Squatters in an empty commercial building: owners' options

In short

• Residential building: squatting is an offence under section 144 of the 2012 Act. Non-residential: it is not, though other offences (damage, stolen electricity) may be.
• Get possession through the court. Never by violence or threats.
• Act fast. The interim possession order needs a claim within 28 days of when you knew, or should have known.
• Adverse possession (the nearest thing to "squatters' rights") needs ten years for registered land. It is not a short-term worry.
• Prevention is a mix: inspections, physical security, insurance conditions, meanwhile use and, for some buildings, guardians.

Is squatting a crime? Residential or commercial

Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 makes it an offence to be in a residential building as a trespasser, knowing or ought to know you are a trespasser, and to live there or intend to live there. The penalty is up to six months in prison (51 weeks once a 2003 sentencing change takes effect), a fine, or both (section 144). It has applied since 1 September 2012 (Best v Chief Land Registrar, para 2).

A building counts as residential only if it was "designed or adapted, before the time of entry, for use as a place to live". A shop, office, warehouse or pub is not. That is why squatting in an empty commercial building is generally a civil matter. A mixed building, such as a shop with a flat above, may be partly residential. Ask a solicitor about yours.

Other offences that can apply

• Criminal damage. Damaging property belonging to another without lawful excuse, intending to or being reckless about it (Criminal Damage Act 1971 s.1). Forced entry and damage to fittings can fall here.
• Abstracting electricity. Dishonestly using electricity without due authority (Theft Act 1968 s.13).
• Residential occupiers' offence. Section 7 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 protects "displaced residential occupiers" and intending occupiers. It gives a defence to people on premises used mainly for non-residential purposes who are not in a residential part (section 7). It is not an owner's tool for an empty shop.

Report crimes like these to the police with evidence. The civil claim is still how you get the building back.

What owners must not do

Getting squatters out: the steps

1. 1

   Write down what you know, and when you found out

   The 28-day window for an interim possession order runs from when you first knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that someone was in occupation (CPR 55.21). Note dates, photographs and any damage. In a claim against trespassers, your witness statements are filed and served with the claim form (CPR 55.8(5)).

2. 2

   Check you have the right to possession

   An interim possession order needs you to have had an immediate right to possession throughout the period of unlawful occupation (CPR 55.21(1)(b)). It also cannot be used against someone who entered or stayed with the consent of a person entitled to give it (55.21(2)). A former tenant or licensee is a different case from a trespasser.

3. 3

   Option A: interim possession order (IPO)

   You issue the claim and an application together, with written evidence from you personally (or an authorised officer of a company). The hearing is at least 3 days after issue. You serve the papers within 24 hours of issue. If the court makes the order, the occupiers must leave within 24 hours of service, you serve the order within 48 hours of it being sealed, and the full claim is heard at least 7 days after the order is made. You may have to give undertakings, such as to pay damages if you turn out not to have been entitled to the order (CPR 55.22 to 55.28).

4. 4

   Option B: ordinary possession claim against trespassers

   If you are outside the 28 days, or an IPO is not right, use the standard claim. If you do not know the occupiers' names, you bring it against "persons unknown". You serve by fixing the papers where they are clearly visible on the land. The occupiers must be served at least 2 days before the hearing for land that is not residential (CPR 55.3(4), 55.5(2), 55.6). The County Court is the usual place. The High Court can be used where there is a substantial risk of public disturbance or serious harm to people or property that needs immediate decision (Practice Direction 55A, para 1.3).

5. 5

   Enforcement if they do not leave

   A County Court possession order is enforced by a warrant of possession (CPR 83.26). For trespassers it can instead be transferred to the High Court for enforcement (83.19), where it is enforced by a writ of possession (83.13). A writ against a trespasser needs the court's permission if it is issued more than 3 months after the order. We could not confirm solicitor or High Court enforcement officer fees from official sources, so we give none.

Court fees (checked 28 October 2026)

From the GOV.UK civil court fees table: issuing a possession claim is £415 in the county court and £559 in the High Court. A county court warrant of possession is £152, and sealing a High Court writ of possession is £82. The table lists no separate fee for an IPO application, so ask the court. Fees change, so check the table before you file.

We give no timescale for how long this takes. Law-firm blogs quote figures from two weeks to a couple of months, but we could not confirm one at source. The rules above set the minimum notice periods only.

Adverse possession: what "squatters' rights" means

Adverse possession is the idea that someone who occupies land long enough can end up owning it. For registered land, a person may apply to be registered as owner if they have been in adverse possession for the ten years ending on the date of the application. The registrar must tell the registered owner, and the owner can require the application to be dealt with under a tougher test. Then the applicant succeeds only on limited grounds, such as an estoppel that makes it unconscionable to dispossess them, or some other entitlement (Land Registration Act 2002, Schedule 6, paras 1 to 5). If the owner does not require that in time, the applicant is entitled to be registered (para 4). If the owner objects but takes no steps to evict within two years, the squatter can apply again (para 6).

An applicant cannot apply while a defendant in proceedings that assert the owner's right to possession, or if a possession judgment was given against them in the last two years (para 1(3)). For unregistered land the limitation period is twelve years (Best v Chief Land Registrar, para 5).

In Best the Court of Appeal held in 2015 that making residential squatting a crime under section 144 did not stop that occupation counting towards an adverse possession claim on registered land ([2015] EWCA Civ 17). The case was about a house. Section 144 does not apply to a commercial building at all.

For an empty building you own and look after, ten years of uninterrupted adverse occupation is a long way off. If you spot occupiers and go to court, you are acting well inside it. If an application ever arrives, take legal advice and respond within the registrar's deadline.

Preventing it: the options for an empty building

None of these is a guarantee. We have no independent figures for how much each reduces squatting, so we give none.

• Regular inspections. The IPO window runs from when you knew or should have known (CPR 55.21), so regular visits mean you find out early. Log each visit with dates and photographs.
• Securing the building. Doors, windows and shutters, screens, alarms and CCTV are the usual measures. A London Assembly report in 2018 compared guardians with shutters, CCTV and guards, and said guardians can give better protection from squatting and anti-social behaviour (report, para 3.2). That is the report's statement, not a measured result.
• Insurance conditions. Policies on empty buildings often set conditions on inspections and security. Read yours before you rely on a measure. See insuring an empty building.
• Meanwhile use. A short, properly documented let or licence to a real occupier can keep a building in use. Get advice on the agreement first, as a written licence can still be found to be a tenancy, as in a 2017 case CMS reported (CMS, 2017).
• Property guardians. Guardianship started in the Netherlands in the early 1990s as an anti-squatting measure (report, para 1.1). CMS noted in 2017 that guardians living in commercial property deter vandalism and squatting (CMS).

For what guardian firms offer owners, see the owners page and the firms and their rules.

Questions owners ask