What to do if squatters come back
by David Carter on 25 January 2011
At The Sheriffs Office we conduct many large scale evictions. These may be under the authority of a High Court writ of possession using High Court Enforcement Officers or under common law using Certificated Bailiffs. Our eviction team will usually include several experienced security guards, with guard dogs if necessary.
Once the squatters have been successfully evicted the security guards will patrol and secure the perimeter leaving the enforcement officers to ensure that the property or land in question is fully clear before handing possession back to the rightful owner.
We would always advise our clients to keep a security team in place to guard the property and prevent squatters from re-entering, be they the same people as before or a new group. This is especially important in the 48 hours immediately after eviction as this is the most common time for re-entry to be attempted. The Sheriffs Office can provide this ongoing security if required.
If, for whatever reason, squatters do re-enter the premises, the best method of removing them, assuming they were evicted in the first place using a writ of possession, is via a writ of restitution.
Unfortunately the original writ of possession cannot be re-executed. However, the process is quite fast and straightforward. In effect, the writ of restitution is a writ to support another writ of execution. Once it has been issued by the Master (the High Court Enforcement Officer will normally take care of arranging this), then it is executed in the same way as was the original writ of possession.
It doesn’t matter if the new squatters are a different group of people to those originally evicted under the original writ, or even if quite a long time period has elapsed between the two illegal occupations.
We are currently evicting squatters who have re-occupied a property we cleared at the end of last year, using a writ of restitution.
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Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sheriffs High Court Enforcement Ltd, trading as The Sheriffs Office. Sheriffs High Court Enforcement Ltd does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. The author will not be held responsible for any comments posted by visitors to this site. Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice. The author has used his best endeavours to make this article as accurate and complete as possible, but requests that the reader be aware that the law of England and Wales frequently changes. The author strongly advises the reader to take legal advice before embarking on any enforcement action.
