Squatters handbook melbourne

You have the right to make one phone call. The police must release you within 24 hours, or charge you. You do not have to tell them anything other than your name, address and date of birth and you should not do so.

Only accept a solicitor who is happy with you giving a no comment interview. If the police know that you have committed a crime then they will charge you. If not, you may say something which can be misinterpreted. In such a stressful situation it is too easy to accidentally say something incriminating. Generally, record as much information as possible, about any police officers threatening you and your home, including their numbers, and anything they say.

Keeping notes on any visits from the police or owner can also be useful later when it comes to writing a court defence. It is good to have your neighbours on your side, so talk to them and try not to alienate them.

They may have useful information about the property and may be able to keep an eye out for you, or help pressure the owners to leave you alone. If you did not research the ownership of the place before you moved in, do it as soon afterwards as you can. This can give you some idea of what to expect when they become aware of your occupation. Use your common sense when dealing with them.

It might be worth explaining to the owner that they do not have to take you to court but could come to an agreement with you. It can be in their interests to have you looking after their property. If they evict you they may just have to go through the trouble and expense of evicting another lot of squatters, or hiring some more expensive form of security.

The usual way to be evicted is through a court case. You do not have to go to court, but it is normally a good idea as there are often ways to get more time.

Do not leave when you get your court papers, you will have some time before any court order takes effect. When you get your court papers you should bring them to the ASS immediately. The owner should be paying water rates on the premises, but some owners who leave buildings empty also neglect to pay rates. Failure to pay rates will often result in the water being turned off at the mains. This will probably mean explaining you are squatting and have no contact with the owner.

If an agreement to stay and pay some rates is made between you and the owner, try and get it confirmed in writing as it could be used as evidence of an implied license for you to stay until the end of the agreed period. Electricity and Gas If the wiring is ok then you have a legal right to electricity. Sometimes you will have to provide I. D and something to prove you are a legitimate resident such as a lease.

Here, a good story will often go a long way and get you connected without I. Getting electricity connected will vary from corporate provider to corporate provider. What will I need to do and what kind of I. D will I need to provide? Solar cells, car batteries, candles and kerosene heaters used responsibly can all go some way to making life very possible without mains electricity. Be creative! Telephone If all the lines are still intact, an account can be organised over the phone.

Again, it helps to make a hypothetical call to sound out what the particular corporate provider will require in terms of I. D, address details and deposit. The following information is only intended to provide a general outline of some of the main offences people can be charged with whilst attempting to squat.

This is no substitute for specific legal advice. If you are charged with any offence or if you encounter any specific problems contact your local Community Legal Centre www. It is easy to squat and avoid doing anything that will lead to criminal charges provided that you know the kind of criminal offences that the police may try and charge you with. Arrests of squatters are uncommon as most owners and police will just want you off the property. It is only in the case of resistance or when you come across real pigs that you might be arrested.

In general, police do not need to give you a formal warning before arresting you, however they often will. They need to tell you that you are under arrest. What for? If you are arrested you can ask the Police Officer for their name, rank and station for use in court later. They are legally obliged to tell you. Police have the right to ask for your name and address if they reasonably believe that you have committed, or are about to commit any offence, or you may be able to assist in the investigation of an indictable serious offence.

However, apart from your name and address you have the right to refuse to answer any other questions. You have the right to make a private telephone call to a friend and a lawyer or legal support before the police question you.

Ask for this if police do not offer. If you are under 16 and being questioned by police an independent person must be present. Indigenous people in police custody can contact the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and foreign nationals can contact the embassy of their country.

Squatting is NOT illegal. It is not a criminal offence to occupy a house without the owners consent. Legally squatting should be a civil dispute between you and the owner. The owner can take civil action against you for eviction and compensation. The police should not be involved unless there is the threat of violence or a breach of the peace. However in practice the police often involve themselves as squatting, taking direct action over homelessness, challenges the notion of property ownership and the restricted use of land- notions the police are employed to uphold.

Also, it is easier for the owner to use the police to evict squatters than to take you to court to evict you. The following section discusses offences relevant to squatting. Remember, the onus is on the police to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you committed an offence.

To do so they need evidence, generally either that a police or other witness caught you in the act or that you made admissions to the police. For minor infringements in situations of homelessness and squatting the fines are low and the court can impose bonds, community based orders, suspended sentences, etc. Still remember that it is their law and their courts not ours. Criminal offences are divided, according to seriousness, into two main classes: indictable offences, which are serious common law or statutory crimes, and summary offences of a more minor nature.

Unless caught in the act, or unless you admit to it, it is difficult to prove that any damage was done by you, especially if the property was empty as others may have entered and vandalised the place before you squatted it. To be safe it is best to repair any damage caused whether by you or by others as soon as possible.

If you are taking possession of a house which is obviously damaged prior to you moving in, it may be useful to take photos of this damage. Such evidence may be able to assist you in demonstrating that the damage was caused before you entered the property.

Criminal damage could range from breaking a window to burning down a house and the penalty is imposed accordingly. In Victoria, an indictable offence is one which is ordinarily prosecuted upon indictment or presentment before a judge and jury. Wilful Damage s 9 c Summary Offences Act : This is an alternative to criminal damage and is a summary offence. The police need to demonstrate that you deliberately did the act which damaged the property, whether public or private, however they do not need to show that you intended to cause the damage.

Possessing anything with intent to destroy or damage property s Crimes Act. This is where you are found with tools, but there has been no burglary or damage caused or the police cannot prove that there has been.

The police need to prove that you had possession of a tool and that you had that tool in your possession because you intended to use it or allow someone else to use it to destroy or damage property. This is an indictable offence. The main way to avoid being found guilty of this charge is to admit to nothing. Possession of house breaking implements: s 49D Summary Offences Act This is an alternative to the charge above.

It is a summary offence. Although the onus is on you to prove that you had a lawful excuse for having the tool in your possession, it may be tricky to convince the police of this on the spot, because once you start answering some questions it may be hard to avoid answering others. Remember, at the end of the day it is the court, not the police, you need to convince that you had a lawful excuse and it may be best to save your explanation for the court.

Burglary s 76 Crimes Act This is a more serious version of a trespass charge. The police need to show that you entered a building as a trespasser AND that you entered with the intent to steal something in the building or intending to assault someone in the building or damage property in the building. Wilful trespass.

This is a common charge used to evict squatters. The law was changed in and a number of aspects are yet to be tested in court. Note, the police do not have the power to ask you to leave unless the owner of the property has authorised them to do so. The legislation states that you do not have implied or expressed authorisation if you have been previously been warned by the owner or someone authorised by them not to enter the property, if you are warned by the owner or someone authorised by them not to enter whilst you are entering the property, if there is a sign saying you cannot enter,.

For all these trespass charges the police do not need to prove that you intended to take possession of the property, they just need to prove that you entered the property.

However, once you are actually squatting a property and have taken possession by securing the property these offences are much harder to prove because once you are squatting you are now the occupant and residing on a property is arguably an excuse for being there. Under the old trespass law someone was entitled to a reasonable time to leave, which includes having enough time to remove your vehicle and goods from the premises.

Celebrating DIY culture and resistance it will include a cafe night, bands, performances, a warehouse party, workshops and a flea market. A Sydney gathering celebrating squatting and resistance. According to the Facebook event page: From 2 — 7pm there will be a number workshops about squatting and security culture.

At 5pm there will be a presentation by anarchists and antifascist activists from Burma, and a report on ongoing repression in Malaysia.

To celebrate nearly five months of occupation as well as to maintain pressure on the Victorian government not to evict the 50 or so people living in properties left empty following the cancellation of the East-West tunnel scheme the residents of Bendigo Street are holding a street party.

Lunch available from 12 — Squatting history A panel will give short talks about squats and campaigns that occured nationally during the s, … Continue reading ». The houses were originally purchased by the Victorian state government so that they could be demolished as part of the East-West Link tollway project which was scrapped following a hard fought campaign of … Continue reading ».

After being squatted for 13 years the Hat Factory was evicted on 31st July. Around 50 police cordoned off half of Wilson St, Newtown from 3. A reply to John Surname , principally, but also an opportunity to review some of the recent history of squatting in Australia. John wrote on the subject of Diddly-Squatters on January Yeah I read it.

Squatting is for bums and lowlifes, and in this day and age is a lifestyle choice. Maybe the students should grow up and actually go and meet some real homeless people. Why do you support their actions, and squatting in general? John Surname Homepage In reality, squatting is for anyone who chooses to utilise vacant buildings for accommodation or other, social purposes. The discussion will draw parallels between Australia and other settler societies. It was first used to designate the social, political and economic power of pastoralists who acquired use rights over vast stretches of grazing land in the early years of white settlement.

Squattocracy was associated with the long domination of upper houses of Australian legislatures by inherited wealth. There may be two distinct histories of patrimonialism in Australia. In reality, things are a little more complicated.

For example, I know many individuals who have squatted, both in Melbourne and other cities, in Australia and overseas, and their relationship to homelessness and to the homeless is a good deal closer than you appear to assume is generally the case. There is also a considerable body of scholarship on the subject mainly concentrating on urban squatting in Europe and urban and rural squatting movements in Africa, Asia and South America , and even some attempts at documenting this history in Australia.

Best described as opulent, this residence is set in large, well-kept, leafy gardens on half an acre of land with a northerly aspect next to the Royal Canberra Hospital. The building is two stories and has double brick construction, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge living area, wall to wall carpets and curtains on every window.

Power was still connected, as were two telephone lines. The kitchen included a refrigerator and microwave oven…. At certain times it has been condoned, but not today. For many people today, squatting is an act of necessity. Students, single parents, unemployed and others not eligible for social security often have little choice.

In some cases, squatting is also a political act to deny property owners money for rent, and instead to use this money for clothing, food and other necessities. Homeless people evicted Green Left Weekly February 9, The homeless people had been squatting in the warehouse for almost one year.

According to the squatters, Shell has no plans to use the heritage-listed building immediately. Squatters fight on Green Left Weekly September 13, The squats are less than metres from the office of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

After failing to gain entry, the council officers refused to negotiate with the squatters and called the police to have the squatters evicted…. The downstairs bar has been turned into a place where activist groups can meet and where people can eat and chat, the lobby has been fitted with a dozen computers, an empty side room has become an art gallery, the industrial-sized kitchen has been taken over by Food Not Bombs and the cavernous ballroom, complete with chandeliers, will become a venue for gigs and raves….

The local church hall became a home for increasing numbers of homeless, until it was shut down by the South Sydney Council.

It was with the help of the NSW Builders Labourers Federation and the plumbers union that houses were brought up to a liveable standard, resulting in 45 Indigenous people residing in three houses in the Redfern Block. When development threatened to displace the residents, the BLF placed a ban on all development in the area and any other work that the construction company was doing.

It is this kind of union and community solidarity that is needed to defend the Redfern Block today, 30 years later. A real answer has to involve Indigenous self-determination…. To cite one example, on January 1, having been designated International Year of Shelter for the Homeless squatters occupied a disused cafe opposite Princess Pier in Port Melbourne.

Subsequent activities included the usual array of meetings, workshops, benefit gigs, film screenings, performances, a cafe needless to say! To cite another, more recent example: the Brown Warehouse in Wellington Street, Collingwood now a yuppie apartment complex. Squats have also been established to house conferences. A few examples: in May over people attended a conference for four days in a reclaimed warehouse in inner city Melbourne.

Over the course of five days, approximately people came through the space before it was busted by seventy police on Friday 17th November, the eve of the main protest.

Currently, hundreds if not thousands of individuals squat in Melbourne, mostly in order to provide themselves with a roof over their heads. I support the actions of SHAC because I support direct action — in this case squatting — in order to solve social issues — in this case housing for the low-waged. In the end there was only a handful.

That was our final tactic. The decision to squat was made when Mick Fowler was the only tenant left in the threatened buildings. Squatting was not unique to Sydney but part of a worldwide-trend whereby squatters, often young, usually poor, stymied developers who wanted to pull down the old inner-city residential areas and build luxury high-rise offices and apartments in their place.

Squatting has been used as a tactic in Amsterdam for more than twenty years.