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A squatter won a landmark victory for squatters' rights yesterday despite residential squatting being criminalised by the Tories.
Keith Best was seeking possession of a run-down property in Ilford which he had renovated for more than a decade, moving into it in 2012.
Mr Best found the property “empty and vandalised” in 1997 and neighbours said the previous occupier had died and her son had not been seen since 1996.
The chief land registrar had blocked Mr Best’s application for ownership of the three-bedroom semi-detached house under a new law passed by the Con-Dem government in 2012 that makes squatting a criminal rather than civil offence.
But Mr Justice Ouseley ruled at London’s High Court that the registrar’s decision was “founded on an error of law” and must be quashed.
However the judge did give the registrar permission to appeal after describing Mr Best as a “guinea pig” test case expected to affect many other similar cases.
