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Texas Dan Mosby wrote:

So let me get this right.....

In the U.K., a family could go out to dinner, come home, have their house occupied by a squad sized element of low lifes, and the low lifes would NOT be considered "criminals" worthy of arrest, but "squatters" entitled to a civil court hearing?



I bet it wouldn't take a civil court order to remove those same low lifes if they tried to "squat" in Buckingham palace...

I suspect not only could you not throw them out with force, I suspect you must continue to pay the water and power bills, so they will not be uncomfortable. I also assume you must allow them to come and go as they please, in an out of the house as long as one of them stays behind to maintain possession.

The movie Clockwork Orange continues to come to mind. Seems the future it portrayed has happened.

Oh by the way that was a million pound house they were in front of.

RoyGBiv wrote:

Excaliber wrote:Excaliber's Law says you will always get what you provide significant motivating incentives for, regardless of whether that result is what you intended or not.

I believe that's also called "Macro Economics 101"



(without a doubt the most useful class I have ever taken for helping me to understand people's actions. Should be taught in Middle School and a passing grade should be required to graduate High School.)

The first part of Excaliber's Law is taken from Macro Economics 101. However, most folks make the mistake of believing that creating an incentive will result in the achievement of whatever goal they had in mind when they created it.

They are then surprised - even shocked - when they get the result that was actually encouraged when the incentive is viewed through an amoral mindset that always tries to game the system. That result is completely unrelated to what they were trying to accomplish, but it is inevitable.

Gun control in the UK comes to mind.....

Excaliber wrote:

RoyGBiv wrote:

Excaliber wrote:Excaliber's Law says you will always get what you provide significant motivating incentives for, regardless of whether that result is what you intended or not.

I believe that's also called "Macro Economics 101"



(without a doubt the most useful class I have ever taken for helping me to understand people's actions. Should be taught in Middle School and a passing grade should be required to graduate High School.)

The first part of Excaliber's Law is taken from Macro Economics 101. However, most folks make the mistake of believing that creating an incentive will result in the achievement of whatever goal they had in mind when they created it.

They are then surprised - even shocked - when they get the result that was actually encouraged when the incentive is viewed through an amoral mindset that always tries to game the system. That result is completely unrelated to what they were trying to accomplish, but it is inevitable.

Gun control in the UK comes to mind.....

Health care in the US comes to my mind..... Not to mention Social Security.

Texas Dan Mosby wrote:

So let me get this right.....

In the U.K., a family could go out to dinner, come home, have their house occupied by a squad sized element of low lifes, and the low lifes would NOT be considered "criminals" worthy of arrest, but "squatters" entitled to a civil court hearing?



I bet it wouldn't take a civil court order to remove those same low lifes if they tried to "squat" in Buckingham palace...

Im betting In CA, CO, Germany, NC, SC, AK, OR, or TX (All the places I have lived) it would not take a court order to remove that kind of group from my home. In fact in my current TX home, Im betting any one of the family members on there own , Dogs, Son, Wife, could successfully dispose of that kind of group should they be present upon our return. From a ride, dinner, move or a day at the Range

...in a sad side note, it does take months to evict a renter, and, all over the country, folks sign leases with no intention of paying rent, knowing they'll be outa the rain/cold for at least 6 months...some longer...just by dragging out the legal processes...same with repossession of a house...the person defaulting has more rights than the owner/mortgage holder...'tain't right but it's so....

seamusTX wrote:If the British people get riled up enough, the politicians do listen. A while back they tried to require the use of the metric system and prohibit traditional units like pints and pounds. The people resisted that one successfully. (I don't know if it is creeping back in, because I haven't been their in 20 years.)

Sounds like a case of twisted priorities. "We'll let people come in and take over our homes, but there's no way we're using that dang metric system!"

speedsix wrote:...in a sad side note, it does take months to evict a renter, and, all over the country, folks sign leases with no intention of paying rent, knowing they'll be outa the rain/cold for at least 6 months...some longer...just by dragging out the legal processes...same with repossession of a house...the person defaulting has more rights than the owner/mortgage holder...'tain't right but it's so....

Having been on the other side of that rented a house from someone that I think went a bit insane during the time we rented it can be a good protection that it takes a few months to evict someone. They have to show where you broke the lease (we didn't--but they sure as daylights did) in court. It protects families from just the situation we faced where we had paid our rent on time for months and months and then the woman has a nervous breakdown (and we continue to pay the rent on time) and decides to start breaking into our house--housing angry dogs around our home that barked all night, and wants to have us evicted and charged 6K because there was laundry in laundry baskets and toys in the toy room. Now it also stunk for us because as bad as we wanted to leave the place, we could not vacate the property because in our state if you leave more than two weeks away from the end of the lease you can be held responsible for abandonment of the property and damages placed on you even if none exist.

I have been on both sides of the fence and it is miserable in both situations. However a renter not paying rent is a little different if only in degree to a person moving into your house over a weekend and taking over.

MasterOfNone wrote:Sounds like a case of twisted priorities. "We'll let people come in and take over our homes, but there's no way we're using that dang metric system!"

Squatting in the U.K. is a lot more complicated than this one article makes it seem.

The current practice started after WW II, when many homes had been bombed and many other homes were empty because the owners were dead or dislocated. At that time, it was a practical way to provide emergency housing.

There also is longstanding popular resentment of wealthy landlords, based on centuries of history that we don't have here.

It obviously has gotten out of control, with tens of thousands of squatters, most of whom are hippies, anarchists, thugs, illegal immigrants, or more than one of the above.

In the U.K., as here, the people can't just take a popular vote and change the government at any time. They have elections every four years in most cases. I think the next elections are in 2014, unless the current parliamentary coalition collapses. I don't pretend to be an expert on this. I find British politics almost as confusing as cricket.

With squatting, the recent rioting, and crime generally, probably "law and order" will be a major theme for both parties in the next campaigns.

However, as we have seen in the U.S., general sentiment for issues like the "war on crime," "war on drugs," and controlling illegal immigration does not translate into results.

- Jim

RoyGBiv wrote:42% of American households pay zero (or less, "rebates") Federal income tax.

Is that true? How can it be that I've always been on the wrong side of that statistic? Guess I shouldn't have worked so hard....

sugar land dave wrote:

RoyGBiv wrote:42% of American households pay zero (or less, "rebates") Federal income tax.

Is that true? How can it be that I've always been on the wrong side of that statistic? Guess I shouldn't have worked so hard....

I thought it was much closer, or over 50%...

Really, the comments following the article tell the story --Britain is what happens when modern liberals get power --but especially when they get control over public education and media. This liberal collectivist mindset is doing damage here too, especially in our big cities, and in states like California, but we feel some of it even in Texas. The situation described in the article was created deliberately to destroy property rights and the middle class, as illustrated by the attitude of the commenter I quote below --a comment that reflects the attitudes of numerous people leaving comments, at once sort of smug, self-righteous, and docile. There appear to be a lot of people in the UK who have drunk the collectivist cool-aid and believe that the very things destroying their country somehow make it morally superior. This is the very attitude expressed by US liberals when they seek to deny the right of self-defense and "advise" that we should always comply with all demands made by thugs.

"I have no sympathy. lots of these rich people have property's scattered around laying empty gathering dust increasing in value depriving others of a home and I might add so do local authority's .Where I come from people can barely afford to rent let alone have several houses and a 1 million pounds a year income if you can afford a house like this you can afford to secure it if you intend leaving it empty for months on end .Having been to Somalia some years ago it should be said that anything is a step up from the tin shacks and tents that people reside in there and they don't just shoot squatters they shoot everything and everyone."

If a squatter takes over your home go and squat in another empty house.
The police won't do anything more for the owner of the house you take
over than the they will for the owner of the house that was taken from you

bronco78 wrote:Interesting story...


My Thoughts on the topic.

Dear squatters, may I suggest you not attempt that endeavor central Tex, on or about the property of Marquez racing. My guess is, such action will take me months of cleaning, painting, patching 1/2" holes in the walls and floor boards, not to mention stain removal to correct your visit..

Old thread, and My response at the time was in thinking,, Pfft, UK, cant happen here, and not in TX for sure..
Opps, I was wrong. It HAS happened here IN TEXAS


Squatters in Texas Town Use Arcane Law to Claim Vacant Homes

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/05/sq ... z1igRS9P7z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

bronco78 wrote:

bronco78 wrote:Interesting story...


My Thoughts on the topic.

Dear squatters, may I suggest you not attempt that endeavor central Tex, on or about the property of Marquez racing. My guess is, such action will take me months of cleaning, painting, patching 1/2" holes in the walls and floor boards, not to mention stain removal to correct your visit..

Old thread, and My response at the time was in thinking,, Pfft, UK, cant happen here, and not in TX for sure..
Opps, I was wrong. It HAS happened here IN TEXAS


Squatters in Texas Town Use Arcane Law to Claim Vacant Homes

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/05/sq ... z1igRS9P7z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We are a lot closer to many of the same failings that Europe has than most people believe. If you sit down and tick through a list of all of the bad things that the European society model does, you might find that we are well on our way in almost every category except guns. I fear that a 2nd Obama term will fix that, too.

bronco78 wrote:Squatters in Texas Town Use Arcane Law to Claim Vacant Homes

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/05/sq ... z1igRS9P7z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's one on the books I'd never heard of, the "adverse possession" law dating back to the Republic of Texas.

The Tarrant County Clerk’s office accepted about 60 of these adverse possession filings this year before it stopped taking them....

“I will say this is the most amazing situation we’ve ever dealt with,” says Tarrant County Constable Clint Burgess....

To [Tarrant County] District Attorney Joe Shannon, these cases are criminal, pure and simple.

“A person who moves in without the consent of the owner with the intent to commit felony or theft or assault, then that's a burglary of a habitation,” said Shannon.

So far, Shannon is prosecuting about five of these cases with more to come....

It's difficult for me to imagine a scenario where I'm away a month for business, and come home tired on a red-eye flight one night to find my garage door open, some of my personal possessions stacked in a dumpster in the driveway, and strange people inside my house. I trust I'd have the good sense to call 911 and wait for the deputies...

I never would have thought it either, bronco78. An unflattering sign of the times and the something-for-nothing attitude of entitlement fostered by a Welfare administration. Let's hope we don't see the "Occupy Wall Street" movement morph into the "Occupy Someone Else's House" movement.

If nothing else, this is a good reminder--and not a bad idea to do at the beginning of each new year--to do a thorough assessment of your residential security readiness. Even if you're away for extended periods, it shouldn't be apparent to potential burglars; you're home should seem lived-in day and night. Arrange for regular lawn service; make sure your doors and windows are visible from the street, don't plant shrubs or trees that can be used as convenient cover for a burglar to use; have newspaper delivery suspended and have the USPS hold your mail; have a neighbor watch for and remove circulars and flyers from the driveway and front door; ask the neighbor to park one of their vehicles in your driveway in the evenings; use timers for lights at night and to turn on a radio positioned near the front door to a 24-hour news station intermittently throughout the morning, afternoon, and evening; if you have a fence, make sure the gate lock is secure; even if you don't have a dog, buy very large food and water bowls, scuff 'em up to make them look used, and place 'em by the backdoor...with a beware of dog sign on the back gate; consider video surveillance equipment if it's in the budget.

It's my bad if someone thinks the house is empty; their very bad if they try to get inside...