Living space in occupied Chelsea building for hackers

[Amir Taaki]

Hi,

We've occupied an enormous and crazy cool house. It is absolutely mental and used to house sectioned adolescent teenagers. There are loads of rooms each with en-suite bathroom/shower, toilet and sink. We have electricity and internet.

I'm looking for people who want to come live in a secluded area upstairs and hack away on their projects. A mini hackerspace for people living and breathing technology. I think that kind of productive environment is invigorating. We can use technology for the betterment of society and this space is perfect for that goal.

Tomorrow night will be a big technology meeting if you want to come along and say hello. Send me an email to genjix at riseup [.] net. You will be my guest and I'll show you around :)

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

By "occupied", do you mean it's a squat? Got no probs with that myself
if a building is genuinely not being used and tended to, but call it
what it is.

[Billy]

From an ethical standpoint, squatting is good. It uses buildings that
are left wasted.

From a practical standpoint, squatting is problematic. You can be
evicted with only 24 hours notice, so it's impossible to build
anything long-term.

It's why i ended up living in housing co-op's for years.

If anyone does go for this, there are several practical things that
will make life easier.
- Make sure that whatever equipment you are using is portable and
easily-boxed-up, for when you have to move.
- Always be ready to move at the drop of a hat.
- Be polite and friendly to the neighbours, as fewer complaints will
get you evicted later rather than sooner.

Also contact the Advisory Service for Squatters, they'll have a better
idea of the current legislation.

[Francis Davey]

Le samedi 10 novembre 2012 04:40:10 UTC, Billy a écrit :

From an ethical standpoint, squatting is good. It uses buildings that
are left wasted.

From a practical standpoint, squatting is problematic. You can be
evicted with only 24 hours notice, so it's impossible to build
anything long-term.

More problematic now than it was. In the OP's case, almost certainly criminal:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/10/section/144/enacted

which means the police may enter and arrest making eviction, with police co-operation, of squatters from residential premises potentially very speedy.

On the other hand, it always was mostly criminal. Refusing to leave after a displaced residential occupier or protected intending occupier asks you to is an offence (and they can enter and use reasonable force to remove you - if you resist you commit at least an assault) and most squatters (though not all) commit section 13 offences (abstracting electricity):

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60/section/13 

 

But in the past, the police never seemed even slightly interested in doing anything about it in most cases. One of the reasons a great many housing lawyers were against s144 being introduced - it wasn't necessary in the pressing cases where people couldn't live in their own homes, and quite unnecessary in other cases where evictions can be obtained very fast through the courts if the land owner actually cares about it.

I am not at all sure how seriously the police now take squatting, but there's considerable political pressure to obtain convictions.

I'm not taking a position on this - just saying.

Francis

[Nin Lil'izi]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Slightly off-topic. But what is the legal 'view' of inciting people to
commit possibly criminal acts on a public mailing list. Or even legal
'view' of people engaging in discussions involving criminal acts or
looking for extra hands to be criminal with.

There's be a scary number of cases recently of people being dragged
over the coals and then made pick up the soap after discussing
perfectly legal if distateful acts. And would like to just remind the
OP, that having these kinds of disccuions on a public forum could land
legal troubles far beyond the stated purpose of this thread.

Still, IANAL. But these does feel like a precarious subject.

Regards,
/Nin lil'izi/

GPG Fingerprint: C510 909B 811E D6F5 0DFF 5D91 CF03 8FEA FD69 4622

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/
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=a7gn
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[cepm...@yahoo.co.uk]

Can this thread go elsewhere? It had little relevance to this list to
begin with and has moved away from that at a fast rate.

Phil
--
" et cognoscetis veritatem et veritas liberabit vos. "

[CorpoWombat]

<NOT LEGAL ADVICE>

IAAL. The legal view on this is fairly dim, to be honest. Which is why we really shouldn't have this on our list, if at all possible. The squat may become legal, eventually, from a property law perspective, but for the time being, it's trespass, and inciting trespass is 1) not great, 2) facilitating incitement isn't great, either. 

I know a lot of people here approve, ethically, of squatting, but it remains illegal. Please do consider the ethical implications for the Hackspace, as a corporation operating this mailing list, which you basically have made an unwitting facilitator of your illegal actions. There's plenty of squat mailing lists. I'm not a trustee or anything, but I do have the welfare of the Hackspace at heart, even if I sound like a bastard. Sorry.

</NOT LEGAL ADVICE>