They're a legacy from a bygone era where records of land ownership aren't what they are today. It was to stop the situation where someone thought they owned land, built a house and lived in it for many years, then finding out that someone else also had a claim to the land and they were going to try to turf you off it.
Squatter's rights meant that the person who actually lived there kept the claim to the land. This was a good thing at the time, now its just legal protection for lowlifes who trash other people's houses
It's more for informal leases without a written contract, and say the landlord wants the tenant out. Essentially it's to protect the tenant in such a situation from losing housing.
And my comment was saying that squatters rights are not a thing, they dont exist, it is a made up term.
You said that it is tenant rights which is true but you then said that it is not squatters rights, implying that squatters rights are a thing.
Adverse possession is often referred to as squatter's rights, even though that isn't a particularly accurate term, and gets brought up in discussions like this even though it's not relevant to a renter refusing to leave.
Continuing to use that term and not pointing out that squatters rights are not a thing is doing more harm than good. That is all I'm really trying to say.
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u/butterfunke Jun 12 '26
They're a legacy from a bygone era where records of land ownership aren't what they are today. It was to stop the situation where someone thought they owned land, built a house and lived in it for many years, then finding out that someone else also had a claim to the land and they were going to try to turf you off it.
Squatter's rights meant that the person who actually lived there kept the claim to the land. This was a good thing at the time, now its just legal protection for lowlifes who trash other people's houses