squatters on goose green (Lounged)

[Huguenot]

So someone's bought this house and by the sounds of it needs to do substantial renovation.

In the few weeks since purchase, when they're probably organising finance and builders, a crew of 'students' (yeah, right) have rocked up, changed the locks and started to talk about rights and veiled threats about 'force' and 'reluctance' to move.

They're no better than Somali pirates.

[*Bob*]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> They're no better than Somali pirates.

Albeit without the automatic weaponry, murdering and seven-figure ransom demands.

[babignail]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> They're no better than Somali pirates.

A tad harsh I feel........

[Dulwich_ Park_ Fairy]

by the sounds of it needs to do substantial renovation.

I thought the squatters were doing that for them? Sounds like a stroke of luck for the new owner.

[sophiesofa]

Unless he wants a good finish - if I was a squatter I'd make it live-able but I doubt they'll be off to moben or wherever to pick a nice new kitchen!

[reggie]

Goosegreenteam

Why wait for an eviction order?

You clearly are polite people who dont want to cause problems.

Why not leave when the owner asks for the property back.

You may know your rights but what about your duty to a fellow citizen?

[mlteenie]

Has the owner asked for it back yet?

Too much Daily Mail attitude going on here.

[Zak]

The amount of property lying around in limbo is crazy. In the current economic climate, it's likely to get a lot worse

There's a good website all about how to get hold of empty properties and make use of them with the owner's consent at

www.self-help-housing.org

[jollybaby]

So it's now 'Daily Mail' to think that it's wrong for people to break into and occupy someone else's recently purchased property . . I'd better get off to the newsagents now. Why should the owner have to 'ask' for it back? They shouldn't be in there!

[bobski]

Dear GGT

some people are obviously opposed to your occupation, some not. In the meantime enjoy the house and your community...when the owner gets interested i suspect he will let you know...who knows, he may be a builder looking to change it to bedsits...i wonder if that would make a difference to opinions...

[helena handbasket]

goosegreenteam Wrote:

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> Yes, we know who the owner is.

>

> It is quite cheeky but i get your point. the

> majority of us are studying full time and are

> pretty much broke and currently all our funds are

> being drained by the resources we need to make the

> house liveable.

>

> We will have to see how we are approached by the

> owners, if they are forceful and aggressive then

> we will be more reluctant to cooperate.

>

> We have quite alot of rights, if you are intersted

> and want to read up more about squatting visit:

> http://www.squatter.org.uk/

>

> Thanks for your interest

> The Goose Green Sqautters. x

There is a big difference between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. Being legal doesn't make it morally just. This is NOT a vulnerable group. It sounds more like a bunch of first year politics students doing what young and smug people do when missing a clue.

This offends me on so many levels I can't even tell you!

Plenty of us have been starving students! Do you know how I kept a roof over my head while putting myself through university? I worked my ar$e off! Most evenings and every weekend for many years, and every summer a full AND a part time job. It was incredibly hard but I didn't complain and I didn't STEAL, I just got on with it. And once I paid my for rent, tuition, and ghastly textbooks there wasn't much left but do you know what it DID buy me?

........ PRIDE and SELF RESPECT because I didn't have to defend myself for taking something that wasn't mine.

I understand (and approve of) some cases where a building has been left empty for years and needs attention and the owner can only be traced to some holdings company in a distant country, but it certainly doesn't smell that way in this case.

As someone who has saved every penny to gather enough eggs to buy a fixer upper and then spend hours, years of scraping, patching, painting, planning, to get a home that was created with my own hands, my own earnings, all I can tell you is that it is NOT the same thing to just help yourself to someone else's, whatever philosophy you leach onto to justify it.

I am currently in the process of buying a house overseas as we are leaving the UK, and the house sale has dragged out to three months now for various reasons. We still won't be in it for a few months. I won't tell you where it is or I'm afraid you might just help yourselves!

[helena handbasket]

goosegreenteam Wrote:

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> The house is rotting around the windows quite a

> lot, causing some problems by making the house

> really cold. The house is in a state but we are

> using our DIY skills to bring the house back to

> life. We feel like we've been cleaning forever.

Sounds like the last house I rented.......... for ?450 a week. Reality.

> We have gained internet by using a modern tactic,

> mobile 'dongle' broadband.

Computers sure are expensive aren't they? I would have loved to have one in uni instead of all those late nights using the ones at the library.

[boosboss]

Blah, blah, blah.... So much hand wringing......... Is the bitterness now worth the struggles of the past?

[helena handbasket]

boosboss Wrote:

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> Blah, blah, blah.... So much hand

> wringing......... Is the bitterness now worth the

> struggles of the past?

LOVE this!

What's so comforting about the EDF is how predictable it is.

[boosboss]

helena handbasket Wrote:

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> LOVE this!

>

> What's so comforting about the EDF is how

> predictable it is.

Ain't that the truth!

[ImpetuousVrouw]

I am totally in support of the squatters and I wish the thousands of homeless people on social housing waiting lists will get radical and start occupying all the empty private places that were bought in the housing gold-rush of the past decade and left empty now.

[davidhealy]

goosegreenteam Wrote:

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> The building was bought in early January 2010.

>

> Since then nothing has been done too the house.

>

> Your welcome

> The Goose Green Squatters. x

House needs full renovation, bought in january, why empty??? let me think .... maybe planning permission to convert or some such?? Cash flow issue??

But you know why worry about the owner when we can pour sympathy on the squatters!

Troll and redneck! ha - Nah unlike most sympathetic to the owner!!!!

Oh PS do any of you actually live on East Dulwich Road or are you glorifying it all from your ivory towers!

[puzzled]

the fact remains that climbing through an upstairs window is a vastly different thing than finding a door open. it is illegal and it is also morally and ethically wrong to appropriate a house that someone has only recently bought. these bloody students should be ashamed of themselves and I hope their parents will act. they presumably have student loans and support from home. failing that they should get off their ares and do something novel... it is called WORK. highly recommended for enabling you buy things for yourself. these buys are common thieves. I laughed when one of them said he resented me calling them fascists. sensitive little sausage. would he be irate to my face I wonder, or remain behind his stolen front door?

[vcbrock]

The house in question was sold in Jan. It was then swiftly subject to planning permission to convert into 4 flats including a rear extension (notices of which were clearly displayed and have now disappeared). That seems to have been granted earlier this month. This is all public info. This set of circumstances is, in my view, very different to the owner leaving the house to fall into its current state. In fact, it was in this state when purchased and they seem to be trying to do something with it. Given this, I can't really accept the GGT's justification for being there as "for the love of the house". Having said that, they don't seem to be causing the community any issues right now and I hope they will be as cooperative as they say when the builders move in (and haven't done any "DIY" that will cost the owner more than it would have otherwise)...

[sophiesofa]

vcbrock thanks for that.

[cate]

I like the bit where the squatters say the rotting windows are making the house really cold. Boo-hoo.

[reggie]

This is indeed a Daily Mail Moment

Daily Mail Moment By Sly and Reggie

[ratty]

Hmmm mixed feelings about this.

My B in Law had a squat for years, so long in fact that he now legally owns the house. No harm in this as it was obviously not wanted by anyone.

HOWEVER.... I have first hand experience of squatters. Working for a local homeless charity that provides housing for homeless people, we have, rarely, but now and again, had to leave properties empty whilst we changed their use, god rid of problem tenants or had them closed down.

On more that one occassion squatters have got in. Now, I manage these houses so I now dam well that they did not get in legally - that is always their first lie, but it is impossible to prove.

So these guys got in an upstairs window that was open did they? Hmmmmmmmmmm. First Lie!

In my experience, squatters are never benevolent. They use the excuses of "thousands of empty homes" etc to simply usurp other people on the search for somewhere to live (oh and to supplement an income by not paying rent).

I have had to have properties closed for 6 months & more because of squatters - properties that were and should have been used to house homeless people with support needs. In my experience (and I have never been agressive as a landlord), squatters never leave peacefully or quietly.

However, the jury is out on the GG Team. I might pop down and have a look for myself, just to satisfy myself that these are not some of the same people as I have had experience of.

Also, wonder if it is the same lot that squatted on Windsor Walk?

[pk]

ratty Wrote:

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> I might pop down and have a look for myself, just to

> satisfy myself that these are not some of the same

> people as I have had experience of.

>

what will you do if you're not satified?

[ratty]

Tell you all what my past experiences are. However, it is doubtful that these are the same people!