The crime of squatting

Practically every case of loss from fire, landslip, flood etc seen on TV, where they beg for assistance from government, is a squatter — and the Government frequently obliges, especially near to elections.

People from this type of background, as they mature, pass seamlessly into a life where obedience of the law is just some theoretical irritant, and easily enter a life of crime.

At present most of the population can see endless examples that State land is free to the populace to steal and build whatever they want upon. Similarly, although they may find more resistance, squatters invade private lands and become so numerous that removing them becomes a dangerous and expensive exercise. Ask any lawyer what procedures must be followed and they will tell you to prepare $100,000 for legal expenses, go to court, wait three years to be heard, then, if you are lucky, obtain a court order for removal, at which point you must decide how to get the offenders off your land, probably using an expensive bailiff and bulldozer. And what assurance do you have that they will not resume building as soon as your back is turned? Another $100,000 court order? A more realistic attorney will advise you to hire private security, a contractor, and simply bulldoze the intruders away with no court order. Should the squatter protest he must find legal grounds to justify his illegal occupation, which of course he cannot.

How this situation became established is a mystery to me. It simply encourages the law of the jungle in which the squatter steals land and must be removed by force. But look at the evidence.

Every year we see the squatters expanding higher and higher up the slopes of the Northern Range.

Almost all of Laventille consists of squatter properties, usually with the associated offence of building without Town and Country Planning approval.

This lack of Town and Country approval is even more widespread since both squatters and buildings on land legitimately owned are usually erected without approval. Enter any rural area and the design, shape and method of construction of virtually every house you see is clearly an unapproved structure, frequently built in a road reserve.

Even areas that theoretically enjoy special protection like the Aripo Savannah (area of special scientific interest) are subject to invasion by squatters who can be seen on a Saturday quite brazenly transporting materials to their illegal structures.

And all mysteriously connected to T&TEC, whereas if you or I apply for such services we are asked for our legal documents.

If a landowner asks for police assistance they are usually refused, or told to “bring your deed,” which will probably then lead to a demand for one of those court orders previously mentioned. In other words, they will not assist. The most I have managed to get is the police accompanying me to the squatter site and witnessing delivery of a quit notice.

Recently in the same area even this was refused.

I’m told that the problem is not as out of control in all English-speaking islands and isn’t allowed at all in the French islands. In the Bahamas, as soon as building activity is noticed, an inspector arrives on site and gives the builder two days to produce his documentation of legal occupation and building approval, failing which the structure is demolished by the government.

Poverty does not provide a credible or acceptable excuse. The squatters manage to buy their building materials, cars, fridges, TVs and smart phones, and produce endless children that in aggregate can cost more than the accommodation and family expenses experienced by responsible individuals who regulate their expenditure and family size.

In the meantime the destruction of our country continues, agriculture is very risky, tourism virtually dead, while there is little or any hope of the Government doing anything about it when it, after one and a half years in power, cannot even reintroduce the land tax that the preceding government eliminated immediately after being elected.

Meanwhile it presides over a Cental Statistical Office that, despite thousands of HDC houses being built, maintains a constant waiting list of 100,000, tells us for the last 35 years that total population is 1.3-1.4 million.

This is an extremely serious national problem that, it appears, the Government needs either a lot of help to solve or should stand aside and allow more capable people to take control.