country. London in particular is full of empty properties used for money laundering.
The only thing a homeowner should need to clear squatters from a property is a gun. Screw months, get them out in minutes.
Squatters should be able to removed physically.
Your going to break and enter? You get broken and exited
I remember when squatting was cool among certain sub sect of people I knew (mostly upper middle class kids, slumming it TBH) I could never understand why they'd want to squat TBH, but as I got older it all came into view. Basically I was forced to squat because I had nowhere to live and this put me into contact with people that squatted by choice. I lived in a big house with subsidence with some of them at one point that we called "the slanty shanti" was some good times TBF though.
Parasite
Given how much money goes to rent or mortgage, I'm not that surprised ppl of some means would try it out too.
Thank you for telling your story!!
I agree with improving the response to squatting but making it illegal has just allowed more people to own property thats unoccupied and increased the commodification of housing.
Perhaps if we had squatters rights still there wouldn't be as many unoccupied properties in the uk and housing may actually be slightly affordable, or increases the insentive to rent it out at a lower price as leaving it empty could lead to squatters
I don't know if residental properties should necessarily be off limits. In my city (and I imagine a lot of others too) there more vacant properties than people looking for homes, by a lot. The price of housing is also out of control, despite this oversupply. This says to me that there is not enough incentive for a home to be occupied, and more of an incentive needs to exist. Denmark have some program for redistributing vacant homes to people who need housing, which has apparently done well at helping the aforementioned issues.
Forsure lets move in to your house ill pack tonight
I think one easy solution is just to have a really high tax on empty units, incentivizing a quicker sale instead of the owner holding out for more profit. That still only helps rental prices though, I think we should change property taxes a bit so anything beyond a primary residence has higher taxes. Depending on how crazy you want to go you can say it’s 300% on a second home - you can still have a second home if you want but you’re going to have to pay a lot to be able to do that while most people can’t afford a first home
@@joshgribbon8510 Yeah that makes so much sense. In Australia, they do the opposite and give tax deductions on losses accrued by empty units.
@Josh Gribbon you can reslly tell rhe people whom never taken an economics class before here lol. All that would do is raise rent dramatically. Why do you want su
@Josh Gribbon you can reslly tell rhe people whom never taken an economics class before here lol. All that would do is raise rent dramatically. Why do you want su
Honestly squatting is based so long as it isn't someones home they actually live in. if its some Landlords buy-to-let I have no sympathy.
Here in Spain there are two different things. If the property is a home( that is it is paying water and electricity bills, to show that someone sometimes visits it) it is not squatting( okupa in spanish) it is stealing and police can come. But if it is not a home( as with most empty homes in the country, they are owned by banks after the 2002 crisis) then you are free to go in them and if you live for enought time in them it is yours.
Most squats here actually becomw CSO, the spanish acronym for squat social centre, a place where punk bands do concerts, unions can have private gatherings and free libraries.
Some others are pure residential complexes where they make their own neighbors assembly to decide how to do things.
This though doesn't stop alarm companies from making up that squatters are going to squat your home while you are at the grocery shop, but liars will lie.
This is a skewed look on squatting. Squatting is about taking ownership of EMPTY buildings, not people’s homes.
I spent portions of my life living in squats and each and every one was in an abandoned warehouses, pubs, and I’ve even been to a squat that was in an abandoned court house. Notice the key word here ABANDONED.
The majority of squatters built homes that were nice homes in buildings that otherwise wouldn’t have been used. Making use of space for positivity. The removal of squatters rights took away some of the most amazing squats built in empty warehouses and removed thousands of people from their homes they built themselves practically overnight.
Seems you yourself are the one with a skewed outlook, since you admitted you were one.
And who deems what's abandoned or not?
There have been multiple instances of squatters shacking up in rentals here in America. Takes years, money, and the law getting involved to remove them. So make sure you’re condemning that sweetheart.
its always the retarded few that destoy it for the many. if all acted like that, the law would not be nessesary
@@SloppypapiBeefboi "multiple instances" where it took years and money ... in the US 20 homeless people die every day, many of them due to the weather and here you are acting like the problem is the people looking for shelter ... imagine being this entitled
@@rolfdaswalross No one is entitled to free shelter.
As an American, this is very interesting to hear. It's interesting to hear about the history surrounding the issue. Very well presented.
So being a former colony, we also have common law basis of squatters rights, though we never had the plague of anarchists, communists, and other counter cultures using it to game the system. I mean, here trespassing can be a criminal issue. If you are in a home, and I show up, find you, and call the police, they can drag you out by force. The exception is if you rent from someone. If you're a tenant, you have a lot of rights here. You'll hear young kids talk about how bad their landlords are, but ask any landlord about issues with tenants and your lively to get a story or two. We personally used to go to bank owned homes, hired by the bank to check on them and maintain, and have found one two cases of squatters. So a woman broke in and dewinterized the home, and then rented it to the individual. This individual actually has rights as I understand it, since the intent wasn't there. The police also were almost ready to side with the false tenant, despite their lease being forged by someone who did not have legal ownership of the property. This doesn't happen too often though.
the colonizers weren't squatters tho, they literally kicked indigenous people our of their homes and murdered them :/
If you tried to squat in my country, the owner would just murder you instead of trying to evict you
based country
@NormalPersonCommenting before hearing of squatters rights I never even thought how it is possible to even enter strangers buildings
you can also take the matter of the right surrounding that on the point of view that tons of buildings are empty, used onces every few months, and people are dying on the streets, maybe if a squatter can spend 10 years in someone else home un noticed, the owner don't really need it... looking at the human side of things
You should be able to remove a squatter by any means.
Guess this is the effect of non affordable homes, as more properties become inversions rather than homes, more people resort to this kind of behaviour
If you don't pay the bills you aren't a tenant.
Should be able to kick them out.
Squatting also come from the WW2, where the italian Partisans squated for technical Reasons. In Switzerland and I think in other Countries, Squats are mostly leftist and they really want to help people. In Germeny for example there where a few Drug Free Squats and soemtimes self organised women shelters.
Sometimes the Police also tries to ruin Squats. As example in Zürich at the 70s/80s they raid a well known Drug Abuse Place called "Platzspitz", and so the Drug addicts went to the squats where they took their Drugs. The Squater then, even build a Help Room where the squaters helped the drug addicts and the womens because of prostitution and money. But then the People become trouble and so they decided to end it. Yes this is a real Story, the Police even tell this.
Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff had an episode about the dutch squatters in the 70's and 80's. Squatting is nuanced for me.
It’s never okay to take someone else’s property without permission.
I personally disagree but I can see where you come from
The squatting scene in the Netherlands was huge in the 80's and very well organized. There was a high number of unoccupied properties left empty by landlords, while there was also a housing crisis. Squatters with left-libertarian ideas (like anarchists, autonomists, situationists etc.), would move in, fix up the place and make them into cultural centers, soup kitchens, swap-stores etc. or just use it to house people and organize protests. It also caused a lot of fights between squatters and police, as the police would try to evict them and the squatters called on their friends in the movement to defend the property, with even some large-scale riots with the police sending in tanks to clear the streets of protesters. Some legalized squats still exist as music venues or other types of cultural centers.
Personally I'm very much against squatting in places you're not sure are unoccupied, but if a landlord has left a property empty for years, I have no issue whatsoever with some squatters challenging the rights of the landlord (although usually the squatters will lose nowadays because the right-wing governement criminalized it). houses are for people, not profit.
Australia has a huge housing crisis atm. There are not enough houses for the people who live here. One of Australia's main sources of income, after mining, is allowing skilled immigrants and students into the country. These individuals are seen by the government as a great source of revenue, as they usually bring money into the country. At the same time it forces the cost of housing up in an already saturated/bubbling market. So the cost of buying a house has become unrealistic for many Australians. In fact just renting a house is becoming increasingly hard to afford. There are many landlords who own multiple houses and are waiting for property values to go even higher so they can sell these houses. When this happens it means the people who were renting the house are evicted and must then find another place to rent in an ever-increasing rental market. Homeless shelters are already way over capacity and waiting times for a government owned property are around 7+ years depending on the individuals situation. A law is being brought in where people can own only 2 residence's maximum. A primary one and a secondary investment house. Time will tell how this plays out, but as it stands there simply isnt enough affordable housing for the population and homelessness and squatting is rising fast. My personal opinion is that it is up to the government to ensure there is enough housing for people. But this isnt happening, and so homelessness etc will continue to grow and the gap, and also the rift between those who have and those who do not will simply continue to grow.
Couldn't have put it better. Thank you for the insight on the laws.
With the housing prices on the rise you have intrested me.
I feel like there’s a big difference between squatting in a residence that someone else lives in and squatting in a building that’s been unused for years especially if the squatter is taking care of the place
we had trouble with squatters during the demolition of our future house, having to wait now until june bc due to having to deal with the hurdle of kicking them out, the construction company picked up another contract. Also most squatters in my city are the unhygienic party goers and destroy the city's patrimony for their enjoyment
We have squatters and squatters rights in our country, but in our case a squatter can build his house on seemingly vacant land and if he can prove 3 generations of occupation, then the land becomes his inheritance. We have a lot of genuine poverty in our country and there are very few unoccupied buildings in most areas - which u think would make for a better home for most of these people.
Something that struck me during your video is instead of just being for or against this, why doesn't the government facilitate the use of unused property for homeless people? Like a welfare organisation. Basically if a property is left vacant for x amount of time, it becomes forfeited for public housing and then a government agency steps in and assigns homeless people (who would apply for a home through a simple process) a home in said abandoned structure. Seems like a win win to me, with of course the exception of people extorting their position of power or the truely homeless not being able to navigate whatever legal steps are put in place to facilitate it 😅
Similar concept in the US called adverse possession. Based on the theory that if the record owner fails to bring action against the person actually possessing and making use of the property, then that bars them from asserting a claim after a certain amount of years. It encourages property owners to make use of the land. I mean if you let someone act like they own your land for 10+ years and not do shit, that's sorta on you
Adverse possession is the process by which the squatter becomes the owner I think
If you paid taxes on something whether you use it or not the government has no right to give it away. You paid their shakedown "protection money" fees(taxes) how in any way does it make sense to not enforce property ownership? I
If its an abandoned building then I say that is fair game for any squatters. However if its a place that someone owns or rents then squatters shouldn't be surprised if they have a knife or a gun put in their face and forced to leave.
I think It's unfair of you to stereotype squatters as drug-addicted hippies, many of them are simply ordinary people who can't afford the sky-high rent prices in the UK. With over 300,000 long-term empty homes in the country, it's ridiculous that we're facing a housing crisis, with people sleeping on park benches while buildings remain unoccupied.
By focusing solely on the victims of this crisis, we risk ignoring the real perpetrators of this issue. It's important to remember that the root cause of this problem lies with the landlords who are leaving these homes empty, often for financial motives! It's time for the government to take action and hold these landlords accountable for their inaction.
Instead of allowing landlords to sit on empty properties, we should be incentivizing them to put these homes back into use. This could be done through a combination of measures, such as offering tax breaks for those who refurbish vacant properties or imposing higher taxes on landlords who leave homes unoccupied.
We also need to invest in more affordable housing options for people who are struggling to make ends meet. By prioritizing the needs of those who need it most, rather than increasing the wealth of the already incredibly wealthy in this country, we can ensure that everyone has a safe and comfortable place to call home.
Always wondered about the philosophical inquires of land ownership. Seeing that we cannot actually own land, but instead claim and enforce our autonomy upon it.
No, you can legally own land.
There are real moral questions about portfolio landlords who hold properties uninhabited for years just to drive up the price of rent for the properties they and other landlords hold in the area through limiting the supply along with the oligarchs who own huge numbers of uninhabited properties as a store of wealth not giving up their properties. Certainly, we live under a government that fails to keep an adequate stock of social housing, leading to the disigruntled working people to begin complaining about refugees living in hotels. We need a society which looks after people who need it most, whether they are hard working grafters, drug addicts who need help getting off their poisons, or those fleeing the middle east due to war they did not start.
"officer I came to my house and was violently assaulted by someone robbing me. He'd corroborate my story but he can't considering he has 5 buckshot holes in his chest"
Hell yeah, fuck them thieves!
Yeah and then Jew lawyers reach out to the family to encourage them to sue you for civil damages.
Ban Renting, Ban Second Home Ownership.
Literally just build more houses and infrastructures to support those houses; expand smaller cities, etc. If supply for housing actually meet demand, house price wouldnt be as crazy and everyone would have a place to live with the infrastructures to support it (emphasis on the supporting infrastructures). And we would even have squatters in the first place.
Thought it had been a while since you uploaded so I checked and TH-cam just hasn't recommended your last 2 videos watching them now btw the videos have been amazing lately keep up the hard work
Squatters rights are a thing here in Australia too. Most squatters are poor or homeless and most homes they squat in are the holiday homes or 4th investment properties or empty rentals. Good property that’s left to waste away with no one living in it. It’s honestly really good for homeless people to be able to live in empty homes, and they only get rights if they’ve lived there a certain amount of time and usually if they’re paying to maintain the property
In Berlin, where I live, squatters are part of the city's history and modern culture. Here they occupy exclusively buildings where the tenants where already thrown out to for example give the house a makeover so it can be rented out at absurd rates. And those people who where thrown out where then in need of a new home. So squatters ("Hausbesetzer" freely translated to "building occupier") occupied these already empty buildings also as a political statement. Adding to that: The German law does not have protections for squatters in the same way the UK had.
So amongst leftists they are often symbolised and seen as a monument to rebellion against robbery via capitalism. But every Berliner I know will tell you that the city would not feel the sane without them.
I love em and hope they stay as long as possible. But sadly most of them have been evicted.
I live in a Castle Doctrine state and if I find you in a home I own, I'm exercising my right to protect it.
I think this is a good thing. As a person that lives in Germany where squatters aren't a thing I think its depressive to see so how many homeless there are while half of the Citys Houses are empty because some guy invested in themen but only uses those homes as a Investment to sell it when its value of the House increaces
"fun" fact, there are reportedly three times more unoccupied rooms and homes than homeless people in the US, housing is a moral issue at this point and many countries are failing.
squatting is a thing in Germany, theres a really cool old villa housing squatters in my town, the place looks amazing, art and graffitti everywhere and the fassade of the building next to it has a huuuuge graffitti saying "Capitalism is killing our future" and thats right next to the main street, pretty cool place and people
It's still legal to squat in non-residential buildings, but you can get booted from the place. There's one episode of "Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away!" where an abandoned office space of around 30-ish squatters was evicted, and some were hesitant but all left without trouble. Just shows you the types of people pushed into squatting.
I used to know squatters, thought they were really cool for a hot minute. Inventive, creative, fairly smart and active, with interesting views and critiques on society.
... Only to find them parasitic and destructive leeches, claiming and abusing what is not theirs. Ignoring and not joining the rest of society in their duties, nor constructively advocating the very views they repeat ad nauseum.
If you think about it you never truly own your home. The bank owns the structure and the state/city/county owns the land and if you don’t pay your land tax they’ll take your whole house too smh you’ll never truly own “real estate “ or land.
Yes, in the same sense you don’t own your body. As you could be conscripted. The reality is the only person that owns anything is the one that has enough violence to stop others from taking it
You can even pay your taxes and they'd still give it away if some squatter claims to have lived on it a certain amount of time. Or even worse imminent domain.
Wait... If you own a property for 10 years without using it, how is it causing so much of a stir when someone uses it for you?
It is insane people think this is a reasonable conversation, whether commercial or residential. If its not yours you have no right to use it, it doesn't get much simpler than that.
if its not being used and the government owns it. fuck em they will fuck you, do you think we need them, no they need us.
I have plenty of right to use it, as housing is necessary for my survival. I'll gladly shack up in an abandoned mall if the alternative is the street.
@@jakekaywell5972 It is sad you don't know the difference between your needs and your rights.
If you can occupy and maintain property for 10-12 years without the owner noticing or caring, then you should be able to take it over legally. Second and third homes are the reason we have families in the streets. I have little sympathy for the landlords in cases like that.
Squatters should have no right. Squatters are just tresspassers/burglars that police refuses to stop.
squatting big buildings that haven't been used in years seems only fair, but private homes is a bit cruel cos you never know what it cost to the owner (maybe they spent their life savings on a holiday home or such)
Knew shady types who squatted mansions in London, one of their calling cards was plugging all the drains and leaving the water running before they left
Who? The wet bandit?
Oh no, not mansions! Wherever will I store my fabergé eggs now that peasants have occupied the east wing!?
in my country the netherlands its kinda similair where commercial buildings are allowed to be squatted so now companies often rent out the buildings to occupants to live there as anti-squatters for barely any money lol
Anti kraak baby 😂
If the landlords are making use of the properties to stave off squatters then the squatters have done their work
If someone can occupy your house for a decade, you clearly don't need it. They do.
I’d rather burn down my house than see it given away to someone who refuses to work
I'd rather just give them a dirt roof six feet under, serves them right for trying to take away human rights and freedoms.
hahaha you just described getting evicted by a land lord
@@rolfdaswalross lololol
We have similar laws in Greece, it's not that big problem through the years, unfortunately the state violence agents hit hard on politically active squatts for political supression. Half of the youth in Greece hold supportive ideas towards squatting.
The only problems come from people renting property and stop paying at some point, some cases are unethical but in many cases people becoming poorer and poorer since 2010 and the rents go up for no reason (maybe because of funds activity) so they can't pay the full rent.
A difference is that you cant gain ownership of a building by squatting but you can gain ownership of land by using it for 10-12years for agriculture.
"It's free living, property rights should be abolished" *PROCEEDS TO DESTROY THE PROPERTY*
I am on the squatters side why do you need a space which you haven't occupied over 10 years. People are homeless and you have a house which is being left dormant.
If you occupy a random person's home and get killed or severely injured for it, you deserve absolutely no sympathy
If you own multiple homes and lose one of them to squatters because you obviously don't need it, you deserve absolutely no sympathy.
@@BibleStorm you're either a child or a very privileged adult cause that is a horrible way to look at the world, if i buy it it's mine, legally and morally you are literally stealing at that point in time "oh but what about the homeless" that's a bad situation and something other than stealing property from people is awful. There are several reasons that a property can be unused, maybe it's just been vacated and waiting for new buyers, maybe it's not being rented right now for maintenance or a lack of people wanting to rent it. Think outside your communist manifesto..
Hey man, your vids are interesting, factual and really keep your attention, keep up the good work man
I think they deserve the hate. I’m the US there’s plenty of homeless shelters and free housing but those come with rules that squatters don’t want to follow. If the building is abandoned I can see it and it’s a commercial property, that’s one thing but these people don’t respect other people’s rights. I’m amazed you people don’t get together with your neighbors and force them out. My neighborhood did that to a guy that kept his dogs in his garage in Florida and waved a gun at a neighbor he was having a disagreement with.
Land exists for a social purpose; renting, landing, living, etc.
It is not designed for hoarding.
A TON of countries have laws on: if you have land, but don’t do anything with it, like, not even try to protect it, and people just move in or build their house there, unimpeded and live there for a long time, unimpeded, then they rightfully so become the new owners.
And there are a ton of stipulations so that the original owner reasonably should have acted. It is not easy to do, but perfectly legal and I would also say moral.
Been watching your channel for a while and I like the way you gently moved away from parkour to now more political issue.
And in the video you were talking about trespassing, I guess it’s all lead back to the rights of free running on the streets.
Keep it up mate 👍🏼👍🏼
This made me look up if squatters rights are a thing in Australia, and they are, but seem to be more reasonable than other places.
A squatter can only obtain ownership of a property after the given time (different by state) if they have exclusive use of the property. So basically, if at any time the person that owns the property asks them to leave they have to leave, and if anyone else is living there at any other point in the set time frame then it doesn’t count.
Squatters' rights are pretty simple here: if the property owner wants you gone, you're gone. If you don't want to listen, the police are more than happy to change your mind.
Lord forbid you squat on government property.
If squatters rights only pertained to unused government owned properties I think a lot more Americans wouldn’t care so much, but in privately owned real estate it should be illegal and treated as breaking and entering. Reason being, say John’s grocery goes out of business, another guy say jack owns the building that was leased to John’s grocery. Jack is having a hard time finding a new tenant so it sits vacant for years in the hopes someone will come along to lease it. But squatters come in and live there, the building is old and one falls through the floor and gets hurt. The squatter can now sue jack for his injuries in a building he wasn’t supposed to be in. Another issue is someone holding onto a house until the market gets better, squatters move in and in the time it took to get them out they have caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage or burned the whole building down. That scenario happens all the time, it is extremely rare that major damage is not done by squatters. Leases should have to be notarized so it’s easy to prove if a lease is fraudulent then a simple you got 15 minutes to get your crap and get out , or go to jail.
dude why dont we just build more houses why is it so hard to make concrete boxes lol
because we are all insufferably stupid and we suffer from collective amnesia and constantly forget that there other people in the world besides us.
Hell even wood boxes would work for a while. But nooooo! we would rather whine about it all fucking day in some politicians office.
Because nobody wants these boxes built near them, it's always "It's going to affect my property value". When they do find somewhere else for it to go then it becomes "Well who is going to pay for it". There will always be an excuse because the people who have things don't want anyone else to get anything. They say "I worked for it, so you should have to too." without realising how close they are to being in the same situation
because how do you want to raise rent if people can just move else where???!?!?!?!?!??!!1111!?!?!?!?! you trying to starve out those poor land lords ?!?!?!?!
right dude, I mean this with complete honesty, just build a shit ton of "commie blocks", sure, they're not luxurious, or attractive to the eyes!
they're damn affordable though, that's what we need nowadays.
It's very similar to like how my best friend "borrowed" all my Dave Chappelle Show DVDs 20 years ago and now they're just his, at his house, not mine. Except they're not your best friends and it's not Dave Chappelle Show DVDs..
That jump from 16th century to WW2. 😂😂😂
Through the 80's I was part of a squatting group in the UK that firstly needed somewhere to live, we took over unused authorities buildings, we stopped the copper pipe work and boilers being ripped out and weighed in and looked after the buildings, got to the point where we were pointed in the direction of the next building by those evicting us because they rather we went there and not others, even did some TV stuff with local MPs and stuff (because they had too) I stopped squatting in 1989.
During lockdown there were like 100 in a russian mansion inn central london lool
there are so many just empty mansions in london
I think the distinction mentioned is silly. When I was around squatters, I also saw two types of squatters, but it was other way around. Political and apolitical. Resp. Anarchists and homeless junkies. Political ones were actually doing something and tried to organise events and revive a wasted space while the apolitical ones usually just made absolute mess of a nest wherever they lived.
Me an American knowing this is one of the reasons why the 2nd Amendment was created
the second amandment is also the reason for why the average American has a lower life expectancy than people in China and Cuba