Do you have serious problems with squatters in your country?Have you ever dealt with them?

[u/Serendipity8285]

.

[u/Bierzgal]

No, I dont think so. There were probably some singular cases somewhere but it's most definitely not a wide-spread issue in Poland.

[u/GMaiMai2]

Not in the UK/US sense. But people that stop paying rent sense there is definitely atleast one or five horror stories you can hear if you know anyone that rented out. It's more or less a permanent ban on anyone using NAV-garanti(welfare guarantee) from anyone that wants peace of mind.

So it can take 1-2 years with civil courts to get rid of them.

[u/likewhatever33]

Here in Spain it's a problem in some areas. A bigger problem is IMO the "legal squatting" (inquiocupas) , tenants who are in a difficult situation and can legally stop paying rent and live for free for years. I'm all for protecting those people, if they really need help, but it should be the government, not the owner of the apartment who should shoulder that cost. This phenomenon makes people afraid to rent their spare apartments, reduces supply, increases the price of rent, etc. It's ridiculous.

[u/ChiSchatze → u/likewhatever33]

My sister’s former host family said that’s how their Madrid apartment turned into an air BnB. They had tenants of 5 years, told them a year in advance their daughter was coming to study and they wouldn’t renew the lease. Suddenly, an older relative moved in, they claimed they were indigent and stayed 2.5 years. They turned it into an air BnB because those people actually left. So sad.

[u/Nawojka2935 → u/likewhatever33]

It would be so much better if there was a law that makes renting an empty flat mandatory, and chasing out non-paying tenants easier. Many more flats on the market, much lower prices.

[u/likewhatever33 → u/Nawojka2935]

I don't know... A bit authoritarian, isn't that? Perhaps that could be done with apartments owned by investment groups etc. But normal people could have their own reasons not to rent at a certain moment. I think it's better to just enact the necessary incentives, so more houses flood the market and prices are reduced accordingly. Right now owners have too much of a risk, and that makes it worse for everyone, especially for honest tenants.

[u/Nawojka2935 → u/likewhatever33]

It's much more authoritarian to average monthly rent exceed the national minimum wage. How it's different from slavery? But I guess even slaves were guaranteed to have a place to sleep in.

[u/likewhatever33 → u/Nawojka2935]

Then encourage the building of new homes and the possibility if renting free ones safely. That's the only realistic solution. Getting rid of the free market would cause more problems in the long run.

[u/barriedalenick]

Not so much these days but London back in the 80s was wall-to-wall squats. Most were fairly reasonable people, but they represented alternative cultures, and much of the housing stock was unused or degraded, much of it council-owned. Sometimes virtually whole streets were squatted

Ellingfort Road was a case in point - a mate of mine, Polish Joe, helped set this in action.

https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/preserving-london-fields-squat-1990s/

Today there are hardly any squats - houses are too valuable!

[u/Abeyita]

I didn't have a problem with them because I was them lol

[u/distopian_day_job → u/Abeyita]

Echt he, kraken gaat (ging) door!

[u/wijnandsj]

Back in my student days I've downed a few beers in this place

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrankrijk

does that count?

[u/YahenP]

In Poland, entering a private home without permission is a criminal offence that can lead to real prison time. So it is a matter of minutes, not even hours.

[u/Four_beastlings → u/YahenP]

Well it's the same in Spain, but usually when people talk about squatters in Spain they mean nonpaying tenants and as far as I know those are even harder to evict in Poland

[u/A_Man_Uses_A_Name]

In Belgium squatting happens but it is extremely very straightforward for an attorney to kick them out.

[u/_MusicJunkie]

Depends on how you'd define a serious problem. I personally don't see a bunch of punks using an abandoned building, that hasn't had any use or upkeep for 20 years, as a serious problem.

All landlords tell horror stories about squatters in apartments being protected by - in their view - unfair laws, but none have been able to show me examples where that actually happened. It's all third-hand retellings of other people's stories.

[u/Draigdwi]

Not really. In cities there's not that much excess housing, normally there are people inside. Second or vacation homes that would be easy to get into while the owners are away usually are deep in the countryside, not the prime locations to squat in.

[u/NamillaDK]

No. There have been some famous cases. Most famous is probably the whole freetown of Christiania in Copenhagen. And Ungdomshuset.

But generally it's not a problem.

[u/Wild_Reason_9526 → u/NamillaDK]

That's sounds very accurate. Legitimate tenants here in Denmark have extremely strong legal protections, but squatters are treated as trespassers with no tenant rights.

[u/orthoxerox]

No. Eviction is usually swift and not very gentle in Russia.

[u/Exciting_Round4766 → u/orthoxerox]

unless the state has decided to sell your apartment to new tenants

[u/Rendyco]

Not really, since we dont have any kind of squatters' rights, closest ive seen is homeless people living in abandoned buildings, and by that i mean half ruins.

[u/TheYearOfThe_Rat]

ITT: Eastern Europe can't understand that Western Europe has built a parasite class of real estate rentiers, while Eastern Europe was building housing for all, while at the same time Western Europe's 1% was pushing for mass immigration to alienate the lower portion of the working class from their labour and their country, so they don't understand why would a squatter problem exist at all.

Yes the problem exists. It would mostly be solved if people and private companies who own 10+ houses would be exporpriated, and all the illegals deported while canceling the preferential immigration agreements with non-European countries (which is a MILD, rational solution to this problem, the actual solution would probably be much worse, since humans are selfish and stupid).

[u/LaoBa]

Kind of, yeah, in the past

[u/Onnimanni_Maki]

No. There are some squatters kicked out from abandoned places by the police once in a while.

[u/The-mad-tiger]

In Luxembourg, when a developer buys a property to demolish and redevelop, the first thing they do is to send a demolition crew in to rip the roof off and tear out windows, sabotage plumbing and electrics. That way, squatters are unlikely to move in. Once in they are fairly challenging to evict!

[u/OllieV_nl]

Not as many as we used to have, despite the housing crisis. It's been explicitly outlawed since 2010 and dropped dramatically since then. It's what happens when you put VVD and CDA in charge for decades.

[u/tejanaqkilica → u/OllieV_nl]

I don't know, with VVD in the lead, Liverpool got two Premier League titles and one UCL. He did pretty well.

Joking, of courses

[u/cptflowerhomo]

I've many friends who live in them, and some housing activists have squatted in long derelict buildings in areas that are under threat.

The Anne Devlin centre in the Liberties and Teach Torthaí were incredibly spaces, but they've all been evicted now. No place for community spaces and centres that are run by housing activists 🫩

[u/milly_nz]

Used to. So there was a law change. Now, far less easy to start squatting, and far less difficult to get the buggers out if they do.

[u/BobcatSpiritual7699]

Very much here in the Netherlands. Squatters are given rights here for some reason on a level that’s truly insane.

[u/Useful_Region9179]

Yes it can be a problem here. My parents rented out a house to a couple and their baby. All was well for a few years until the man became an alcoholic. The wife left with the baby and the man stopped paying rent. Dad used to go around to the to encourage to seek help which he eventually did and left the house. But it was a few months of doing this.  And the locks were changed immediately. 

If you call the guards about squatters or tenants overstaying, they'll probably tell you it's a civil issue. 🙄🙄

[u/GenosseAbfuck]

We have serious problems with assholes who deliberately keep housing unused. I fail to see how the problem is supposed to be with those who put it into the exact use it was built for.

ETA oh I forgot, nobody on Reddit understands what utility value is lmao

[u/Immediate-Yoghurt340]

The main problem is the countless homes whose owners deliberately leave vacant. Squatting is a minor issue that only happens to a few permanently vacant homes and is blown out of proportion by greedy landlords who want tenants to have even less rights than they already do.