Laws that seem to be pure commonsense when the press is demanding them and MPs making stirring parliamentary speeches backing them can soon look very different when they come into force and are tested to destruction in the courts. This will inevitably be the case with the criminalisation of squatting provision in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
Criminalisation will have unintended consequences as a result of squatters’ response but also the response of property owners and the police – none of which can be predicted.
There follows a list of such actual and potential unexpected outcomes which it is intended will be updated as more become apparent.
Thinking legally 