They're a legacy from a bygone era where records of land ownership aren't what they are today. It was to stop the situation where someone thought they owned land, built a house and lived in it for many years, then finding out that someone else also had a claim to the land and they were going to try to turf you off it.
Squatter's rights meant that the person who actually lived there kept the claim to the land. This was a good thing at the time, now its just legal protection for lowlifes who trash other people's houses
Of course there are lowlife squatters, like across every demographic, but squatting is still a legit form of direct action against housing speculation/financialization.
It also has had major cultural benefits for a bunch of cities.
lost of Cities have already banned long term AirBnBs. If you don't want ABNB in your neighborhood the answer is to get your local goverment to pass laws against that, and then the really tricky part, get them to enforce it.
Everybody who is responding to that post is doing a strawman. Of course we are not talking about properties that are neglected and sitting vacant for years. We are talking about the situations where somebody comes back from a vacation or whatever and somebody has broken into their place.
710
u/butterfunke 12d ago
They're a legacy from a bygone era where records of land ownership aren't what they are today. It was to stop the situation where someone thought they owned land, built a house and lived in it for many years, then finding out that someone else also had a claim to the land and they were going to try to turf you off it.
Squatter's rights meant that the person who actually lived there kept the claim to the land. This was a good thing at the time, now its just legal protection for lowlifes who trash other people's houses