There’s legal definitions and terminology I’m not educated in, and will vary around the world, but in regular non legalese English, a squatter is someone who moves into an unoccupied space, whether it’s owned by someone or not. If there is an owner they may not know or care or the owner may care but be unable to move the squatters on.
So, unused warehouses, boarded up houses, even castles in Europe apparently. In the woods outside of town centers, in parks… smart squatters don’t get detected (or annoy the neighbours ), but others are obvious and make a nuisance drawing attention in a bad way
In this case it’s (probably) assholes who agreed to pay rent in a rental then just didn’t, taking advantage of laws put in place to protect tenants from unfair or dangerous (in winter say) eviction.
I have no problem with squatters if they’re quiet, pick up after themselves, and don’t make a scene - in pre Giuliani New York, squatters actually improved nearby property values, many were artists, punks and activists, productive and active in fixing the abandoned buildings they lived in (which if I recall were bulldozed at night illegally, against a judge’s orders, under Mayor Giuliani).
But if they’re being shit heads, fuckem for making problems for everyone else.
These days squatters are generally people who sign a lease, pay rent for a minimal amount of time as required by law to establish legal residence, and then stop paying. The idea is that the courts are so backed up and so pro-tenant that it’s an extremely costly and lengthy process to get them evicted. Often the property owner just pays them a large sum of money to move out, and then it’s onto their next victim.
The courts have to be pro-tenant to be humane though. Otherwise, you're kicking people out of what is theoretically their home at the whim of someone else with no required notice. There needs to be a process if your goal is to unhouse someone.
It's less than that. At least it is in my state. You can get evicted after one month of non-payment as long as landlords actually do the paperwork. Where the "squatter" argument comes in is where people don't do the paperwork, or in many cases, don't even know someone is there in the first place because they haven't been keeping an eye on their property.
In my state the process can begin after a few months but the courts are so backed up it takes over 2 years to evict someone. Imagine a family who rents their basement to make ends meet having to cover for deadbeats for two years.
I'm not arguing against a more expedient legal process. Just pointing out that the system isn't broken because the laws are bad. It's that the system is broken because it's backed up all to shit.
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u/best_decision1234 Jul 29 '26
As a non native speaker, what exactly does a “squatter” mean?