After evicting illegal occupants from your property, it can be distressing if they return. When evicting illegal occupants or squatters, you need to ensure you carry out all the necessary lawful procedures. Following these correctly and efficiently will ensure that access to your property does not re-occur and protects your property effectively.
Step one
In the first instance of noticing occupants on your property without your permission, you need to apply for an IPO, or Interim Possession Order from your County Court. You must do this within 28 days of noticing trespassers on your property. This is named an ‘interim’ order as it is just temporary to remove these illegal residents or squatters from your premises in the short term.
When you apply to the court for the IPO, you must apply for an Order of Possession too. This is a more permanent court order, and is effective in the long term compared to the IPO. To the court then, you must fill in both a N130 form and a N5 in order to apply for the necessary court actions. It is vital you include all relevant documentation too, when presenting your case to the court, in order to back up your case and provide a coherent account of the situation.
Step two
If your IPO is granted by the court, you need to serve papers to the illegal occupants within 48 hours of the issue date. It is advisable to hire someone to do this on your behalf, such as a process server. This will ensure that serving papers is done in a timely and efficient manner, as well as correct to the law. Once served the IPO, the occupiers will have 24 hours to vacate your premises. Once 24 hours has passed, it is illegal from them to be in, or re-enter, your property.
Step three
When you are granted the IPO, you will be given a ‘return date’. This is the date of your Order of Possession hearing. Here, a final decision will be made in regards to your property and whether the illegal occupants should vacate, or if they actually have the right to stay and the IPO should be set aside. This is why you need to provide all the relevant information and documentation to the court, in order to prove that you are the owner of the property and no other occupants should be residing there.
If you are granted an Order of Possession, the court has acknowledged that you are the true owner of the property and the illegal occupants need to leave the premises. The IPO will end once the Order of Possession is granted as this is a more final and definite court order, rather than a temporary instance to remove them.
Step four
Once granted an Order of Possession, if the occupants in question attempt to re-enter your property, you can hire bailiffs to remove them. Your Possession Order grants you the services of Enforcement Officers to ensure that the illegal occupiers to do not trespass on your premises again. This is the most effective method of preventing these occupants entering your property again.
If your property is being occupied by illegal occupants or trespassers, Able Investigations can assist you with removing them. We operate carefully, efficiently and within the law, as we understand the situation can be distressing for everyone involved. As a repossession agency in Bristol, we have a team of dedicated and certificated enforcement officers that have experience with these situations. For more information on how we can help you, please get in touch by calling us on 0345 366 0000 or by emailing us here.
