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A comment on Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town. Parent comment

Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by zanny on Friday February 12, 2016 @10:06AM (#11087641)
I'd like to just see a return to homesteading period. If a property goes unused / unoccupied for a year, anyone can move in. No more land squatting to drive up real estate prices and use it as a store of wealth.

Yes, this kills real estate as a long term investment. No, that is a good thing, we should collectively much rather see capital invested in the stock market rather than being thrown into precious metals or property as a store of value.

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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by refurb on Friday February 12, 2016 @11:00AM (#11088109)
Homesteading is giving unclaimed land new residents. What you're talking about is squatter's rights.
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by zanny on Friday February 12, 2016 @02:37PM (#11089857)
Except I'm not - there already exist squatters rights to occupy someones elses property and eventually claim it their own if they can avoid detection long enough.

All that takes is the minimum effort to police the property you own to insure nobody is squatting. What I'm saying is that unconditionally whether or not someone is illegally occupying your property you only have a fixed amount of time to make use of it before it effectively becomes unclaimed land again.

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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by sliverstorm on Friday February 12, 2016 @03:43PM (#11090386)
My recollection of squatter's rights is that the owner has to know you are there, and do nothing for <X> years. If you are hiding, you can't lay claim.
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by infinite8s on Friday February 12, 2016 @03:20PM (#11090211)
No developed country supports anything remotely like squatter's rights.
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by Symbiote on Friday February 12, 2016 @03:50PM (#11090448)
Try the UK: https://www.gov.uk/squatting-law/squatters-rights-to-propert...

I suspect several other European countries have similar rights.

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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by infinite8s on Friday February 12, 2016 @03:55PM (#11090502)
From that site:

"Land Registry will decide if your application is valid and will let the property owner know. The owner has 65 days to object - your application will usually be automatically rejected if they do."

So basically you'll only get to stay if the property is effectively abandoned.

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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by goldbrick on Friday February 12, 2016 @06:07PM (#11091351)
Which is what squatting is...
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by goldbrick on Friday February 12, 2016 @06:06PM (#11091347)
Incorrect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by frandroid on Tuesday February 16, 2016 @09:46AM (#11110106)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by Zach_the_Lizard on Friday February 12, 2016 @11:20AM (#11088284)
Adverse possession is one mechanism to seize property from absentee owners that is already on the books.
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Re:Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an e... by rhino369 on Friday February 12, 2016 @03:55PM (#11090505)
That takes forever and if you try it you can get arrested for trespass.
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