Squatting is a cancer in our society

Jun 05, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Peeping tom…

Kaieteur News – Imagine you own a land and one day you turn up and find that hundreds of persons are occupying this property without your permission. You also notice to your utter surprise that they have erected structures on your land.

When you ask the squatters to remove, they refuse. This then forces you to have to take them to court, a process that takes years. In the meantime, they are still occupying the place while you are spending millions in paying lawyers to regain your property.

And when the court issues an eviction order and you enforce that order, there is unrest and roads are blocked. The squatters claim that they were living there for years. Obviously they were because that is how long it took to get them off the land.

This is one of the dangers posed by squatting in Guyana. And it is one of the reasons there should be a zero tolerance for all forms of squatting. But there are other economic and social reasons also.

Guyana is moving towards a much larger market economy. The Peruvian economist, Hernando De Soto, who has conducted extensive research on property rights, including how to integrate the poor into property markets, has argued that property rights are important for the proper functioning of market economies. He posits that insecure property rights serve as a disincentive for investment, thus hindering the development of market economies.

Guyana is now a growing economy and those investors who are coming and those who are already here want to ensure that their property rights are protected. But how safe are these rights?

The fundamental right to private property is a cornerstone of any functioning society. Allowing squatting to continue erodes this essential right, diminishing the incentives for individuals to invest in property ownership, contribute to economic growth, and maintain the overall stability of communities. When squatters are allowed to trespass on private property with impunity, property owners are left defenseless, facing financial losses, emotional distress, and a diminished sense of security.

Squatting destroys more than property rights. It erodes the value of real property. Many homeowners have seen the value of their properties plunge precipitously as a result of squatting. This decline has reached the stage where in some areas homeowners can no longer find buyers for their properties. And when they thought that the squatters would eventually remove, the opposite happened: the squatters began to make extensions and build permanent structures, even somehow managing to obtain water supply and electricity service.

This reduced property value indirectly affects the entire society. Reduced property values mean reduced taxes are collected by the government and this in turn can lead to less government spending on health and education. It means also that many are end up seeing their net worth shrink year after year because of the presence of squatters.

One man acquired landed immigrant status overseas. He secured his home before he migrated. When he returned, he could not believe the sight that greeted his eyes. Unknown to him, persons had invaded his home and taken up residence. He took years to have them evicted by which time his house was reduced to ruins

Squatting has become a cancer in our society. Even the rich are now squatting, just as how they are quietly taking over pavement and roadside vending.

Once viewed as a means to address homelessness or societal inequality, squatting has taken a detrimental turn, morphing into a dangerous practice that threatens the very fabric of private property rights.

Squatting is associated with a range of social ills. As Guyana’s experience suggests, squatter settlements are fertile breeding grounds for all manner of problems. They tend to have higher crime rates, more poverty, more school dropouts and drug use. On the other hand, once squatters are regularized there is dramatic improvement in the quality of life and a reduction in social ills. This is why there should be greater respect for property rights and a zero-tolerance for squatting.

Squatting sends the wrong signal to society. It undermines the rule of law and sends a message that people can do as they feel. One of the reasons why there is so much lawlessness in our country, is because we have allowed squatting and illegal vending – which is another form of squatting – to run unchecked.

The government now finds itself having to address the problems of those squatters on the Soesdyke Linden Highway who were displaced after the owner took back possession of his property. And we are told that these squatters will be given core homes by the government. This means that those persons who were eligible and awaiting the award of these homes, are now being shunted to the back of the line, while the squatters are rewarded by jumping the queue.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Kaieteur News.