A Man's Home Is Their Castle

Rusty metal rubs against swollen wood, the sound reverberating in the middle of the night. With a final push, the front door opens, and for a few moments, the group stands silent.

A siren wail in the distance breaks the tension; somebody laughs and puts out a cigarette. A couple of flashlights shine into the doorway, and one by one, four squatters carrying backpacks and plastic bags enter the mansion, the last one shutting the door.

“Wow, this place is big,” says Kitty, a bespectacled 24-year-old from Trinidad.

Indeed, the house they have just entered in Hampstead Garden Suburb, one of London’s most exclusive areas, belonged to the late Indonesian president Suharto. In 1999, when an inquiry began into his immense fortune and extravagant lifestyle, the property was reportedly sold for more than $15 million.

Today, like a number of other mansions in the neighborhood, it is owned by a development company that intends to demolish and replace it. But because planning applications in Hampstead Garden Suburb, a protected area, can take very long to be approved, properties may sit empty for years.

The vacant homes have become a prime target for squatters who settle into luxurious (or once luxurious) homes without permission from the owners. Young and educated, these ambitious gate-crashers are often motivated by a desire for adventure more than a need for shelter. And they’re aided by English law—squatting is regarded as a civil offense rather than a criminal one. Squatters cannot be forcibly removed by police without a court warrant, and will not incur any penalty if they leave voluntarily. They can even become the legal owners of a property if no one claims it, says a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman. “This means a person could obtain ownership of land by being in possession of it over a prolonged period of time, usually 10 or 12 years.”

Needless to say, they are less than welcome by many residents—though several homeowners declined to talk publicly.

“Squatting is highly undesirable and has to be dealt with,” says John Marshall, an elected official for Hampstead Garden Suburb. “It shouldn’t happen in any residential area because squatters trash the property they’re in, and they’re completely indifferent to the impact their antisocial behavior has on others.”

The number of squatters in England today is estimated at about 15,000, down from a peak of 50,000 in the 1970s. But housing prices have increased far faster than average incomes have over the past 10 years, and it is estimated that more than 600,000 homes are vacant in England at any given time—nearly 90,000 in London alone—giving ample incentive and opportunity to squatters.

“One knows that if a house is left empty, sooner or later it will be broken into,” says a Hampstead Garden Suburb resident who is sympathetic to squatters. “These folks need a place to live, [and] if you just look out of the window, you’ll see why they might want to live here.”