Rant of the Day: Squatters

Why is it that squatters in the UK have more rights than home owners?

A few years ago my family embarked on an epic journey across the globe. They emigrated to Australia leaving me behind to go to university. With no one living in the house, we decided not to sell it but to rent it out to a tenant. We followed all the rules and procedure to the letter and we found ourselves a nice respectable man to live in our house. He was a local Lib Dem councillor and head of the local planning committee, and he had been recommended to us by a friend.

Well it turned out that our respectable gentleman squatt whoops I mean tenant was a complete and utter arsehole. We found out in 2010, during the council elections that our man wasn't standing for re-election, no re-election = no rent. We asked him why he wasn't standing but we got no reply. This became the norm, months went by of us trying to contact him and him not obliging. He stopped paying the rent pretty soon after he lost his seat on the council.

Squatter James Philip Jardim Spencer Mumford in his Political days

I went to the council and spoke to some of the people that worked with him.

“Why did he lose his job”, I asked.

“He was a slave driver! He used to come in in the mornings and make our lives hell” Replied a larger than life middle aged woman with a thick Jamaican accent. (Lets call her Joyce – for the sake of anonymity)

“He was always abusing the staff here, harassing us. We had to take it up with the local Lib Dem leadership, he was the most abusive man I've ever worked with”.

“And that's the reason he lost his seat?”

“In a nutshell” She replied.

He had invented a bogus sob story to try and get us off his back.

“ooooh, I'm too I'll to work”, he cried pathetically when I asked him why he can't get any money together.

“You're well enough to cycle 14km a day” (I had worked this out using the quickest cycle route between the three local supermarkets which he had confided in me that he visited daily to get all the reduced bargains)

“well I've been looking for work, Its just to hard to get it” he replied,

(What happened to “I'm too I'll to work” I thought to myself!)

“I've been coming here (I was otherwise homeless at the time and had to live there when I couldn’t find a friends sofa to crash on) for weeks now and you haven’t applied for one job” I quickly retorted.

“I've been too busy with moving out”

“Bollocks!” I shouted, “You haven’t done any packing at all! We told you to get your shit together in December after 2 months of no rent and your first eviction notice came in February! (Recorded delivery, no way to weasel out of that) Since then you’ve been making excuse after excuse as your arrears pile up. You promised to be out by the 27^th of June when I wanted to move in! You were still here, because of that I'm homeless! If you really wanted to go you could have moved in with your mother's in Barnes (A really posh area of London).”

The Conversation continued.

So I ask you, whoever you may be. Why is it that a perfectly able man, can be on state support, living in a private house for almost a year without paying rent. And my family are unable to evict him by force without a court order. His first eviction notice was issued over 6 months ago and were still waiting for our court date (Thanks riots). I'm currently homeless while I wait for my new job in China to start. My family has lost over £10,000 subsidising this pathetic bum to live in our house while we dip into the red!

Tell me, why do squatters have more rights in this country than people that work hard and pay their mortgage?

P.S. If you know James Mumford, don't trust him, don't let him near any of your assets and please, for the love of god, never let James Philip Jardim Spencer Mumford represent you or live in your house. The Parasite will bleed you dry!